Dark Chess 暗棋 · Banqi
Player 1: flip any piece to start
How to play
- All 32 pieces start shuffled face down. On your turn: flip a face-down piece, move one of your face-up pieces one square up/down/left/right, or capture an adjacent enemy face-up piece.
- The color of the first piece flipped belongs to the player who flipped it.
- Capture ranking: General 帥/將 > Advisor 仕/士 > Elephant 相/象 > Chariot 俥/車 > Horse 傌/馬 > Cannon 炮/砲 > Soldier 兵/卒. A piece captures equal or lower rank — except the General cannot capture Soldiers, and Soldiers can capture the General.
- Cannons capture differently: they jump over exactly one piece (any piece) along a row or column and can take any enemy face-up piece behind it. They cannot capture adjacent pieces.
- No perpetual chasing: after 3 attacking moves in a row with the same piece, you must play a different piece (capturing with it is still allowed).
- If you have no legal move, you lose. 40 consecutive moves with no flip or capture is a draw.