Dou Shou Qi

Dou Shou Qi (斗兽棋, "the game of fighting animals," also called Jungle or Animal Chess) is played on a 7×9 board split by two rivers. You command the blue animals at the bottom; the AI plays red at the top. Each side has eight ranked animals, and Blue moves first.

1. Ranks: from strongest to weakest — Elephant 8, Lion 7, Tiger 6, Leopard 5, Wolf 4, Dog 3, Cat 2, Rat 1.
2. Moving: slide one animal a single square up, down, left or right — never diagonally. You may never enter your own den.
3. Capturing: take an adjacent enemy whose rank is equal to or lower than yours.
4. The Rat & Elephant: the Rat (1) captures the Elephant (8), but the Elephant can never capture the Rat. Only the Rat may swim into the rivers; a rat in the water is safe from land animals and cannot attack them, but two water-rats may fight.
5. Lion & Tiger leap: both can jump straight over a full river — horizontally or vertically — to the land beyond, capturing what they land on. A rat sitting in the water on that line blocks the leap.
6. Traps: an enemy animal standing on one of your traps drops to rank 0, so any of your animals may capture it. Your own traps never weaken you.
7. Winning: move any animal into the enemy den, capture all enemy animals, or leave your opponent with no legal move.

Full rules guide & cultural history →

Dou Shou Qi — 斗兽棋, "the game of fighting animals" — is a popular Chinese strategy game, beloved by children across the Far East, where it is widely known in English as Jungle or Animal Chess. Eight animals ranked from the elephant down to the rat cross a board divided by two rivers, racing to break into the opponent's den.

The charm of the game is in its exceptions. The rat alone can swim, slipping through the rivers where the great beasts cannot follow — and the rat alone can topple the mighty elephant, a small-defeats-large motif that echoes through folk tales the world over. The lion and the tiger, meanwhile, bound clear across the water in a single leap, unless a rat lurks in the river to block their path.

Simple enough for a child to learn yet rich with traps, dens, and asymmetric powers, Dou Shou Qi remains a staple of family game shelves and schoolyards throughout China and the wider region.