4x8 Grid • Face-Down Flipping • Piece Hierarchy • Cannon Jumping
Dark Chess (Banqi 暗棋) is played on half of a Xiangqi board (4x8 grid). All 32 Xiangqi pieces are shuffled face-down at the start!
On your turn, you can either FLIP a face-down tile or MOVE/CAPTURE with a face-up piece of your color.
The first face-down piece flipped determines your color for the rest of the game!
Higher rank pieces capture lower rank pieces. But beware the Soldier's unique immunity!
General captures ALL pieces EXCEPT the enemy Soldier (兵/卒)!
The lowest rank Soldier (兵/卒) CAN capture the highest rank General (帥/將)! This circular rock-paper-scissors mechanic makes endgames extremely strategic.
When moving to an empty square, Cannon moves 1 square orthogonally. But to CAPTURE, Cannon can jump over EXACTLY ONE piece (face-up or face-down) at ANY distance along a straight line!
Yes! When capturing via a Screen jump, Cannon can capture ANY piece regardless of rank, including the General!
Yes! All pieces (including Soldiers) can move 1 step orthogonally in all 4 directions (up, down, left, right) on the 4x8 grid.
Flip face-down tiles adjacent to your own high-rank pieces so you can immediately capture any enemy piece revealed!
Set up Cannon jump lines across unrevealed tiles to surprise and sniper opponent pieces across the board.