象棋 Learn Xiangqi

Named mates

Three classical checkmates, and where to find the rest
Updated

Xiangqi players learn a set of checkmates by name — 基本杀法, the basic mates — the way chess players learn back-rank and smothered mates. Knowing them by name means seeing the whole pattern from one piece of it. Each one below is shown on a position the engine confirms is mate, with nothing on the board that does not take part: remove any red piece except the general and it stops being mate. In every diagram the red general is on d9, out of the picture.

Double chariots (双车错)

Two chariots taking turns — 错 is the alternation: one closes a line the general would escape along, and the other gives check on the line beside it. This is the position such a sequence ends in.

Two chariots mating a general on its home point 将 車 車
Files a to f, ranks 0 to 3. The chariot on a0 checks the black general on e0 along the back rank, which also covers d0 and f0 (crossed). The chariot on c1 holds rank 1, so e1 is covered too. Black has no legal move. Take away the chariot on c1 and the general escapes to e1.

The smothered palace (闷宫)

A single piece mates a general that has not moved, because the general's own advisors fill the points it would need. Here the piece is a cannon, and one of the advisors is also its screen.

A cannon mating a general hemmed in by its own advisors 炮 士 将 士
The red cannon on c0 checks the black general on e0 over Black's own advisor on d0. The other advisor, on e1, fills the general's forward point. The only free point is f0 (crossed), and it is on the same rank, still behind the same screen. Apart from the red general, one red piece — and Black has no legal move. Take away the advisor on e1 and Black has two replies: the general steps to e1, or the advisor on d0 steps up to e1 and takes the screen away.

The lesson for the defender is uncomfortable: the two advisors that make the palace safe against most attacks are exactly what makes this one work. A general with its advisors in this shape should watch its back rank.

The iron bolt (铁门栓)

A cannon on the centre file pins the defender's central pieces in place, and a chariot mates while they cannot move. The cannon gives no check itself. What it does is make the obvious defence illegal.

A central cannon freezing the advisor and elephant while a chariot mates 車 将 士 象 炮
The red chariot on a0 checks the black general on e0 along the back rank, covering d0 and f0 (crossed); the advisor on e1 fills the forward point. The red cannon on e3 has two pieces between it and the general, so it gives no check — but if either of them leaves the file, it has exactly one screen and it does. So the advisor and the elephant each have no legal move, and Black has none at all. Take away the cannon and both could block the chariot: the advisor to d0, or the elephant to c0.

This is the cannon page's rule about stepping between a cannon and a general, used as a weapon. The defenders are not trapped by the chariot. They are trapped by the cannon behind them.

The other named mates, on this site

Several more of the basic mates are shown on other pages, each on a position of its own: 马后炮, the cannon behind the horse, 卧槽马, the horse at the trough, and 空头炮, the hollow cannon, on the middlegame page; 重炮, the double cannon, on the cannon page; and the mate that uses the rule against facing generals, 对面笑, on the flying general.