The Traditional Board Game Series Leaflet #28: Bagh Guti

BAGH GUTI
by Damian Walker
FURTHER INFORMATION
Readers interested in the game of bagh guti can find more information in the
following books:
Murray, H. J. R. A History of Board-Games Other than Chess, p. 110.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952.
Parlett, D. The Oxford History of Board Games, pp. 194-195. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1999.
Copyright © Damian Walker 2011 - http://boardgames.cyningstan.org.uk/

Board Games at CYNINGSTAN

Illustration 3: bagh bandi. Traditional Board Game Series
(Second Edition)
4 Leaflet #28
 The Traditional Board Game Series Leaflet #28: Bagh Guti The Traditional Board Game Series Leaflet #28: Bagh Guti

gers. listed in the original sources. Play-

INTRODUCTION & HISTORY ers may like to try playing the game
Ending the Game
There is a large and varied class of and it comes from India. Its an- with the first move given to the
hunt games, called tiger games, tiquity is unknown; western ac- 10. The goats win the game by goats instead.
from south east Asia. They are all counts of the game date from 1906. trapping both the tigers so that they There is also a variation on the
played on square boards, and fea- It is particularly interesting as, un- cannot move. game, sometimes called bagh bandi,
ture one or more tigers against a like many other games of this type, 11. The tigers win the game by in which there are no diagonal lines
number of hunters. multiple pieces are initially stacked capturing so many goats that their along the board (see Illustration 3).
Bagh guti is one such game, upon a point. task becomes impossible. Movement is more restricted on this
board, but the openings are more
HOW TO PLAY Variations varied as the tigers are not given an
The rule which allows the tigers the immediate capture at the start of the
There are slight variations in the Moving the Pieces
first move is arbitrary, and is not game.
play of this game, account of which
4. Each player in his turn may
is taken in these rules.
move any one of this pieces.
Beginning the Game 5. A piece may move along a
marked line to an adjacent empty
1. Bagh guti is played on an
point, as shown in Illustration 2.
alquerque board, that is, a board of
6. The piles of goats can there-
25 points, arranged on five lines by
fore be unstacked, but cannot be re-
five, with some of the diagonals
stacked again.
marked as shown in Illustration 1.
2. One player takes the part of Capturing Goats
the two tigers, which are initially
7. A tiger can capture a single
placed on the
goat by jumping
squares shown.
over it, along a
The other takes the
marked line, onto
part of 20 goats,
the empty point
stacked in four
beyond. The goat
piles of five as
is then removed
shown.
from the board.
3. The tigers
8. If the tiger
take the first
jumps over a stack
move, then the
of goats, only the
goats, play altern-
topmost goat is re-
ating thereafter
moved.
until the game is
9. Goats can-
ended.
Illustration 1: pieces set out for play. not capture the ti- Illustration 2: some moves and captures.

2 3