How to play
Game of the Generals — Salpakan — was invented in the Philippines in 1970. It looks like a chess variant and plays like poker: the board is fully visible, and almost nothing on it is known.
The short version
- 21 pieces each
- Fifteen ranks, arranged however you like across your own three rows.
- Nothing is visible
- You see the backs of their pieces and they see the backs of yours. Positions are public; ranks are not.
- One square a turn
- Up, down or sideways. No diagonals, no jumps, no double moves.
- The arbiter never explains
- When two pieces meet you are told who survived — never what the other piece was.
Taking a turn
Move one piece one square. If the square is empty you simply move there. If it holds one of their pieces, moving onto it is an attack — and this is the whole game, because you are guessing.
You winYour piece outranks theirs. Theirs is removed and yours takes the square.
You loseTheirs outranks yours. Yours is removed and theirs holds the square.
Both fallThe ranks are equal. Both pieces are removed and the square is left empty.
You are never told which rank beat you. All you learn is that something on that square is stronger than the piece you just spent — which is exactly as much as a real arbiter would tell you across a table.
Winning
There are three ways a match ends.
- 01Capture their FlagMove any piece onto their Flag. The Flag loses every fight it is ever in, so it wins nothing — it only has to survive.
- 02Walk your Flag homeGet your own Flag to the far row. Risky and slow, and it announces itself the moment they notice.
- 03Your opponent resignsAvailable from the match menu at any time, and confirmed before it happens.
What beats what
Higher rank wins — with two exceptions that decide most games. This is the same reference you can open from inside a match.
The two rules that decide games
A Spy kills every officer — Sergeant right up to the 5-Star General.
A Private kills the Spy. It is the only piece that can, and you have six.
Rank ladder
Strongest firstHigher rank wins. Equal ranks kill each other. Tap a rank for its matchups.
Outside the ladder
Why it is not really about rank
Because ranks are hidden, a piece is worth whatever your opponent believes it is. A Private walked boldly up the board reads as a General. A General held back reads as a Flag guard.
Every fight you take also teaches them something. Winning with a Colonel tells them you hold at least a Colonel and where it is. Sometimes losing a cheap piece on purpose is the cheapest question you can ask.
Good players lose pieces deliberately. That is the game underneath the game.
Twenty-one pieces. One flag.
No account, no download. Play the computer first if you want the guide switched on.