Xiangqi notation

Three ways to write the same move, and how to read all of them

1. One move, three ways

Red opens by swinging the right-hand cannon to the centre file — the most common first move in xiangqi, and the start of the Central Cannon. Written out:

• 炮二平五 — traditional Chinese, what books and commentary use.
• C2=5 — WXF, the Latin form engines and databases speak.
• 炮h7→e7 — the coordinate form this site writes by default.

The last one is the odd one out, and deliberately so. It is absolute: it names the square the piece left and the square it arrived at, using the letters along the bottom of the board and the numbers up the side. Nothing has to be worked out. The other two are relative — they describe the move from the moving player's own point of view — which is why they are shorter, and why they take a page to explain.

2. Files are numbered from your own right

This is the rule everything else rests on, and it is the one that surprises chess players. There is no fixed grid. Each side numbers the nine files 1 to 9 starting from its own right-hand edge, so the two players count in opposite directions and the same physical file has two different numbers depending on who is talking.

Red's file 1 is Black's file 9. The centre file is 5 for both, which is the one thing they agree on — and the reason so many named openings are about file 5.

3. Red writes Chinese numerals, Black writes Arabic

In a Chinese score you can tell whose move you are reading at a glance, because the two sides use different numerals:

• Red: 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九
• Black: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

So 炮二平五 is Red and 砲2平5 is Black — and those are two different moves on two different sides of the board, despite reading almost identically. Red's cannon is written 炮 and Black's 砲; the same distinction runs through the soldiers, which are 兵 for Red and 卒 for Black. WXF drops all of this and writes both sides in Latin, relying on whose turn it is instead.

4. The three verbs

A traditional move is piece, file, verb, number. There are only three verbs:

• 平 (WXF =) — sideways, staying on the same rank. The number after it is the file arrived at.
• 进 (WXF +) — forward, toward the enemy.
• 退 (WXF −) — backward, toward your own edge.

"Forward" is relative too: Red advances up the board and Black advances down it, so 进 means opposite physical directions for the two players.

5. What the last number means depends on the piece

For a move straight along a file or rank, the last number is how many ranks the piece crossed — 車九进一 is the chariot on file 9 advancing one rank. But the advisor, the elephant and the horse all move diagonally or in an L, where a count of ranks would not say where the piece landed. Those three name the file they arrived at instead.

So 馬八进七 is the horse on Red's file 8 moving forward and ending on file 7 — not moving seven ranks, which no horse can do. And 相七进五 is the elephant from file 7 landing on file 5. If you remember one exception on this page, make it this one.

6. Two pieces on the same file

Naming a piece by its file stops working when two of the same type sit on that file — two chariots, or two cannons, or a stack of soldiers. Then the file number is replaced by a position word:

• 前 front, 后 rear — for two.
• 前 中 后 front, middle, rear — for three.
• WXF uses + and − for front and rear.

"Front" means nearer the enemy, so it flips with the side, like everything else here. Four or five soldiers on one file is legal and effectively unseen; scores that hit it number them from the front rather than inventing new words.

7. Worked examples

Every line below is a real opening move from the starting position, written all three ways. Compare the first two columns and the rules above should click:

• 炮二平五 · C2=5 · 炮h7→e7 — Red's right cannon to the centre file.
• 炮八平五 · C8=5 · 炮b7→e7 — the other cannon doing the same thing. Same shape, different file number, and a trap for anyone who has memorised 炮二平五 as a picture rather than as a description.
• 馬二进三 · H2+3 · 馬h9→g7 — horse out, naming the file it lands on.
• 車九进一 · R9+1 · 車a9→a8 — chariot up one rank, counting ranks.
• 兵七进一 · P7+1 · 兵c6→c5 — soldier one step forward.
• 砲2平5 · C2=5 · 砲b2→e2 — Black answering in the centre. Arabic numerals, and note the WXF is identical to Red's first line: the Latin form leans on whose turn it is.

8. Which one should you learn?

Read in the coordinate form, write in whichever you like, and learn the traditional form when you want the books. That order is deliberate. The coordinate form costs nothing to learn and lets you follow a game today; the traditional form is what every Chinese-language book, broadcast and puzzle collection uses, and there is a great deal more xiangqi written in it than in anything else.

WXF sits in between and is worth recognising rather than learning: it is what engines, databases and English-language software emit, so it is the form you will meet in a file rather than on a page.