This table is Bagh Chal, a Nepali hunt game. Pieces sit on twenty-five intersection points, not in the squares. The lines follow an Alquerque graph: orthogonal neighbours are always linked, and diagonals exist only on points whose row and column sum is even. Four tigers (black stones) start on the corners. Twenty goats (white stones) wait in hand, and goats place first. It is not Chinese checkers, not draughts or Dama, and not an 8×8 board. The sections below follow the order a real game actually happens. Read them once, then try a local computer game on the home board and walk through placement and a single jump.
Twenty-five points, tigers on the corners, goats to move
Count intersections, not squares. Every point has orthogonal links to its neighbours. A diagonal exists only where the row index plus the column index is even, so the four corners and the centre can move on a diagonal, while odd-sum points stay on the ranks and files. The four tigers already occupy the corners. The twenty goats are still in hand. Goats place the first stone, then the two sides alternate.
On this site, a placement is a tap on an empty point. After the goats are all on the board, tap one of your pieces, then a legal empty point. Tapping the wrong side or an illegal point does not spend the turn.
Goats enter one at a time; a tiger answers each drop
While any goat remains in hand, a goat move is a drop onto any empty point. After that drop, a tiger may step to an adjacent empty point, or jump over an adjacent goat onto the empty point beyond it on the same connected line. The captured goat comes off at once. Capture is optional: the tiger may step instead of jumping. A jump takes only one goat; there is no multi-jump.
Before you look two drops ahead, ask the shorter question: after this goat lands, does a tiger already have a jump? If yes, close that landing first. If not, you can start thinking about squeezing a corner.
After twenty goats are on the board, goats only step
Once the last goat has been placed, goats may only step to an adjacent empty point. They never jump and they never capture. Tigers keep both options: a quiet step, or a single jump. The side to move must play a legal move; the side with none loses.
A jump needs a connected line and an empty landing
For a tiger jump, the goat must sit on a neighbouring point, and the landing must be the next point on that same line, empty, and actually connected. The goat leaves immediately. The tiger cannot hop a second goat in the same turn, and it cannot cut across a gap where the Alquerque graph has no line.
Five goats taken wins for tigers; no legal move loses
Tigers win as soon as five goats have been captured. Goats usually win by boxing every tiger so that none can step or jump: if it is the tigers’ turn and they have no legal move, goats win. If it is the goats’ turn and they have no adjacent empty point left, goats lose. You do not need to take every goat off the board.
For a first sitting, ignore the score. Tell placement from movement, notice that a jump is optional and single, and watch the capture count reach five. That is already a complete game of Bagh Chal. The home board offers multiple AI levels when you want a reply without a second person.
Questions people ask before the first game
Is this the same game as Chinese checkers or draughts?
No. Chinese checkers is a race on a star. Draughts and Dama are hopping games on 8×8 or 10×10 squares. Bagh Chal is a Nepali hunt on twenty-five intersection points: four tigers against twenty goats, decided by captures or by leaving the other side with nowhere to go.
If a tiger can jump, must it take the goat?
No. Capture is optional. A tiger may jump an adjacent goat and remove it at once, or it may step to a neighbouring empty point and leave the goat where it is. Goats never capture.
Why can some points move diagonally and others cannot?
That is the Alquerque graph. Orthogonal links are always present. Diagonals exist only on points whose row and column sum is even, which is why the corners and the centre have diagonal steps and the odd-sum points do not.
Who starts, and do pieces sit in the squares?
Goats start by placing a white stone on an empty intersection. Pieces rest on points, never in the square centres. The four black tigers occupy the corner points from the first moment.
Can one tiger jump two goats in the same turn?
No. A jump clears exactly one adjacent goat and lands on the empty point beyond it, then the turn ends. The captured goat leaves immediately, but that tiger does not hop again in the same move.
