Play Baghchal online

Ways to play

• Two players, one screen Pass the device between a tiger player and a goat player.
• Against the computer Three difficulties. Choose whether you take the tigers or the goats.
• Private room with a friend Share a room code and play from separate devices.

Choose your first side

Start with the tigers if you want to move from the opening turn and learn captures first. A tiger jumps one adjacent goat into the empty point behind it. Watch the drawn board lines because a jump is legal only when all three points connect in one straight line.

Choose the goats if you prefer a slower plan. Place one goat on each turn until all twenty are on the board, then begin moving them. Goats cannot capture. They win by supporting one another and closing every route the tigers can use. The first-game guide explains the opening choices while you learn the board.

How a match runs

Every game has two phases and the goat side always starts. In the placement phase the goat player puts one goat on any empty point, then the tiger player moves or captures with one tiger. Goats already on the board stay where they are during this phase; they cannot move until all twenty have been placed. Tigers move from the very first turn, so the board is never quiet while you are still placing.

Once the twentieth goat is down, the movement phase begins and a goat may step to an adjacent empty point along a drawn line. Goats never jump and never capture. A goat that has been taken is gone for good — it does not come back to the supply — so the twenty goats you start with are the only material the goat side will ever have.

How each side wins

Tigers win the moment the fifth goat is captured. A capture is a jump over one adjacent goat, landing on the empty point immediately beyond it, with all three points on one continuous board line. A tiger cannot jump another tiger, cannot chain two captures into one turn, and in this game is never forced to capture when a quieter move looks better.

Goats win when all four tigers have no legal move and no legal capture at the same time. Trapping one tiger is not a win while another still has somewhere to go, and blocking the point next to a tiger achieves nothing if the tiger can jump that goat into an empty landing point behind it. Goats can win during the placement phase — there is no rule that says they have to place all twenty first. The full rules cover every case with diagrams.

Settings in this browser game

The computer opponent has three difficulty levels, and you choose whether you take the tigers or the goats before the first move. Matches can be untimed or run on a five- or ten-minute clock; if a clock reaches zero the other side wins on time. Timers are an option in this app rather than part of the traditional game.

During the movement phase, this game calls a draw when the same complete position appears for the third time with the same side to move. That is the repetition rule this app uses. Traditional and published descriptions handle repeated positions in other ways, and we say so rather than presenting one version as the only one.

If you are new to the board, the 25 points and the lines between them are worth two minutes before your first game, because most early mistakes are moves along lines that are not actually drawn. If you have played a few matches, the strategy pages cover how goats build a wall and how tigers keep the centre open.