Running-fight games areboard games that essentially combine themethod ofrace games (such asbackgammon orpachisi) and thegoal of elimination-based games such aschess ordraughts. Like race games, pieces are moved along linear tracks based on the fall ofdice or other lots; but like chess, the object is to capture opponent pieces.

They might be most easily conceptualized as race games with two main differences: First, when a piece lands on a space or point occupied by an opponent, instead of sending it back to the beginning to start over, the opponent piece iscaptured, permanently removed from the game. Second, there is typically no "end" to the track; pieces keep moving around their circuits, gradually capturing more and more enemy pieces. A player wins and ends the game by capturing the last of the opponent pieces.

Running-fight games are found almost exclusively inIslamic-influenced cultures, ranging fromWest Africa toIndia, often bearing the namesTâb, Sig, or variations thereof; in fact, the whole running-fight family is sometimes referred to as Tâb games. However, threeEuropean examples exist:Daldøs/Daldøsa (Danish/Norwegian),Sáhkku (Samit), and Að elta stelpur (Icelandic). Also in this group is thepre-ColumbianMesoamerican game known variously asBul, Boolik, or Puluc.

The moderncross and circle game Fang den Hut! and its descendantsCoppit andHeadache are also running-fight games. Their unusual method of capture is the same as that of Bul, and conceivably they are descended from it, since a description of Puluc was published in German in 1906, and Boolik in English in 1907; Fang den Hut! was published in Germany in 1927.

• Bell, RC (1960),Board and Table Games [1] (rev. 1969 and rpt. with vol 2 asBoard and Table Games from Many Civilizations Mineola, NY: Dover, 1979 ed.), London: Oxford University Press,ISBN 0-486-23855-5{{citation}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Bell, RC (1969),Board and Table Games 2 (rpt. with vol 1 asBoard and Table Games from Many Civilizations Mineola, NY: Dover, 1979 ed.), London: Oxford University Press,ISBN 0-486-23855-5
• Depaulis, Thierry (2001),"Jeux de parcours du monde arabo-musulman (Afrique du Nord et Proche-Orient)"(PDF),Board Games Studies,4, Leiden: CNWS Publications: 53–76 (English summary p 149),ISBN 90-5789-075-5,ISSN 1566-1962, archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2011-07-21{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
• Michaelsen, Peter (2001),"Daldøs, an almost forgotten dice board game"(PDF),Board Games Studies,4, Leiden: CNWS Publications:19–31,ISBN 90-5789-075-5,ISSN 1566-1962, archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2011-07-21{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)

• Roll-and-move board games
• Running-fight board games

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