Fox and Geese Unblocked

Fox and Geese dates back to medieval Europe, and it is still one of the clearest lessons in how numbers fight against freedom. A single fox stands in the middle of a cross-shaped board. Thirteen geese crowd in from one end, unable to capture and unable to retreat. If they move as one, the fox gets boxed in. If one goose wanders, it gets eaten. You can play this unblocked version from Christopher Müller’s PaperGames collection as either side, against a three-level computer or with a friend.

The Cross, the Fox and the Flock

The board is a plus sign made of 33 points, linked only by horizontal and vertical lines. This is the earliest version of the game, so diagonals are absent.

At the start, the fox sits on the center point. The thirteen geese occupy the lower arm of the cross and the row just above it. The geese make the first move.

Movement. On a turn you shift one piece a single point to a free neighbor. The fox may head up, down, left or right. A goose may only advance toward the top arm or shuffle sideways.

Capturing. Only the fox captures. It jumps over an adjacent goose into the empty point right behind, and that goose is removed. From its landing point the fox can carry on with more jumps, turning if it likes, or end the chain by tapping itself. Jumping is never forced.

Winning. The geese take the game the moment the fox has nowhere to go. The fox triumphs once the flock is down to two, or if the geese are left without a move.

Fox and Geese controls

To do this	Keyboard	Mouse	Touch
Step a piece along a line	Arrow keys and Enter to pick the piece, then the target point	Click your piece, then an empty neighboring point	Tap your piece, then an empty neighboring point
Continue or end a fox jump chain	—	Click the next landing point to keep jumping, or click the fox to stop	Tap the next landing point to keep jumping, or tap the fox to stop
Start playing the computer	—	Click "vs Computer", choose geese or fox and a level, then click "New game"	Tap "vs Computer", choose geese or fox and a level, then tap "New game"
Rewind one move	—	Click "Undo"	Tap "Undo"

Tactics for Fox and for Geese

Side	Do this	Avoid this
Geese	Advance in a solid line with no holes behind it	Sending a single goose ahead of the group
Geese	Seal the two side arms early	Leaving an empty point behind any goose next to the fox
Fox	Stay near the center, where you have the most exits	Drifting into the tips of the arms
Fox	Look for two geese with gaps behind them for a double jump	Taking a goose if it walks you into a dead end

The deeper idea for the geese is patience. Every forward move should keep the formation intact. For the fox, the key is pressure: keep threatening jumps so the geese have to react instead of building their wall.

A Small Game With a Long History

Fox and Geese is easy to explain to kids yet tricky for adults, which makes it a good family pick. The Hard computer checks your best reply before choosing, so it will not walk into obvious jumps. Optional move hints, Undo and an autosaved game make it relaxed to learn.

The same fox-versus-flock idea appears in Nepal’s Bagh-Chal, where four tigers face twenty goats. For a solo jumping puzzle on a similar cross of holes, try Peg Solitaire.