bagh chal (बाघ चाल)

Nepalese. ‘Moving tigers’. Name of a board game, that originates from Nepal. It is played with two players, of which one controls four tigers and the other a number of goats, in moves that alternate between players. The board is typically round, with a five by five point grid, with transverse and straight lines on the intersections of which the pieces are placed. The tigers need to capture five goats to win by jumping over them in any direction, and landing on a free and adjacent intersection along the lines, whereas the goats can win by outsmarting the tigers through blocking their movements. At the onset of the game, the four tigers are placed on the corners of the grid, facing the centre, whereas all goats start off the board. The player in charge of the goats moves first by placing one of his pieces on the board, which is then followed by a move of the player of the tigers, who will move a tiger in and adjacent position along the lines. Then, the player controlling the goats adds a new piece, up to a total of twenty goats, but is not allowed to move his pieces until after all twenty are placed on the board, and from then on repetitive movements of the same piece back and forth are no longer allowed. 回