Len Choa

Traditional

Players
2
Age
7+
Time
20 - 60
# Leopard game
# Hunt
# Tiger
# capture
# Surround

How to set-up

1. Len Choa is played on a triangle with 9 points. Lines indicate permitted moves.

2. One player is the tiger; they place a single BEAD, the colour of their choice, at the top of the triangle.

3. One player is the leopard; they select 6 BEADs the colour of their choice. All leopard BEADs start off the board.

4. The leopard plays first.

How to play

1. The tiger BEAD can move one space per turn to a vacant point following the lines indicated on the board.

2. The tiger BEAD can also capture a leopard BEAD when the leopard BEAD is adjacent to the tiger BEAD and there is a vacant point directly after the leopard BEAD in a straight line.

3. Captures cannot be chained and are not mandatory.

4. The player with leopard BEADs must place all the leopard BEADs on the board before any of these BEADs can be moved. Only one BEAD can be placed on the board per turn.

5. Once all the leopard BEADs have been placed on the board, a leopard BEAD can move one space each turn onto a vacant point following the lines indicated.

6. The leopard BEADs cannot capture the tiger BEAD.

How to win

1. The leopard wins the round if they can surround the tiger so that the tiger is unable to move.

2. The tiger wins when 3 leopards are captured, leaving too few to surround the tiger.

History

1. Len Choa is a two-player abstract strategy game first seen in 19th-century Siam. It is a Leopard hunt game or a Leopard game.

2. One tiger is going up against 6 leopards. The leopards attempt to surround and trap the tiger while the tiger attempts to capture enough of them (usually 3) so that the leopards can not immobilize the tiger.

3. It is unknown how old the game is, however, the game was published by Captain Low in the periodical Asiatic Researches in 1836.