Every guide, in the order to read them

From your first move to a won endgame

Start here

How to play xiangqi

The whole rulebook, in the order you need it: the board and its river, how each of the seven pieces moves, the two rules with no chess equivalent — the blocked horse and the generals who may not face each other — and how a game is won. If you have never played any kind of chess, this is the only page you need before your first game.

Coming from international chess

The same rules written as a list of differences, for a reader who already knows how a rook and a knight move. Most of what you know transfers; four things do not, and one of them — stalemate is a loss — will cost you a game you thought was drawn. Read this instead of the page above, not as well.

Reading and opening a game

Notation

How a move gets written down, in the three forms you will meet: the traditional Chinese one used in books and commentary, the Latin one engines use, and coordinates. Worth reading before the openings page, because every opening is named and described in this notation, and because the same move is written differently for Red and for Black.

Openings

The classical openings, named for the shape they make on the board — the Central Cannon, the Screen Horses, the Flying Elephant — what each one is trying to achieve, and the usual way to answer it. The coach on the home page names these as you play them, so this is the page that tells you what it meant.

Getting better

The blocked horse

The horse moves like a knight but cannot jump, and that one difference does three things a chess player does not expect: a horse can attack another horse that cannot attack back, a horse's check can be blocked, and a horse can be left with no move at all. Each one is shown on a position checked against the engine.

The flying general

The rule that the two generals may never face each other reads like a restriction and plays like an extra piece. It freezes the piece standing between them, and it lets a general take away the enemy general's escape square from the far end of the board. Both are shown on positions checked against the engine.

The cannon

The piece with no chess equivalent captures by jumping exactly one piece, and that screen is where its weaknesses live: a cannon check can be answered by moving the screen, a piece may not step between a cannon and its own general, and two cannons on one file give a check that blocking in front of the general cannot stop.

The soldier

The only piece that changes at the river: one move before it, up to three after, and only sideways ones once it reaches the last rank. Why two crossed soldiers side by side defend each other when two uncrossed ones cannot, and why a soldier one step short of the end is worth more than one at it.

Middlegame

What each piece is actually worth, why the answer changes as the board empties, and three attacking patterns worth recognising on sight. This is where most games are decided, and the page is built on the same piece values the computer opponent uses.

Named mates

Three classical checkmates with names — double chariots, the smothered palace and the iron bolt — each on a position the engine confirms is mate, with nothing on the board that does not take part. It also says where on this site the other named mates are shown.

Endgame

Three rules make the xiangqi endgame sharper than a chess one: soldiers never promote, stalemate loses, and your own general can attack along an open file. Each one changes which positions are won. The page ends with how to defend, and how to convert an extra piece into a win.

Repetition and perpetual check

In chess, checking forever is a draw. In xiangqi the player doing it loses. This page covers what counts as the same position, why one quiet move between checks changes the verdict, and exactly what this site's engine enforces. Read it the first time a game ends in a way you did not expect.

Around the game

Handicaps

The traditional way to make a game between unequal players fair is to remove some of the stronger side's pieces before it starts. Here the computer is always the one giving them away. What each handicap takes from it, which one to start with, and why playing a full engine with fewer pieces teaches more than playing a weaker one.

Where xiangqi came from

Why the river across the middle of the board is named after a real war, what the palace is for, and what is known — and still argued about — on how xiangqi and Western chess are related. Nothing on this page will win you a game. It explains why the board looks the way it does.