📖 Articles
Guides, tips and news from the SynerWorlds games — read up, then play to practice.
Tropi Pop is live: match-3 with Vietnamese tropical fruits across 60 levels from Cái Răng to Phú Quốc
Tropi Pop (Xếp Trái Cây) is live at xeptraicay.synerworlds.com — a match-3 game starring 7 Vietnamese tropical fruits: dragon fruit, mangosteen, custard apple, durian, mango, star fruit and coconut. 60 levels across 4 regions, special fruits, falling baskets, leaf tiles and a star leaderboard.
Chroma Beads is live: line up 5 beads of a colour on a 9×9 board — the ball-lines classic returns
Chroma Beads (Xếp Bi) is live at xepbi.synerworlds.com — the ball-lines puzzle in the Color Lines tradition: slide beads along free paths, burst lines of 5 to score, a daily challenge, full replays and high-score leaderboards.
Cờ Gánh Endgames: Winning by Blockade, Liberty Races, and the Two Faces of the Fortress
As the board thins, Cờ Gánh becomes arithmetic: winning by leaving the opponent no move, liberty races between mutually surrounded groups, the endgame carry trap, and why a self-surround fortress can become a coffin.
Ô Ăn Quan vs Mak Khom: One Mancala Family, Two Philosophies of Sowing
Vietnam's Ô Ăn Quan and Thailand's Mak Khom (หมากขุม) sow seeds into stores the same way but differ on everything else: free vs fixed sowing direction, forward chain captures vs the sideways kin thaen, a reseed tax vs a game-ending sweep — and which skills transfer.
Common Cờ Nhào Mistakes: Parity Blindness, Self-Blocking, and Forgetting the Reply Chain
Four mistakes that make Cờ Nhào players lose games they don't understand: ignoring which points have diagonals, blocking your own last move, counting only your own chain, and breaking the opening wall too soon.
Ô Ăn Quan Strategy: Count the Seeds, Chain the Captures, Never Let Your Land Burn
Ô Ăn Quan is deterministic arithmetic on a 12-cell ring: count where the last stone lands, build empty-full bridges for capture chains, watch both mandarins ripen past 5 stones, and avoid the 5-stone reseed tax.
Cờ Nhào Tactics: Capture Chains and the Art of the Landing Square
Read the landing square before the chain, know when to decline a capture, think in networks of empty points, and use the 1-vs-1 draw rule on time — four decisions that make a strong Cờ Nhào player.
Rook, Cannon, Horse: the same pieces, different logic in Xiangqi and Chess
The Chariot moves identically, the Cannon exists in only one game and captures over a screen, the Horse traces the same L but can be hobbled — a quick translation between the two games.
Xiangqi Skills That Make You Better at Chess (and Back Again)
X-rays and batteries learned from the Cannon, blocking-square calculation from the hobbled Horse, rook endgames, planning from chess — the skills that genuinely transfer between the two games.
Cờ Gánh Tactics: Double Captures, Group Surrounds, and the Mandatory-Capture Trap
Force a bad mandatory capture, pre-load the axes for double carries at the centre, count breathing points to strangle whole groups — three ideas that decide strong Cờ Gánh games.
Mak Khom (หมากขุม) is live: the Thai sowing game of relay drops and kin thaen captures
Mak Khom (หมากขุม) is live at makkhom.synerworlds.com — the Thai folk sowing game of the Congkak family: relay sowing, store-landing bonus moves, kin thaen opposite captures, a 12-level AI, two-player rooms, interactive lessons and a daily puzzle.
7 Mistakes Chess Players Make When Switching to Xiangqi
Cannons need screens, Horses get hobbled, generals fly, and running out of moves loses — seven habits that are right in chess and wrong in xiangqi, and how to retrain them.
Reversi Launches — Play Free in Your Browser
Reversi (Othello) is live at reversi.synerworlds.com — standard 8×8 outflank-and-flip rules, 12-level AI, two-player rooms, uniquely-verified puzzles, 6 strategy lessons and all 26 locales from day one.
Nonogram Launches — the 15th Game in the SynerWorlds Family
Nonogram (Picross) is live at nonogram.synerworlds.com — logic picture puzzles in 3 board sizes and 3 difficulty tiers, a launch library of 90 pictures with unique solutions solvable by pure deduction, 3 new daily puzzles and 2–4 player race rooms.
Dark Xiangqi Launches — the 14th Game in the SynerWorlds Family
Dark Xiangqi (Jieqi) is live at cotuongup.synerworlds.com — a full xiangqi board with 15 shuffled face-down pieces, 12-level AI, server-verified game rooms, a daily checkmate puzzle and Puzzle Rush.
How to Play Gomoku (Cờ Ca-rô) — Beginner's Guide
Learn Gomoku rules the Vietnamese way — five in a row, the blocked-ends rule, overlines, and basic strategy. Free bilingual guide (English/Vietnamese).
How to Play Cross Words — Beginner's Guide
Learn the rules of Cross Words — the Scrabble-style tile game — how scoring works, and beginner tips for your first game.
How to Play Sudoku — Beginner's Guide
Learn the rules of Sudoku, how to use pencil notes, and the basic solving techniques to complete your first 9×9 grid.
How to Play Word Search — Beginner's Guide
Learn the rules of Word Search — finding hidden English words in a letter grid — and tips for spotting words fast.
How to Play Go — Beginner's Guide
Learn Go from zero: the board, liberties and capturing, how scoring works, and basic beginner tips.
How to Play Checkers — Beginner's Guide
A complete guide to checkers for beginners: how pieces move, the mandatory capture rule, crowning, and basic tips.
"Vietnamese General Check — a beginner's guide"
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...
"O An Quan — a beginner's guide"
O An Quan** ("Mandarin Square Capturing") is Vietnam's beloved mancala-style folk game. The board is a **ring of 12 pits** (2-player game): 10 small dân (citizen) pits and 2 large quan (mandarin)...
"Co Ganh — a beginner's guide"
Co Ganh** is a folk game of Vietnam played on a 5×5 board with diagonals at certain intersections (Alquerque-style). Each side has **8 discs** — red on the top two rows, blue on the bottom two...
"Co Nhao — a beginner's guide"
Co Nhao** is a Vietnamese folk game on a 5×5 board (Alquerque-style). Each side has **10 discs**; the middle row starts empty. Green (bottom side) moves first. Win by capturing every enemy piece...
"Ca Ngua — a beginner's guide"
Cờ Cá Ngựa** ("Vietnamese Horse Racing") is Vietnam's classic pachisi-style race game for **2–4 players**, each with **4 horses** (red, yellow, blue, green). Horses run **one counter-clockwise...
The Complete Feature Guide — Game Rooms, Challenges, Correspondence Chess and More
Discover every feature of Chess Online: play vs the computer across 10 levels, realtime game rooms, friend challenges, correspondence chess, puzzles, leaderboards and push notifications.
The Complete Feature Guide — Game Rooms, Challenges, Correspondence Chess and More
Discover every feature of Xiangqi Online: play vs the computer across 12 levels, realtime game rooms, friend challenges, correspondence chess, puzzles, the lesson library, leaderboards and push notifications.
The Complete Feature Guide — Game Rooms, Challenges, Correspondence and More
Discover every feature of Gomoku Online: play vs the computer at 12 levels, realtime game rooms, friend challenges, correspondence games, puzzles, leaderboards and push notifications.
How to Add the Xiangqi Shortcut to Your Phone's Home Screen (iPhone & Android)
Step-by-step guide to adding Xiangqi Online to your phone's home screen so it opens fast like a real app, with full push notifications.
How to Play Chess — Beginner's Guide
Learn chess rules, piece movements, and basic strategies. Free bilingual guide (English/Vietnamese).
How to Play Xiangqi: A Beginner's Guide
A complete guide to playing xiangqi for beginners: the board, how each piece moves, and the basic rules of winning and losing.
"The Central Cannon Opening: Xiangqi's Classic First Move"
Learn the Central Cannon opening — xiangqi's most classic attacking setup, its Same Direction and Opposite Direction variations, and how to counter it.
5 Xiangqi Endgame Tips That Will Help You Win More
The 5 most important xiangqi endgame principles: keep your king safe, use your crossed-river pawns, coordinate chariot and horse, and calculate continuous checks.