How to Play Banqi | Complete Rules & Guide

Step 1: Set up the board

Banqi uses all 32 pieces from a Xiangqi (Chinese chess) set: 16 red and 16 black. Shuffle them, then place them face-down on a board of 4 rows by 8 columns — one piece inside each square. Unlike Xiangqi, pieces sit inside the squares, not on the line intersections.

That is the whole setup. No starting position to memorize, no arrangement to learn. Every game begins as 32 identical dark tiles, and not even you know where your General is hiding.

• Each color has 1 General, 2 Advisors, 2 Ministers, 2 Chariots, 2 Horses, 2 Cannons, and 5 Soldiers.
• Nobody owns a color before the first reveal — the shuffle decides everything.

Step 2: Flip your first piece — it picks your color

Here is Banqi's clever opening twist: players do not choose sides in advance. The first player flips over any one face-down piece, and the color of that piece becomes their color. The other player automatically commands the opposite color.

Flipping uses up your entire turn, so after the first reveal, it is immediately the second player's turn. From here on, you each fight for your own color's army — wherever its pieces turn out to be.

Step 3: Learn the three moves — flip, move, or capture

On your turn you do exactly one of three things: flip any face-down piece, move one of your revealed pieces, or capture a revealed enemy piece. You can never pass, and you can never do two actions in one turn.

Movement is refreshingly simple: a revealed piece moves one square up, down, left, or right into an empty square. No diagonals, and no long slides — the Chariot does not glide like a rook, and the Horse does not jump in an L. Those Xiangqi habits stay in Xiangqi.

Two things trip up newcomers: face-down pieces cannot move, and face-down pieces cannot be captured. If a hidden piece bothers you, flip it first — then deal with it on a later turn.

Step 4: Capture by rank — the full chart and the twist

Captures are decided by rank, not by movement pattern. To capture, move your piece onto an adjacent revealed enemy of equal or lower rank. Here is the complete chart, from strongest to weakest:

In the normal case this is as easy as it sounds: higher rank captures lower rank. An Advisor (6) takes a Minister (5), a Chariot (4) takes a Horse (3) — and equal ranks capture each other freely: either of two opposing Horses may take the other if they are revealed and adjacent.

There is just one deliberate reversal at the top and bottom of the ladder: the General cannot capture a Soldier, while a Soldier can capture the General. The mightiest piece on the board is hunted by the humblest. This one rule keeps every Soldier valuable to the very end.

Other guides may call the Advisor a Guard or Mandarin, the Minister an Elephant, the Chariot a Rook, or the Horse a Knight. Different translations, same pieces — Paofuqi uses one consistent set of names for both colors.

One thing the chart cannot tell you: rank answers whether a capture is legal, not how useful a piece is. A trapped Advisor may contribute less than a mobile Soldier threatening a General. The numbers are learning labels for capture permission, not a point score — which is why Paofuqi never announces a material count or declares one side ahead.

Step 5: Master the Cannon — it breaks all the rules

The Cannon is the piece that confuses every new player, so give this step an extra minute. When it is not capturing, the Cannon moves one square like everything else — it does not slide several squares the way it does in Xiangqi. And it never captures a piece standing next to it. Parking your Cannon beside an enemy does exactly nothing.

Instead, the Cannon captures by jumping. Look along the Cannon's row or column: it must leap over exactly one piece — called the screen — and land on a revealed enemy piece beyond it. To check a shot, scan like this:

1. Choose one direction: up, down, left, or right.
2. Ignore empty squares until you meet the first occupied square. That piece is the screen.
3. Continue past any empty squares after the screen.
4. The next occupied square stops the scan. If it is a revealed enemy, it may be captured — whatever its rank.

Three details make the Cannon fearsome: the screen can be any piece at all (yours, the enemy's, even a face-down one), the target can be any rank including the General, and only the target needs to be revealed. In return, the Cannon has no normal rank of its own — and under Paofuqi's hierarchy a Soldier cannot capture a Cannon, though other pieces can take an adjacent one.

The deepest Cannon habit is watching the screen, not the Cannon. Moving your own screen can switch off an enemy attack; capturing a screen can promote a different piece into the new target. Before every screen move, scan both directions on that line — the same occupied square may support a friendly shot and an enemy shot at the same time.

Step 6: Know how the game ends

There is no checkmate in Banqi. You win when your opponent starts their turn with no legal action: nothing left to flip, no legal move, and no legal capture. Usually that happens because you have captured their whole army, but a player can also lose while pieces remain — trapped, with nowhere to go.

Losing your General does not end the game either. Fight on: a lone Soldier has won many a Banqi endgame. Paofuqi plays to the finish — there are no draw offers, resignation, repetition rules, or move-count draws. If you can act, you are still in the game.

Step 7: Agree on variants before you play elsewhere

Banqi has no worldwide governing body. Families, clubs, websites, and regions may handle things differently: some tables rank the Cannon as an ordinary piece or remove its jump, some allow the General to take a Soldier, some use repetition or move-count draws, and some permit special multi-capture turns. None of that is wrong — a variation is not an error when both players know which game they agreed to play.

This page teaches the Taiwanese-style ruleset implemented in the playable Paofuqi game, built from documented 4 × 8 rules, the General–Soldier exception, and the one-screen Cannon jump. Paofuqi does not claim to define the only correct Banqi; it states its rules openly and applies them consistently in local play, vs AI, and online rooms.

One warning about labels: summaries often attach rulesets to regions — “Hong Kong style”, “Taiwan style”, “mainland style”. Do not infer a complete ruleset from a region name; two tables using the same label may still disagree. Ask for the actual mechanics.

• Who plays first in the next game of a series.
• Whether repeated positions become a draw or force one player to vary.
• Whether players may agree to a draw or resign.
• Whether multiple captures are allowed in one turn.
• Whether colors come from the first reveal or are chosen another way.

1. State the complete rank order.
2. Explain whether the Cannon jumps and what can capture it.
3. Confirm the General–Soldier interaction.
4. Define the win and draw conditions.
5. Confirm that one turn contains one action.

Step 8: Play Banqi online — free, no download

Paofuqi runs in the browser: no account, no install, no payment. For local two-player or vs AI, one device is enough. For online play, each player opens the game and joins the same private room. Online play means private invite-a-friend rooms — there is no public matchmaking with strangers, no ratings, and no saved games.

1. Open Paofuqi Banqi.
2. Choose the interface language, and pick English abbreviations, Chinese characters, or piece icons for the board.
3. Choose the wide or tall board orientation that fits your screen.
4. Choose local two-player, vs AI, or Play with a Friend to create or join a room.
5. For an online room, copy the invite link or share the 6-character room code.

Brown disks are hidden pieces; revealed disks show their color, identity, and rank. Selecting one of your revealed pieces highlights its legal destinations, and the Start, Rules, and Pieces panels keep the board visible while explaining the game. Undo is there for local learning, and Restart deals a fresh shuffled game.

On a phone, use the tall orientation when it gives each square more room — orientation changes presentation, not rules or randomness. If two players share one device, pass it after every turn and read the status message before acting.

Step 9: Quick rules FAQ

Can I capture a face-down piece? No. Reveal it on one turn; its owner may act with it only on a later turn.

Does capturing the General end the game? No. The game ends when the player to move has no legal action.

Can I pass? No. If any reveal, move, or capture is legal, you must choose one.

Can the Cannon's screen be face-down? Yes. Occupancy matters; the screen's identity does not.

Can the Cannon jump two pieces? No. The second occupied square is already the target or a blocker.

Can the Cannon jump over one piece and land on an empty square? Not as a capture. Its ordinary movement is one adjacent empty square, like everything else.

Can a Cannon capture another Cannon? Yes — any revealed enemy after exactly one screen, regardless of rank.

Is Banqi a Xiangqi variant? It uses a Xiangqi set and half of that board, so the family connection is real — but the shuffled hidden setup, uniform one-square movement, and rank captures make it its own game. Knowing Xiangqi helps you recognize the pieces, not move them.

Is Banqi the same as “Dark Chess” or Jieqi? No. The Western variant also called Dark Chess limits visibility, and Jieqi gives covered pieces changing movement identities. Banqi shuffles all 32 Xiangqi pieces face-down on a 4 × 8 board and reveals them one at a time.

Step 10: Practice — the fastest way to make it click

You now know everything you need: flip, move one square, capture by rank, mind the General–Soldier twist, and respect the Cannon. The rest is instinct, and instinct comes from playing.

Start by flipping near your revealed strength, keep your Soldiers, and never leave your General standing behind a screen. When you are ready to go deeper, continue with the Banqi strategy guide — five core principles, opening play, the seven most common mistakes, and endgame technique.

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