Banqi, or Half Chess, is a two-player Chinese board game played on a 4x8 grid (usually half of the Chinese Chess board). Banqi is a social game, usually played for fun rather than serious competition. Because it has a significant element of chance, some people consider it a child's game, but Banqi often has remarkable depth of strategy. The 32 pieces are shuffled and randomly allocated face-down to squares on the board. The first player turns up a piece to begin the game. The color of the piece he turns up is the color he will play in the game. The second player then makes a move, and the two alternate until the game is finished. The game ends when a player cannot move; the player who cannot move loses. Most often, the game is lost because all of a player s pieces have been captured and so he has no pieces to move. However, it is possible for one player to surround all of the other player s pieces in a manner that makes it impossible for them to move.

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