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Games where it is your turn to play
The Game of the Seven Kingdoms
The Game of the Seven Kingdoms (七國象棋) is a seven players Chinese chess variant. It is currently in development on elephantchess. You can follow up on development on GitHub or on our Discord server.
The boards shown on this page are interactive. You can mouse over a piece to visualize its moves, and click on it to make a move. Have fun!
Turn
White
Rules
Setup
- The board is 19x19 intersections, so equivalent to a Go (Baduk) board.
- Each side has 17 pieces: a General (將), a Chancellor (偏), a Diplomat (裨), a Cannon (砲), a Go-Between (行人), an Archer (弓), a Crossbowman (弩), four Knights (騎), two Dagger soldiers (刀) and four Swordsmen (劍).
- The yellow piece in the board center is the Emperor (周) and isn't played by any player.
- There are 120 pieces total (including the Emperor).
- The seven kingdoms are Qin (秦) the white army (west), Chu (楚) the red army (south), Han (韓) the orange army (south), Qi (齊) the blue army (east), Wei (魏) the green army (east), Zhao (趙) the purple army (north) and Yan (燕) the black army (north).
- The game starts with Qin, the white kingdom, and then the order of play is counterclockwise (i.e. in the same order as listed above).
- The game is normally played by 7 players. If there are fewer players, the extra kingdoms can be removed, or some players can own more than one kingdom.
- On our first implementation — since it might be difficult to find 6 other players to play with — we plan to allow games of minimum 2 players (max. 4 kingdoms per players), minimum 4 players (max. 2 kingdoms per player) or 7 players (exactly 1 kingdom per player).
- We could later implement an Eight Kingdoms variant, with an additional army, in order to make 2 and 4 players games more balanced.
- To make it more practical, when playing multiple kingdoms, all kingdoms of a given player must be contiguous (i.e. be next to each other), so they can all be played at once without needing to wait for another player to play in-between. For example, player 1 plays white and red, player 2 plays orange and blue, player 3 plays green and purple and player 4 plays black.
- Time control is based on players, not kingdoms.
- If a player resigns or flags (i.e. times out), their remaining armies remain in the game, but their turn is now skipped.
- A player is out when he loses the General or more than 10 pieces.
- The player who captures the General or the most pieces of the loser wins his remaining army.
- The final victory goes to the first player who wins two kingdoms or captures more than 30 pieces.
- Except for the Cannon and the Go-Between, all pieces capture the same way that they move.
Moves
General
The General 将 moves any distance orthogonally or diagonally (like a chess Queen).
It is represented by the letter Q in FEN and as a chess Queen icon on the board.
The player who captures the General wins his remaining army.
There is no check in this game (so, it is not mandatory to remove an attack on the General).
Chancellor
The Chancellor (or Deputy General) 偏 moves any distance orthogonally (like a chess Rook).
It is represented by the letter R in FEN and as a chess Rook icon on the board.
Diplomat
The Diplomat (or Officer) 裨 moves any distance diagonally (like a chess Bishop).
It is represented by the letter B in FEN and as a chess Bishop icon on the board.
Cannon
The Cannon (or Catapult) 砲 moves any distance orthogonally without capturing. To capture, it jumps exactly one piece in its way (so exactly like a Chinese chess Cannon).
It is represented by the letter C in FEN.
Go-Between
The Go-Between 行人 (or Diplomat - not to be confused with the other Bishop-like piece that is also called Diplomat) moves any distance orthogonally or diagonally. It cannot capture nor can it be captured. Thus, it is used for defense, or for a Cannon pivot.
It is represented by the letter G in FEN.
Archer
The Archer 弓 moves up to four intersections orthogonally or diagonally.
It is represented by the letter H in FEN.
Crossbowman
The Crossbowman 弩 (or Crossbow) move up to five intersections orthogonally or diagonally.
It is represented by the letter W in FEN.
Knight
The Knight 騎 moves one intersection orthogonally first, then continues one to three intersections diagonally outward. It can be blocked like a Chinese chess Knight (i.e. if the orthogonal intersection is occupied).
It can not jump over other pieces like in chess.
It is represented by the letter N in FEN.
Dagger
Dagger Soldier (or knife) 刀 moves one intersection diagonally; so like a Chinese chess Advisor.
It is represented by the letter A in FEN.
Swordsman
The Swordsman (or Broadsword) 劍 moves one intersection orthogonality.
It is represented by the letter S in FEN.
Emperor
Finally, the Emperor 周 does not move, cannot be captured and is not played by any player. It can however be used as a pivot for the Cannon and can block a Knight orthogonal move.
By convention and since it never changes position, it is not rendered on the FEN.