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The classic Chinese animal chess, Dou Shou Qi. Eight ranked animals a side, from the rat up to the elephant — but only the rat can swim the river and only the rat can topple the elephant. Lions and tigers leap the water, traps ring each den, and the first animal into the rival's den wins. Every win sends you up against a deeper-searching rival.
Each side has eight animals, ranked from the Rat at one up through the Cat, Dog, Wolf, Leopard, Tiger and Lion to the Elephant at eight. The small number on each piece is its rank. Your animals are blue and start at the bottom; the rival's are orange. On your turn tap one of your animals, then tap a highlighted square to move it one step up, down, left or right.
You capture by moving onto an enemy animal of equal or lower rank. There is one famous exception each way: the Rat, the weakest animal, can capture the Elephant, and the Elephant can never capture the Rat. A square outlined in green is a capture you are allowed to make.
The two blue patches in the middle are rivers. Only the Rat may swim into them. The Lion and the Tiger may leap straight across a river in a single move, landing on the bank opposite, but if any Rat is in the water squares on that line the jump is blocked. No capture can be made between the water and the land, in either direction, so a swimming Rat is safe from everything except another Rat.
Each side has a den, marked with a house sign, and three trap squares around it marked with a hash. Moving any animal into the rival's den wins the game, and you may never enter your own den. An enemy standing in one of your traps loses all its rank, so even your Rat can take it. You also win by capturing every rival animal, or when the rival has no legal move. Each win raises your streak and the next rival searches one step deeper; a loss ends the run, and so does a draw, which is declared after two hundred moves without a result.
Your Rat is worth far more than its rank suggests. It is the only thing on the board that threatens the Elephant, it can hide in the river where only another Rat can touch it, and a Rat sitting in the water on a Lion's or Tiger's line switches off their leap. Keep yours alive, and treat the rival Rat as a priority target whenever it steps out onto land next to something that can take it.
The Lion and Tiger are your fastest attackers because the river jump covers four squares in one move. Before you leap, check where you land: the far bank is often next to a rival piece that can take you back, and a Tiger that lands beside the rival Lion simply gets eaten. The same jump works in reverse, so do not leave your own back ranks empty behind a river the rival cats can cross.
Traps decide most games. The rival's defenders sit on or next to the three trap squares in front of its den, and anything you walk into those squares becomes rank zero — even your Elephant can be taken by their Cat there. Attack the den from two sides at once so that a defender stepping out to catch one attacker leaves a square open for the other. At home, use your own traps the same way: an enemy Lion that steps into one can be taken by your weakest piece.
Count tempo before you race. A dash for the den with one animal usually fails because the rival has a move for every one of yours, but if its nearest defenders are several steps away you can simply arrive first. When both sides are racing, the side that is one move ahead wins outright, so the quiet move that forces the rival to spend a turn defending is often stronger than the capture that looks tempting.