Dark Xiangqi Launches — the 14th Game in the SynerWorlds Family

Today the SynerWorlds family welcomes its 14th member: Dark Xiangqi is officially live — free, no install, just open your browser and play, with a bilingual Vietnamese–English interface.

It's Jieqi — not Banqi

Dark Xiangqi is often confused with Banqi (Chinese dark chess). In fact, Vietnamese Cờ Úp is Jieqi （揭棋）: the full 9×10 xiangqi board is kept, both Generals start face-up, and the 15 remaining pieces are shuffled face-down on their home squares. Whenever a face-down piece moves, it flips over — only then do you learn what you're holding. Every game blends xiangqi calculation with the suspense of a hidden hand.

The rules, as played

• Red moves first; colors are fixed per room.
• A dark piece flips face-up right after it moves; a captured dark piece is revealed publicly to both players.
• Dark pieces move, capture and give check according to the rules of the square they stand on.
• Checkmate wins — and so does stalemate; the flying-generals rule applies.
• Draw after 120 moves with no capture and no flip, or by mutual agreement.

What you can play

• Vs the computer at 12 levels — from gentle introductions to brutally hard.
• Two-player rooms — and this is the family's first game with server-verified matches: the hidden position is held by the server and sealed with a shuffle commitment, so nobody can peek at the opponent's pieces.
• A daily checkmate puzzle + Puzzle Rush — hand-verified positions, all pieces face-up, for sharpening your finishing technique.
• Match history, leaderboards, friend challenges, correspondence games.
• Share games as images, and stream live to Facebook/YouTube right from the game.

Come play your first game at cotuongup.synerworlds.com — and if you enjoy it, share it with family and friends 🃏