Sua Ghin Gnua

Sua Ghin Gnua is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Thailand, formerly known as Siam. Another name for the game is Tigers and Oxen. It is a hunt game played on a 5x5 square grid with only orthogonal lines. One player plays the three tigers, and the other player plays the twelve oxen. The board is empty in the beginning. Players first drop their pieces onto the board, and then are able to move them. The tigers can capture by the short leap method as in draughts and Alquerque, but the oxen attempt to elude and at the same time hem in the tiger. Although Sua Ghin Gnua is played on a 5x5 square grid, it cannot be classified with the more common hunt games such as the tiger games, leopard games, and Fox games. The 5x5 square grid is not an Alquerque board since it is missing the diagonal lines, and therefore, Sua Ghin Gnua is not a tiger game. It is also neither a leopard game or a Fox game since the leopard game boards are triangular, and the Fox game boards have a cross pattern. It therefore can be assumed that Sua Ghin Gnua may belong to a lesser known subfamily of hunt games with only orthogonal lines. Another game that may fit into this subfamily is a game from Myanmar called Tiger and Buffaloes. Myanmar happens to border Thailand geographically. Another game from Myanmar is Lay Gwet Kyah that is presumed to be similar to Sua Ghin Gnua. Perhaps some versions of Catch the Hare from Europe and the Americas may fit into this subfamily as well. Sua Ghin Gnua was described by the game historian, R.C. Bell, in his book "Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations" (1969) on page 42.