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.

RED'S VIEW楚 河 漢 界Mistboard??SERVER TRUTH楚 河 漢 界MistboardBLACK'S VIEW楚 河 漢 界Mistboard??

What you see

Here's the same rule, piece by piece.

SOLDIER楚 河 漢 界MistboardADVISOR楚 河 漢 界MistboardELEPHANT楚 河 漢 界MistboardHORSE楚 河 漢 界MistboardCANNON楚 河 漢 界MistboardCHARIOT楚 河 漢 界MistboardGENERAL楚 河 漢 界Mistboard

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.

BEFORE楚 河 漢 界MistboardAFTER楚 河 漢 界Mistboard

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.

RED'S VIEW BEFORE楚 河 漢 界Mistboard?RED'S VIEW AFTER楚 河 漢 界Mistboard?

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. There is no stalemate draw: if the side to move has no legal move, it loses, and with no check to freeze you, this almost never happens.

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 screen appears as unknown occupancy and the target is visible as the enemy piece.

RED'S VIEW楚 河 漢 界Mistboard???SERVER TRUTH楚 河 漢 界Mistboard

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.

RED'S VIEW楚 河 漢 界Mistboard????SERVER TRUTH楚 河 漢 界Mistboard

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.

RED'S VIEW楚 河 漢 界Mistboard??SERVER TRUTH楚 河 漢 界Mistboard

Facing generals

Orthodox xiangqi forbids facing generals. Fog Xiangqi allows the position; if one general sees the other on a clear file, it can capture across that file.

RED'S VIEW楚 河 漢 界MistboardSERVER TRUTH楚 河 漢 界Mistboard
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A sample game

This public production game ends with the rule that most clearly separates Fog Xiangqi from ordinary xiangqi. Red sends a chariot to d10, Black’s general captures it, and the open file lets Red’s general fly from d1 to d10 for the win.

rebirthfox333 (Red) vs Misty DXQ 1.1 (Black)
Production game · July 17, 2026
RED'S VIEW楚 河 漢 界Mistboard??SERVER TRUTH楚 河 漢 界MistboardBLACK'S VIEW楚 河 漢 界Mistboard??
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Red has the lower army. Step through Red’s view, the server truth, and Black’s view.

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Open the original game.

Common questions

Can the bot see through the fog?
No. Misty DXQ never sees the whole board. Each move it receives only the squares its own pieces can see, the same vision rule you play under, and it has to reason about everything else from what it has observed. The full position stays on the server, and the server is open source, so anyone can check what the engine is sent.

Play on Mistboard

The generals may face each other here. A general that sees the other down a clear file can capture it. No account needed.

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