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. 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.
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.
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.
Play on Mistboard
Fog Xiangqi is playable on Mistboard. Play against an engine or challenge a friend. No account required.