What is Jieqi?
Jieqi is xiangqi with hidden pieces. The board, the generals and the way you win are the same as in the standard game, but each side's other fifteen pieces are shuffled and placed face down on that side's usual starting points. You know which points hold your pieces, but not which piece is which.
A face-down piece moves as the piece that normally starts on its point: the one on the chariot's corner moves as a chariot, the one on the cannon's point as a cannon, and so on. As soon as it has moved, it turns face up and shows what it really is, and from then on it moves as that piece. A face-down piece also attacks and gives check as the piece of its point, so check and checkmate work as usual.
Revealed advisors and elephants may leave the palace and cross the river, because a hidden piece can end up anywhere on the board. Luck decides what you uncover; skill decides when you uncover it.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Xiangqi | Jieqi |
|---|---|---|
| Starting position | Standard XiangqiBoth armies stand face up on their fixed starting points. | JieqiThe generals stand face up on their usual points. Each side's other fifteen pieces are shuffled and placed face down on that side's other fifteen starting points. |
| Face-down pieces | Standard XiangqiNot used. | JieqiA face-down piece moves, captures and gives check as the piece that normally starts on its point. You see the colour of every face-down piece, never what it is. |
| Turning face up | Standard XiangqiNot used. | JieqiA face-down piece turns face up when it moves, and both players see what it is. From then on it moves as its real piece. |
| Advisors and elephants | Standard XiangqiAdvisors stay in the palace; elephants stay on their own side of the river. | JieqiOnce revealed, an advisor moves one point diagonally anywhere on the board, and an elephant may cross the river; a piece on the elephant's eye still blocks it. Generals keep to the palace, and soldiers keep their usual moves. |
| Capturing a face-down piece | Standard XiangqiNot used. | JieqiOnly the player who captures a face-down piece learns what it was. The other player finds out when the game ends. |
| How to win | Standard XiangqiCheckmate the opposing general, or leave the opponent without a legal move. | JieqiThe same. |
| Draws | Standard XiangqiA position repeated a third time ends the game: a side keeping up a perpetual check or chase loses, otherwise it is a draw. | JieqiThe same repetition rule. As a safety limit, 60 moves by each side without a capture end the game as a draw, and the result says why. |
History
Jieqi, jiēqí in Chinese, means uncovering chess: the game is about lifting the cover off your pieces one by one. It is a Chinese xiangqi variant played with a normal set, the pieces turned upside down, and in Vietnam it is known as cờ úp. Its number of players has grown quickly in recent years, especially in China and Vietnam, much of it through online play.
No single body sets its rules, and descriptions disagree on some details, most of all on who learns what a captured face-down piece was. The core rules here are the ones the published descriptions share: face-down pieces move as the piece of their point, and revealed advisors and elephants are free of the palace and the river. For captured hidden pieces this table follows the common online convention that only the capturer learns what was taken.