How to play xiangqi (Chinese chess)

The complete rules, in the order you need them

1. The board

The board is a grid of 9 lines across by 10 lines down. Pieces sit on the intersections, not in the squares, which gives 90 playable points. Two features divide it:

The river (楚河漢界)

The gap across the middle, between the fifth and sixth ranks. Elephants may never cross it, and soldiers gain a new power once they do. Every other piece ignores it.

The palace (九宮)

The 3×3 box marked with a diagonal cross at each end of the board — nine points in all. The general and the two advisors spend the entire game inside their own palace.

Red sits at the bottom and moves first; black sits at the top. On this site the files are lettered a to i from left to right, and the ranks numbered 0 at black's back row to 9 at red's, so the coach can name a move as 炮b7→e7.

2. The pieces

Each side has sixteen pieces. The two colours use different characters for the same piece — a piece of Chinese wordplay that has no effect on how anything moves.

3. How each piece moves

Any piece captures by moving onto an enemy piece and removing it. There is no special capture rule except for the cannon, and no piece is ever promoted.

General (帅 / 将)

One point at a time, horizontally or vertically, and never outside its own palace. It may never move diagonally. It also obeys the flying general rule below, which is the one rule newcomers always miss.

Advisor (仕 / 士)

One point diagonally, and never outside the palace. That confines each advisor to five of the palace's nine points. Advisors exist purely to defend the general.

Elephant (相 / 象)

Exactly two points diagonally — never one, never three. Two restrictions bite constantly:

• An elephant may not cross the river, so it defends its own half for the whole game and can only ever reach seven points.
• It is blocked if the point it passes over — the elephant's eye — is occupied by any piece of either colour. Putting something on that point neutralises the elephant.

Horse (馬)

One point orthogonally, then one point diagonally outward — the same L-shape as a Western knight, with one crucial difference: the xiangqi horse cannot jump. If the orthogonal point it starts through is occupied, that whole direction is blocked. This is called hobbling the horse's leg (蹩馬腿), and blocking a leg is the standard way to defuse an attacking horse.

Chariot (車)

Any number of points along a rank or file, through empty points only — identical to the rook in Western chess. It is the strongest piece on the board by a wide margin, and open files belong to whoever gets a chariot onto them first.

Cannon (炮 / 砲)

The piece that makes xiangqi feel unlike any other chess. A cannon moves exactly like a chariot, along a rank or file over empty points. But to capture, it must jump over exactly one piece and land on the first enemy piece beyond it. That intervening piece is the screen, and it can belong to either player.

No screen, no capture. Two or more pieces in between, no capture. A cannon therefore threatens along a line that is almost clear, and removing or adding a single piece anywhere on that line can create or destroy the threat at a stroke.

Soldier (兵 / 卒)

One point straight forward. It may never move backward, and never diagonally. Once it crosses the river it may also move one point sideways — still never backward. A soldier is not promoted when it reaches the far rank; it simply keeps its sideways step and can no longer advance.

4. The flying general

The two generals may never face each other along a file with no piece between them. Any move that would leave them staring at each other is illegal, including a move that steps a blocking piece out of the way.

The practical effect is that your general attacks the enemy general down an open file. That turns the file between the palaces into a live threat all game long, and a surprising number of mates end with a general delivering the decisive blow itself.

5. Check, and how a game ends

A general under attack is in check, and the threat must be answered at once — by capturing the attacker, blocking the line, or moving the general. Announcing check aloud is courtesy, not a rule.

Checkmate — a win

The general is in check and no legal move escapes it. This ends the great majority of games.

Stalemate — also a win, for the other player

A player who has no legal move loses, whether or not they are in check. This is the sharpest break from Western chess, where the same position is a draw. It means you can win by taking away every move an opponent has, and it makes the endgame far more decisive.

Perpetual check — a loss for the checker

You may not check forever to force a draw. A player who repeats the same checking sequence loses the game rather than escaping with half a point.

Repetition — a draw

If the same position repeats without either side driving it with checks, the game is drawn. Draws are much rarer in xiangqi than in Western chess.

The engine on this site enforces all four, along with the flying general rule, the elephant's eye, and the horse's leg — so you can learn the rules simply by trying things and seeing what it refuses to let you do.

6. Where beginners go wrong

• Forgetting the generals see each other. Moving the piece that shields your general from the enemy general is illegal, and it is easy to plan a whole combination before noticing.
• Treating the horse as a knight. It cannot jump. A horse that looks well-placed may have nothing at all to do once its legs are blocked.
• Leaving a screen in place. A cannon aimed at your general is harmless until something stands between them — including one of your own pieces. Blocking a file can be exactly the wrong move.
• Hoarding the elephants and advisors. They cannot defend anything on the other half of the board, so five of your sixteen pieces are permanently defensive. Trades that strip them away leave a general badly exposed.

7. Common questions

How is xiangqi different from Western chess?

Pieces sit on intersections instead of squares; the generals are locked in a palace and face each other down open files; a river blocks the elephants; there is no queen and no castling; cannons need a screen to capture; and having no legal move loses rather than draws.

Is xiangqi hard to learn?

The rules take about ten minutes — six of the seven pieces move in one sentence each. The cannon is the only genuinely unfamiliar idea. You can play a real game the day you learn.

Do I need to read Chinese to play?

No. Seven characters per side, each shown on this site with its English name in the coaching feed. Most players learn them by sight within a game or two.

Who moves first?

Red always moves first.

What is a good first move?

Advancing a central cannon to the middle file — the 中炮 or Central Cannon — is the most popular opening in the game. See the openings guide for the rest.