Dark Chess

عن اللعبة

Banqi (Dark Chess) in 3D: 32 carved pieces start face down on a lacquered board. Flip, step or capture, climb a ladder of twelve animal opponents, play best-of-3 matches, and solve 40 puzzles.

Dark Chess (暗棋, banqi) is the Taiwanese game that hides its pieces. All 32 pieces of the Chinese chess set lie face down on a 4 by 8 board. On your turn you do exactly one thing: flip a piece, step one of yours, or capture. Your first flip decides your colour, and from then on every flip is a gamble: it may be your general or the enemy's soldier.

The pieces are thick turned discs with deep-carved characters on one face and an inlaid lotus on the other, and they turn over in the air with a satisfying clack. Captures are comic and gentle: the winner stamps, the loser pops into a puff of stars and drops into the tray. The cannon jumps over a screen in a high arc to take any piece, even one that is still face down.

Climb the Ladder through twelve animal opponents, from Pip the Koala to Master Lion. Each rung is a best-of-3 (the last three best-of-5) match, with four computer levels that see exactly what you see and never peek at face-down pieces. Quick games let you choose the opponent, the match length, take-backs and hints. An optional flip-odds helper shows the risk of every flip with coloured rings and counts the pieces still face down.

Learn from scratch in eight short interactive lessons, including an interactive chart of who beats whom, the Soldier against the General, the cannon's jump and when to flip. Test yourself with 40 puzzles that a solver proved have exactly one best first move. Rule options cover the common house rules. Orbit, pan and zoom the camera, turn or move the board, or show the whole table in one tap. Twelve languages including Traditional Chinese, controller and keyboard support, and it all runs offline in one file.

طريقة اللعب

1. Capture every enemy piece, or leave your opponent with no legal action. Points only: nothing is ever won or lost but the game.
2. A board of 4 by 8 squares. 32 pieces start face down: 16 Red and 16 Black. Each side has 1 General, 2 Advisors, 2 Elephants, 2 Chariots, 2 Horses, 2 Cannons and 5 Soldiers.
3. Do exactly one thing: flip a face-down piece, step one of your face-up pieces one square (up, down, left or right) onto an empty square, or capture. The first flip decides which colour each player has.
4. A piece captures an adjacent face-up enemy by stepping onto it, if the enemy has equal or lower rank. Strongest first: General, Advisor, Elephant, Chariot, Horse, Cannon, Soldier. Exceptions: a Soldier can capture a General, and a General cannot capture a Soldier.
5. The Cannon steps like the others but never captures by stepping. It captures by jumping along a row or column over exactly one piece of any colour, face up or face down, onto the next piece, which can be of any rank, face up or face down. Empty squares may lie before the screen and between the screen and the target.
6. A face-down piece cannot be captured by stepping onto it. Only a Cannon can hit it, and the piece may even be of the Cannon's own colour. Flipping is a gamble: use the odds helper to see the risk.

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