The starting position
At the start, you see your own pieces and every legal destination they control. Everything else is fog. Your opponent sees a different board from the same true position.
What you see
Here's the same rule, piece by piece.
Vision is recomputed from the true position after every move, so hidden blockers, cannon screens, horse legs, elephant eyes, and newly opened lines immediately change what you know.
Win condition: general capture
Capture the general to win. Checks and checkmates are not announced, and the server does not warn a player who has moved into danger.
Draws
Games auto-draw on threefold repetition and after 60 plies with no capture. Both are judged from the true position, not either player's view. If the side to move has no legal move, that side loses; there are no stalemate draws.
Edge cases
Cannons
A cannon moves like a chariot when it is not capturing. To capture, it jumps exactly one screen and lands on the first enemy piece beyond it. Under fog, the target is visible and marked, while the screen appears as unknown occupancy.
Facing generals
Orthodox xiangqi forbids facing generals. Dark Xiangqi allows the position; if one general sees the other on a clear file, it can capture across that file.
Horse legs
A horse can move only when the adjacent leg square is clear. If a hidden piece blocks that leg, the destination disappears from your visible set and the leg square appears as a ? marker.
Elephant eyes
An elephant moves two points diagonally and cannot cross the river. If a hidden piece sits on the midpoint eye, the diagonal destination disappears and the eye square appears as a ? marker.
Play status
Playable Dark Xiangqi games are not public yet. These rules are published first so players can review the variant before live play opens.