---
title: "Can You Play Xiangqi on a Chess Board? · Xiangqi Master"
description: "Not properly. A chess board has 64 squares; xiangqi needs 90 intersections, a river and two palaces, so the geometry does not fit."
url: https://xiangqimaster.com/blog/can-you-play-xiangqi-on-a-chess-board
updated: 2026-09-22
source: Xiangqi Master (https://xiangqimaster.com)
license: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
---

# Can you play xiangqi on a chess board?

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
>
> **Not properly.** A chess board offers 64 squares, or 81 intersections if you play on the corners — and xiangqi needs **90 points** plus a river and two marked palaces. You can improvise for a first lesson, but the board is the wrong shape and the palace has nowhere to be.

## What you can improvise

For teaching the pieces, an 8×8 grid played on intersections is enough to demonstrate the chariot, horse and cannon. Draw a palace on paper and lay it over one end if you need the general.

Cheap paper boards cost almost nothing, and any set of two-colour counters with labels works as pieces. There is no reason to improvise for long.

## Why go boards work better

A go board is played on intersections and is 19×19, so a 9×10 region of it is an exact xiangqi board with the river and palaces drawn on. If you own a go set and not a xiangqi set, that is the better improvisation.

## Related questions

Can you play chess on a xiangqi board?

No — you would need 64 squares, and the xiangqi grid has the wrong dimensions and no squares to speak of.

Are xiangqi and janggi boards the same?

Nearly. Janggi uses the same 9×10 grid, though it has no river marking and its palace diagonals are used differently.

## Related xiangqi resources

Board setup

The board, the river, the palace, and where the 32 pieces go

Xiangqi vs chess

What carries over from western chess, and what does not

Play xiangqi

Free, in the browser, nothing to install

## Try it on a real board

Reading an answer is one thing; playing it is another. Free, instant, and nothing to install.