--- title: "Can You Capture Your Own Pieces in Xiangqi? · Xiangqi Master" description: "No. You may never capture your own pieces, and your own pieces block horses, elephants and chariots exactly as your opponent's do." url: https://xiangqimaster.com/blog/can-you-capture-your-own-pieces updated: 2026-09-22 source: Xiangqi Master (https://xiangqimaster.com) license: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) --- # Can you capture your own pieces in xiangqi? These answers restate the rules implemented by our open-source engine, which follows the WXF laws and is regression-tested against the official 110-diagram repetition casebook. Where an answer refers to a specific position, that position lives on the linked reference page, where the build verifies it against the engine before publishing. > Direct answer > > **No.** As in every game of the chess family, you may not capture your own pieces. Your own pieces do, however, **obstruct you exactly as the enemy's do** — they block a horse's leg, an elephant's eye and a chariot's line without distinction. ## The one place your own pieces help The cannon. A cannon's screen may be **any** single piece of either colour, so your own pieces are frequently what makes your cannon work — and moving one of them away can silently switch your own attack off. That is a genuine and common self-inflicted error: playing a natural developing move that happens to remove the screen holding your threat together. ## Blocking yourself Beginners regularly park a soldier or an advisor on their own horse's leg point and then wonder why the horse has two moves. Before a quiet move, ask what it stops your own pieces doing — it is the same question that catches most blunders. ## Related questions Can my own piece block my cannon? It can block its *movement*, but a single piece in the line is exactly what its *capture* needs. The two answers differ, which is the cannon's whole character. Can I block my own general's escape? Yes, and that is how several standard mates work. Advisors are the usual culprits. ## Related xiangqi resources How the cannon moves Captures only by jumping exactly one screen Common mistakes The errors that decide most club games How the horse moves An L-shape that can be blocked — it never jumps ## Try it on a real board Reading an answer is one thing; playing it is another. Free, instant, and nothing to install.