Xinjiang Fangqi

Xinjiang Fangqi is played on a 7×7 grid of intersections. Players alternate placing one stone per turn on any empty intersection.

1. Placement: On your turn, click any empty intersection to place one of your stones there.
2. Square capture: When your four stones form a 2×2 square, all enemy stones orthogonally adjacent to any corner of that square are immediately captured and removed from the board.
3. Preview: Hover over an intersection to see a gold dashed square preview if your move would complete a capturing 2×2.
4. Stones: Each player has 20 stones to place. Stones already on the board cannot be moved.
5. Win condition: A player loses when all their stones have been captured and they have no stones left to place. The last player with stones wins.
6. Tiebreaker: If the board fills with no winner, the player with more stones on the board wins.

Note: Some rules in this implementation are reconstructed from historical sources - see the Cultural Context section for details.

Xinjiang Fangqi (新疆方棋, "Xinjiang Square Chess") is a traditional abstract strategy game associated with the Uyghur and other peoples of the Xinjiang region in northwestern China, situated at the heart of the ancient Silk Road trade network.

The game belongs to the broader family of fangqi (square-chess) games found across Central and East Asia. Its core mechanic - forming a 2×2 square of stones to capture surrounding enemy pieces - reflects a geometric elegance characteristic of steppe and oasis cultures, where patterns of encirclement carried both strategic and symbolic significance.

Xinjiang's position as a crossroads between Chinese, Persian, Turkic, and Mongol cultures means its traditional games carry layers of cultural influence. The geometric border motifs used in this implementation draw from Uyghur textile and architectural decoration - stepped diamonds, interlocking lozenges, and terracotta-on-parchment color palettes that echo the region's famous hand-woven carpets and tilework.

Reconstruction note: Full primary sources for Xinjiang Fangqi's historical rules are limited in English-language scholarship. This implementation follows the core mechanic (7×7 board, 2×2 square capture) confirmed by multiple secondary sources, with rules for multi-square captures, piece count, and tiebreaking reconstructed using conventions from the broader Alquerque and placement-game family. The game is presented here as a living reconstruction, not a definitive historical document.