Bagh-Chal Unblocked
Four tigers, twenty goats and a 5x5 grid of lines. Pick a side and outthink the other.
What is Bagh-Chal?
Bagh-Chal is a two-player hunt game from Nepal in which four tigers face twenty goats on a 5x5 grid of points. The tigers jump over goats to capture them, while the goats can only move and block. Tigers win by taking five goats; goats win by leaving every tiger without a legal move.
- Category
- Card & Board Games
- Players
- 1–2+ players (same screen)
- Plays on
- Phone, tablet & desktop
- Input
- Mouse, Touch, Keyboard
- Made by
- Christopher Müller
- Checked
Bagh-Chal, a name usually translated as “move the tiger,” is Nepal’s best-known board game and a perfect example of a lopsided fight. One player has four tigers parked on the corners of a small grid. The other has twenty goats that are not even on the board yet. Neither side plays the same game: the tigers hunt, and the goats build a cage. You can play it unblocked here, as either animal, against a computer at three levels or a friend sharing your screen. The version comes from Christopher Müller’s open-source PaperGames collection.
Two Phases, Two Goals
The board is a 5x5 grid of 25 points joined by lines. Every point links to its neighbors across and up and down, and some points also have diagonal lines. Pieces may only travel along lines that are actually drawn.
Placement. The goats start in hand. On each goat turn, one goat is dropped on any empty point. Tigers do not wait; they can move and capture from the very first turn. This phase lasts until all twenty goats have entered.
Movement. After that, both sides move one piece per turn, one step along a line to an empty neighbor.
A tiger captures by jumping in a straight line over an adjacent goat to the empty point right behind it. Only one goat is taken per jump, and jumping is never compulsory. A status line under the board counts goats placed and goats lost.
The tigers win once five goats are gone. The goats win by leaving the tigers with no legal move at all.
Bagh-Chal controls
| To do this | Keyboard | Mouse | Touch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drop a goat onto the board | Arrow keys to reach a point, Enter to place | Click an empty point | Tap an empty point |
| Slide or jump with a piece | Arrow keys and Enter to pick the piece, then the target point | Click your piece, then the point it should go to | Tap your piece, then the target point |
| Set up a computer game | — | Click "vs Computer", choose goats or tigers and a level, then click "New game" | Tap "vs Computer", choose goats or tigers and a level, then tap "New game" |
| Step back one move | — | Click "Undo" | Tap "Undo" |
| Highlight your movable pieces | — | Turn on "Show move suggestions" in Settings | Turn on "Show move suggestions" in Settings |
Advice for Each Side
Playing the goats
- Start on the border. A goat on the edge can’t be jumped from outside, so edge points make a safe foundation.
- Only leave a goat beside a tiger if the point directly behind that goat is filled.
- Advance in tight groups. A lone goat in the middle is a gift.
- Split the tigers up. Two tigers next to each other free each other’s paths.
Playing the tigers
- Grab the center early. The middle point has eight lines, the most on the board.
- Do your damage during placement, while gaps are everywhere.
- Set up forks, where one tiger threatens two jumps and the goats can only cover one.
- Keep moving. A tiger that sits still gets fenced in.
A Hunt Game That Rewards Swapping Sides
What makes Bagh-Chal stick is that each side teaches you about the other. After a few games as the tigers, you start to see exactly which goat formations are weak, and that knowledge makes you a far better goat player. The optional move suggestions are handy while you learn which pieces can move.
If you enjoy one-against-many battles, try Fox and Geese, the European cousin with a single fox and thirteen geese. For a larger, rule-heavy siege, Hnefatafl is another uneven contest worth a look.
Bagh-Chal: questions players ask
Who wins Bagh-Chal more often, the tigers or the goats?
With perfect play the game is believed to be balanced, but beginners usually lose more goats than they expect. The tigers feel stronger early, while patient goat players who close gaps carefully can trap all four tigers in the end.
Can I play as the tigers against the computer?
Yes. Before pressing New game, choose tigers and the computer takes the goats. You can swap sides at any time between games, which is a good way to learn what each side fears.
Is a tiger forced to take a goat when a jump is open?
No. Captures are optional in this version, so a tiger may make an ordinary slide instead. That choice matters, because sometimes keeping a threat on the board is stronger than cashing it in.
How do goats win in Bagh-Chal?
The goats win when it is the tigers' turn and not one tiger can step or jump anywhere. You usually get there by packing goats along the lines around each tiger until every exit is covered.
Does the game remember a match if I close the tab?
Yes. A game in progress is kept in your browser storage, so reloading the page on the same device brings back the board, the goat count and whose turn it is.
Credits and license
Bagh-Chal was created by Christopher Müller and released as open source. FreezeNova hosts a lightly adapted copy on its own server, together with the original license file.
- Source code: github.com/YourChaosChris (original project)
- Code license: MIT
- Art & audio: MIT (board lines and pieces drawn with SVG and CSS, no image or audio files)
- Our changes: Only the Bagh-Chal files were kept from PaperGames. The text is set to English, and we stripped out the offline service worker, the language choice and the links to other games and pages. The rules and computer opponent have not been touched.
