Chinese chess online, with a friend

Xiangqi, the most played board game in the world, over chat

Chinese chess, Xiangqi in Chinese and Cờ tướng in Vietnamese, is played by more people than any other board game: in parks in Beijing, on street corners in Hanoi, and on kitchen tables wherever the families went. It looks like chess at first sight, with a general, chariots and horses, but it plays very differently: a river splits the board, the generals are locked in their palaces, and the cannon has to jump over a piece to capture.

On BeatMe you start a game, make your first move and send the link. Your friend taps it, types a name and plays in the browser. You don’t need to be online together: the board waits until it’s their turn. If you’re both there, every move shows up live on both screens, and you can add a clock for blitz.

How the pieces move

The board has 9 files and 10 ranks, and the pieces stand on the crossings. The river runs across the middle; each side has a 3 × 3 palace marked with diagonals.

• General (帥/將): one step along a line, never out of the palace. The two generals may never face each other on an open file.
• Advisor (仕/士): one step diagonally, inside the palace.
• Elephant (相/象): exactly two steps diagonally, never across the river, and blocked if a piece stands on the point in between.
• Horse (傌/馬): one step along a line, then one diagonally outward. Blocked if a piece stands on that first step.
• Chariot (俥/車): any distance along a line, like a rook. The strongest piece on the board.
• Cannon (炮/砲): moves like a chariot, but captures only by jumping over exactly one piece (the screen).
• Soldier (兵/卒): one step forward; once across the river also one step sideways; never back.

A move that leaves your own general attacked isn’t allowed. A player with no legal move loses, even when not in check. Perpetual check loses: if one side keeps checking and the same position comes back a third time, the checking side loses. Any other threefold repetition is a draw, and so are 60 moves each without a capture.

What is Cờ úp?

Cờ úp (Jieqi in Chinese) is the face-down variant loved in Vietnam. Every piece except the generals starts face down, shuffled among its side’s starting points, so nobody knows what is under each one. A face-down piece moves the way the piece that belongs on its point would; where it lands it is turned over, and from then on it moves as what it really is. Turned-over advisors and elephants may leave the palace and cross the river. More luck, more surprises, faster games.

Why play Xiangqi on BeatMe?

No lobbies, no strangers, no app: a link in WhatsApp, Messenger, Zalo or any chat. Each player picks the piece look they like, traditional brush characters or simple symbols, and can switch any time. The move list uses international notation (C2=5, H8+7) and every move can be replayed. All moves are checked on the server, and in Cờ úp the face-down pieces stay on the server until they are turned over.