Blind Chess (Banqi)

Blind Chess (Banqi)

Banqi (半棋, bànqí, “Half Chess”), also known as Dark Chess (暗棋) or Blind Chess, is a two-player Chinese board game played on a 4×8 grid — one half of the Xiangqi board. All 32 pieces are placed face-down at the start; players reveal pieces one at a time and the identity of unrevealed pieces is unknown. The rules documented here follow the Taiwanese version, which is widely played.

The Board

4 files × 8 ranks = 32 squares. Pieces occupy the squares (not intersections). The board is played as half of a Xiangqi board, using only one side of the river.

Setup

All 32 pieces are shuffled and placed face-down one per square in a random arrangement. Neither player knows what piece is on which square.

Piece set (16 Red + 16 Black = 32 total):

The first player to flip a piece establishes their colour for the game (Red or Black, depending on the colour of the piece revealed).

Turns

On each turn a player does exactly one of:

1. Flip a face-down piece, revealing it. The piece belongs to whichever colour it shows, regardless of who flipped it.
2. Move one of their own face-up pieces one square orthogonally (up, down, left, or right) to an empty adjacent square.
3. Capture an opponent’s face-up piece, subject to the capture rules below.

Face-down pieces cannot be captured.

Movement

All pieces move identically: one square up, down, left, or right. There is no piece-specific movement in Banqi — the General, Soldier, and every piece in between all move the same way. The Cannon’s capture is the only exception.

Capture Hierarchy (Taiwanese rules)

Pieces are ranked. A piece may only capture an opponent’s piece of equal or lower rank, with two exceptions:

Hierarchy (high to low): General → Advisor → Elephant → Chariot → Horse → Soldier

Exception 1 — Soldier captures General: Despite being the lowest rank, the Soldier can capture the General (and only the General with this rule). The General cannot capture Soldiers.

Exception 2 — Cannon: The Cannon is not part of the hierarchy. It captures any piece of any rank, but must jump over exactly one intervening piece (the “screen”) to do so. The screen piece may be friendly, enemy, or face-down. A Cannon cannot capture an adjacent piece (it must jump). The Cannon is vulnerable to capture by any piece except the Soldier.

Win Condition

The game ends when a player has no legal moves. This most commonly occurs because all of that player’s pieces have been captured. The player with no legal moves loses.

Stalemate

If one player repeatedly attacks an enemy piece it cannot capture, forcing an endless cycle (stalemate), rules vary by convention. Under Chinese Chess rules the instigating player must stop; under many casual rules, a stalemate results in a draw or the surrender of one piece to break it.

Attribution

Banqi is a traditional Chinese game. Rules from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banqi.