Xiangqi Variants: Jieqi, Banqi and Other Ways to Play

Jieqi: xiangqi with hidden pieces

Jieqi (揭棋, jiē qí), whose name roughly means uncovering chess, keeps the normal board and the normal starting points but hides almost everything. Each side's General is placed face up on its usual point. The other fifteen pieces of each side are shuffled and placed face down on that side's standard starting points, so neither player knows which piece sits where.

A face-down piece moves as the piece that normally starts on its point. A hidden piece on a Horse point moves like a Horse, one on a Cannon point moves like a Cannon, and one on a Soldier point steps forward like a Soldier. As soon as a hidden piece moves, it is turned face up, and from then on it moves as whatever it turns out to be. A piece that leaves a Chariot point might be revealed as a Soldier, while a piece from a Soldier point might turn out to be a Chariot.

The details vary between rule sets. In many versions, a revealed Elephant may cross the river and a revealed Advisor may leave the palace, since they no longer start in their usual places. Rules also differ on what happens when a face-down piece is captured, including whether its identity is shown to one player, both, or neither. Agree on these points before you start.

Jieqi rewards flexible thinking. Memorized opening lines are little help, and good players weigh risk constantly, deciding which hidden pieces to reveal first and how to cope when a key point turns out to hold a weak piece.

Banqi: dark chess on half the board

Banqi (半棋, half chess), also widely known as dark chess (暗棋, àn qí), is a very different game that uses xiangqi pieces. It is especially associated with Taiwan and Hong Kong. All thirty-two pieces are shuffled face down onto a 4 by 8 grid, often half of an ordinary xiangqi board, with the pieces placed in the squares rather than on the intersections.

On each turn a player either turns over a face-down piece or moves one of their own face-up pieces one square up, down, left, or right. Under a common rule, the color of the first piece turned over decides which side the first player controls. The goal is to capture all of the opponent's pieces, or to leave them with no legal move.

Captures follow a ranking rather than normal xiangqi movement. A commonly used order runs from General down through Advisor, Elephant, Chariot, Horse, and Cannon to Soldier, and a piece may capture an enemy piece of equal or lower rank. The famous exception involves the top and bottom of the ladder: the Soldier can capture the General, while in many versions the General cannot capture Soldiers.

The Cannon is the other special case. In many rule sets it captures by jumping over exactly one piece, face up or face down, along a straight line, and it can take a piece of any rank that way. Rules for the Cannon, and several other details, differ between regions and even between households, so confirm the local version before playing.

Because pieces are revealed at random, Banqi mixes luck with memory and judgment. Good players keep track of which pieces have already appeared, and they think twice before turning over a piece next to one of their own vulnerable pieces, since the newly revealed piece may belong to the opponent and be able to capture it.

Three Kingdoms xiangqi

Three Kingdoms xiangqi (三国象棋) adapts the game for three players. It takes its theme from the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history, with each player commanding one of the rival kingdoms. The board is redesigned to give a third army its own territory and palace, and many versions add extra pieces or special rules to make three-way play work.

Because versions differ considerably, there is no single standard rulebook. What they share is a new strategic layer: with three players, attacking one opponent can leave you exposed to the other, and informal cooperation between two players against whoever is leading becomes part of the game.

Janggi: a relative, not a variant

Janggi (장기), the traditional chess of Korea, is often mentioned alongside xiangqi variants, but it is better described as a close relative. The two games share a common ancestry and look similar at first glance, with a 9 by 10 board of intersections and a palace on each side, yet the rules differ in many ways.

Janggi has no river dividing the board. Its General starts in the middle of the palace rather than on the back rank, and players may choose how to arrange their Horses and Elephants before the game begins. Several pieces also move differently: the Elephant reaches farther than its xiangqi counterpart, Soldiers can move sideways from the start, and the Cannon must jump over a piece to move at all, not just to capture. In a neat link to xiangqi's river inscription, the two Janggi Generals are traditionally marked with the characters for Chu and Han.

Handicap games

Handicap games, known in Chinese as 让子 (ràng zǐ, giving up pieces), let players of different strength enjoy a competitive game. Before play begins, the stronger player removes one or more of their own pieces. A Horse is a common choice for a moderate difference in strength, while removing a Chariot, or more than one piece, suits a larger gap.

Handicap games are also a useful training tool. The weaker player gets to practice converting a material advantage, which teaches simplification and endgame technique, while the stronger player has to create chances from a position that is objectively worse. A gentler form of balancing is simply letting the weaker player take Red, which moves first.

Faster clocks and blindfold play

Not every variation changes the pieces. Fast time controls, such as rapid and blitz games, keep the standard rules but give each player only a few minutes. They test intuition, pattern recognition, and nerve more than deep calculation, and they are a popular way to fit several games into a short break.

Blindfold play (盲棋, máng qí) goes the other way. One or both players play without seeing the board, calling out moves in notation and keeping the position in their head. It is demanding, but even short blindfold exercises, such as following a few moves of a game mentally, are a well known way to strengthen visualization and calculation.

Why learn standard xiangqi first

Almost every variant builds on standard xiangqi. In Jieqi, every revealed piece moves by the normal rules, so you need to know instantly what a Horse, a Cannon, or a Chariot can do from any point. Handicap games are just standard games with fewer pieces, and they reward the same tactics and endgame knowledge. Blindfold play and fast time controls depend on patterns you can only build through ordinary games.

Even the games that change the most make more sense with a solid foundation. Banqi reuses the familiar pieces and ranks them in a way that echoes their roles in the standard game, and comparing Janggi with xiangqi is far easier once you know which rules the Korean game keeps and which it changes. Learn the standard game well and the variants become fun experiments rather than confusing new games.

Practice on XiangqiPlay

XiangqiPlay is built around standard xiangqi, the foundation for every variant in this guide. Its free puzzle library holds 5,000 engine-proven mate puzzles, a quick way to build the tactical patterns that carry over into Jieqi, handicap games, and blitz.

When you are ready for full games, create a free account and play the computer at beginner, intermediate, or advanced level, or invite a friend. Once the standard rules feel like second nature, you will be ready to try any variant your friends or local club enjoy.