Glossary of Junqi terms

Terms used in the rules, the lessons and the strategy articles, in alphabetical order. Chinese names are given where the traditional set has one.

Army chess An English name for Junqi, from the Chinese 军棋 (jūnqí).

Attack Moving a piece onto a space occupied by an enemy piece. Only the moving piece attacks; the stationary piece defends.

Back rows The two rows nearest a player's edge of the board. Landmines may only be placed there.

Bomb (炸弹) A piece without a rank. When it fights anything, both pieces are removed. Two per side. It may not start in the front row.

Bridge One of the three crossings of the front line, in columns A, C and E. Each has a station in the middle.

Camp (行营) One of the five circular spaces in each half. A piece in a camp cannot be attacked. Camps connect diagonally to their neighbours.

Capture Winning a fight and removing the enemy piece. Capturing the flag ends the game.

Dark chess (暗棋) The form of Junqi in which each player knows only their own pieces and a referee resolves fights. Hidden Front plays dark chess with the server as referee.

Draw A game with no winner. Hidden Front declares a draw after 100 consecutive moves without a fight, or when both players agree to one.

Engineer (工兵) Rank 1, three per side. The only piece that can remove a landmine and survive, and the only piece that can turn corners while moving on railways.

Field Marshal (司令) Rank 9, one per side. The strongest officer. Beaten only by a bomb or a landmine.

Flag (军旗) The piece whose capture ends the game. It never moves and sits in one of the two headquarters.

Flip chess (翻棋) A lighter variant in which all tiles start face down and are revealed by flipping.

Front line (前线) The river between the two halves of the board. It can only be crossed at the three bridges.

Front row The row nearest the front line on each side. It is a railway row, and bombs may not start there.

General (军长) Rank 8, one per side.

Headquarters (大本营) One of the two squares in each back row, at columns B and D. The flag sits in one of them. Any piece that enters a headquarters is frozen there.

Immobilisation Losing because you have no piece that can move at the start of your turn.

Invite link The address of an online room. Anyone who opens it joins that game.

Junqi (军棋) The game itself: "army chess". Also called Luzhanqi (陆战棋), "land battle chess".

Landmine (地雷) A piece without a rank, three per side. It never moves and may only be placed in the back two rows, never in a headquarters. Any attacker except an Engineer is removed along with it.

Lieutenant (排长) Rank 2, three per side. Beats only Engineers.

Major (营长) Rank 4, two per side.

Major General (师长) Rank 7, two per side.

Mountain (山界) The two impassable gaps in the front line, in columns B and D.

Notes Hidden Front's memo feature: a label you write on an enemy piece to record what you believe it is. Notes are private and are not saved after the game.

Probe Attacking an unknown piece with a cheap one to learn what it is.

Quick match Hidden Front's one-button matchmaking. It joins an open public room or opens one and waits.

Railway (铁路) The thick lines along the outer columns and across four rows. A piece starting on a railway may slide any distance in a straight line through empty spaces.

Rank A piece's number from 1 to 9. In a fight between ranked pieces the higher rank wins and equal ranks are both removed.

Ranked game An online game between two signed-in players that changes both players' ratings.

Rating A number estimating a player's strength, calculated with the Glicko-2 system. It starts at 1500 each season.

Referee In traditional dark chess, the third person who compares pieces and announces results. On Hidden Front the server plays this role.

Road (公路) The thin lines. A piece on a road moves one step at a time.

Season A ranking period. Seasons are calendar quarters, and ratings reset at the start of each one.

Setup The phase before the first move, in which each player arranges their 25 pieces on their own half.

Station The space in the middle of each bridge. Pieces may stop there during the game but may not be placed there at setup.

Stratego The Western cousin of Junqi, with hidden ranks, bombs, miners and a flag, but no railways, camps or headquarters.

Timeout Running out of the 30-second move clock in an online game. The turn passes to the opponent, and a third timeout in one game is a forfeit.

Trade A fight between equal ranks, in which both pieces are removed. Also used loosely for any exchange of one piece for another.

Zugzwang A position in which every available move makes things worse. In Junqi it appears when a player's only mobile piece must step into danger or the player loses by immobilisation.