Banqi

Banqi, also known as Half Chess, Dark Chess or Blind Chess, is a two-player Chinese board game played on a four-by-eight grid, exactly half the size of the board used for xiangqi, or Chinese chess. At the start of the game all pieces are placed face down and shuffled in position, so that neither player knows which piece occupies which square until it is revealed; players take turns either flipping over an unknown piece or moving and capturing with a piece already revealed, using rank-based capture rules similar to those of xiangqi. Most games of Banqi last between ten and twenty minutes, though more advanced or cautious play between skilled players can run considerably longer. The game is generally regarded as a casual, social pastime rather than a formally organized competitive sport, popular for quick play among friends and family in China. A more elaborate, structured descendant of this style of hidden-piece play is thought to have developed into the games Jungle and the modern military board game Luzhanqi.