Komikan

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Komikan is a two‑player board game from the Mapuche people of Chile and Argentina. It is also known in the Andes as Taptana, Komina, Comina, Cumi, Puma, or Inca Chess. In Quechua, Taptana means “chess,” and in Aymara it is called kumisiña. Across South America it is often called El león y las ovejas (the lion and the sheep), though the “lion” is a puma.

How to play:
- One player has a single piece, the puma (also called jaguar or kom ikelu). It can move one space and capture by jumping over an adjacent enemy piece to the empty space beyond.
- The other player has twelve pieces (sheep, goats, dogs, or perritos). These move one space at a time, cannot capture, and try to trap the puma.

The board is an expanded Alquerque board with a triangular attachment on one side. Because the triangle can be arranged in different ways, several variants exist. The standard version described in older writings has a simple triangle with a few lines; other boards are more complex, including heart‑shaped designs. Some Peruvian boards have been cited in discussions of ancient origins, but such claims are debated and the exact age of the game remains unclear.

Historically, the game has appeared under different names in different regions. Peruvian sources have called it Solitario or Kukuli, and some scholars think Komikan is the same as Adugo (the Jaguar and Dogs) played by other Indigenous peoples nearby. Old depictions even show Atahualpa playing a version called taptana, though details vary.