Bagh Chal — Tigers & Goats Online
Nepal's national board game — can the goats trap all four tigers?
Bagh Chal (बाघचाल) — literally "tiger movement" in Nepali — is the national board game of Nepal. Boards are carved into temple courtyards and house verandahs across the Himalayas, and the game is still played in village squares today. It belongs to the same ancient family as the South Indian Aadu Puli Aatam, though the boards differ significantly.
The game is beautifully asymmetric. Four tigers hunt up to twenty goats, capturing them by jumping over them as in checkers. The tigers start at the four corners and can move and capture from the very first turn. The goats start off the board and are placed one at a time — they cannot move until all twenty are placed.
The board is a 5×5 grid of 25 nodes connected by orthogonal (horizontal and vertical) lines and selective diagonal lines. Diagonals exist only at nodes where the row and column numbers sum to an even number — giving the board its characteristic cross-hatched appearance. This means not every node allows diagonal movement, which creates rich strategic depth.
Tigers win by capturing 5 goats. Goats win by surrounding all four tigers so none can move. Once all goats are placed, no move may repeat a previous board position — preventing indefinite stalling.