Rules
Twelve Janggi (십이장기) is a tiny chess-like game for two players on a board of 12 squares: four columns, A to D, and three rows. Column A is the first player’s home and column D is the second player’s home. In the game on this site your home column is always at the bottom.
The pieces
Each player has four pieces. Every piece moves exactly one square per turn:
- King (王): any of the eight directions.
- General (將): forward, back, left or right.
- Minister (相): any of the four diagonals.
- Pawn (子): forward only.
- Marquis (侯): a promoted Pawn. Any direction except the two backward diagonals.
Pieces never turn around: “forward” always means towards the opponent. The opponent’s pieces are drawn upside down, as on the physical board, so their dots point the way they move.
Setup
The first player has the Minister on A1, King on A2, General on A3 and Pawn on B2. The second player mirrors it: General on D1, King on D2, Minister on D3 and Pawn on C2.
A turn
On your turn you either move one piece one square, or drop one piece from your hand.
- Moving onto an opponent’s piece captures it. The captured piece goes into your hand and becomes yours.
- A dropped piece can go on any empty square except the opponent’s home column. You can drop a piece from your next turn onwards, at any time later.
- A Pawn that moves into the opponent’s home column is promoted to a Marquis straight away. A captured Marquis goes into the captor’s hand as a plain Pawn.
Winning
- Take the King. Capture the opponent’s King and you win at once.
- Reach their home and survive. Move your King into the opponent’s home column. If it is still there at the start of your next turn (the opponent could not or did not take it), you win.
Our version
- Who moves first is a coin flip. The first player takes the A column, as on the show.
- Promotion is automatic and compulsory. The rules we found say the Pawn becomes a Marquis but not whether you may refuse, so you may not.
- Draws: the show had no draw rule. Here the same position coming up a third time (same board, same hands, same player to move) is a draw, and so is reaching 200 moves in total.
- Timer: 60 seconds for every move, in vs AI games and online. Running out of time loses. The show used 90 seconds (Season 3 final) and 30 seconds (Season 4); we picked one middle value for everyone.
- No legal move: if a player has no legal move at all (very rare), they lose.
- No check rule: you may move your King next to danger. If the opponent can take it, they win.
- Helpers setting: highlights every square your selected piece can move or drop to, with captures ringed. Turn it off to play like the show, from memory.
- AI levels: easy looks two moves ahead and sometimes plays a random move; medium looks four moves ahead; hard searches as deep as it can within a fixed amount of work (often ten moves ahead in the opening), remembering positions it has already worked out.
- Online rooms: two players, the same 60-second clock. Pause does not work online.
Sources: fan wikis.
Strategy
Count the drops. A piece in hand is often worth more than one on the board, because it can appear almost anywhere. Before you capture, check what your opponent can drop next to your King in reply.
Guard the back column. The King race decides many games. If the opponent’s King can step into your home column next turn, make sure one of your pieces covers that square, or you will need to take it the moment it arrives.
Mix straight and diagonal guards. The General covers straight lines and the Minister covers diagonals, so a square watched by both is hard to attack. A Minister moving on the board only ever stands on half the squares (like a chess bishop), so a drop is the way to switch it over.
Trade into a better hand. Taking a General for a Pawn is a clear gain, but even a Pawn for a Pawn changes who has the drop. Look at the hands, not just the board.
Promote with purpose. A Marquis moves almost like a King, so pushing a Pawn to the far column is strong. Remember that if it is taken, the opponent only gets a Pawn back.
Use the clock. Sixty seconds is plenty on 12 squares. Use the time to check every enemy reply before you move, especially drops.