Play Banqi Online Free

About Banqi

Banqi — Chinese dark chess, also called half chess — takes the familiar xiangqi army and hides every piece face-down on a 4×8 board. You do not choose red or black. The first disc you turn over assigns that color to you, the opponent takes the other color, and the rest of the game is a hunt: flip for information, step one square, and capture by rank.

This board enforces the dark-chess rulebook automatically: orthogonal one-step moves, rank captures with the soldier-takes-king exception, cannon jumps over a single screen, and hidden pieces that cannot be taken until they are flipped. Train against four AI levels that never peek at covered discs, share the screen, or open an online room with an invite link. Undo and hints are there when a surprise flip wrecks a plan.

How to play Banqi

Thirty-two xiangqi pieces start face-down. Flip to claim a color, then capture every enemy piece — or leave the opponent with no legal action.

1. The first flip assigns that color to the player who turned it; the other player takes the opposite color.
2. A face-up piece of your color moves one square orthogonally. Captures follow rank: king, advisor, elephant, chariot, horse, cannon, soldier. Equals may take equals.
3. A soldier may capture the king; the king may not capture a soldier. Face-down pieces cannot be captured.
4. Cannons step one square when they are not capturing. To capture they jump exactly one screen along a rank or file onto an enemy piece that is already showing, any rank.
5. You win by taking all remaining enemy pieces, or when the opponent has no legal flip or move. One hundred and twenty quiet half-moves without a capture or flip is a draw.

Banqi strategy tips

• Flip until you have a small visible army, then take real captures before turning more discs.
• Keep a soldier near the centre files: a later king flip beside it often decides the game.
• Park a cannon behind any screen that already sits on a file with a high-value target.
• Count remaining hidden types. If five enemy soldiers are still down, do not leave your king in the open.
• Never try to take a soldier with your king — that capture is illegal, and the AI will punish the square you vacated.

Banqi FAQ

How is Banqi different from xiangqi?

Same piece types, different game. Banqi is played on 4×8 with every piece hidden at the start, there is no river or palace, and there is no check. You win by capturing the army, not by mating a general in a palace.

Do I pick red or black before the first move?

No. Choose only whether to go first or second. The first flipped piece assigns that color to the player who turned it, and the opponent takes the other color.

Can a soldier really capture the king?

Yes. A face-up soldier may take a face-up king, and the king cannot take a soldier in return. That reversal is why a king standing next to unknown discs is often unsafe.

How does the cannon capture on this board?

It still needs exactly one screen along a rank or file, then lands on an enemy piece that is already face-up. The screen can be hidden or showing, and the cannon may capture any rank.

Can I play Banqi online with a friend here?

Yes. Open a room from this page, send the invite link, and your friend joins the same live 4×8 board from any browser. Moves sync in real time without an account or download.

Does the AI peek at hidden pieces?

No. The engine scores only face-up moves and uses a positional guess for flips, so it plays the information you can also see.

Where do the piece designs come from?

The red and black discs are the same hnz SVGs used on our xiangqi board, from the open-source pychess-variants project on GitHub, used unmodified under GNU AGPL-3.0. About and Terms credit the artwork.

Games like Banqi

XiangqiThe full Chinese chess game these discs come from, with river and palace.JanggiKorean chess on a riverless 9×10 board with palace diagonals.Animal ChessJungle ranks and traps — another Chinese capture-by-strength game.