Vietnamese General Check — a beginner's guide (English)

Cờ Chiếu Tướng ("Vietnamese General Check") is a Vietnamese folk game on a 5×5 intersection board (full orthogonal grid; diagonals only where column+row is even — 13 such points). Each side has 10 discs: 1 General (the big disc) and 9 Soldiers. Green holds the top two rows, red the bottom two; the middle row starts empty. Red moves first.

Movement: on your turn, move one piece along a drawn line to an adjacent empty intersection — generals and soldiers move identically, one step at a time.

Soldiers can never capture. Soldiers are only for moving, blocking, and serving as screens for the General.

Only the General captures — by leaping over exactly one own-soldier screen onto the enemy's point. The three points must be consecutive and aligned, with no second piece behind the screen. No capture is possible on the very first move.

Check = your general, with an own screen, directly threatens the enemy general. In check you must escape; if you cannot, you lose immediately.

Win when the opponent has no legal move at all (even with pieces remaining), when you capture the enemy general, or on resignation. Draw when both sides have lost all their soldiers and only the two generals remain.

Tip: keep your soldiers in a vertical wall between the two generals — they are both a shield and a launch pad for the General's capture leaps. A general without a screen is toothless.

Play free at cochieutuong.synerworlds.com — vs-computer with a 12-level ladder, daily puzzles, and rooms to challenge friends. No install needed.