---
title: "When Did Xiangqi Tournaments Start Using Clocks? · Xiangqi Master"
description: "Clocks entered organised xiangqi play in the twentieth century as competition professionalised, the same broad period chess tournaments adopted them."
url: https://xiangqimaster.com/blog/history-of-xiangqi-clocks
updated: 2026-09-23
source: Xiangqi Master (https://xiangqimaster.com)
license: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
---

# When did xiangqi tournaments start using clocks?

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> Direct answer
>
> **In the twentieth century**, as xiangqi competition became more formally organised. Park and teahouse play went (and largely still goes) without a clock, but as leagues, national championships and eventually the World Xiangqi Federation's events took shape, a timing mechanism became necessary for the same reason it did in chess: to stop a game running indefinitely and to make results comparable across an event.

## Why this followed organisation rather than the other way round

A clock only matters once a tournament needs many games finished within a fixed schedule. Casual play, which is most of xiangqi's history, never needed one, since two players simply took turns for as long as they liked. Clocks arrived as a practical consequence of running competitions with multiple rounds and a venue booked for a set number of hours, not as an independent invention.

## What did not need inventing

Unlike some aspects of xiangqi arbitration, the clock itself required no xiangqi-specific design. A standard mechanical, and later digital, chess clock times either game identically, which is why any chess clock still works for xiangqi today. See [can you use a chess clock for xiangqi](https://xiangqimaster.com/blog/can-i-use-a-chess-clock-for-xiangqi).

## Related questions

Did park and teahouse play ever use clocks?

Rarely, and mostly not even today. That culture predates formal timing and has largely stayed clock-free.

Is the clock rule itself xiangqi-specific?

No. Once the tournament structure existed, standard chess timing equipment and conventions transferred over directly.

## Related xiangqi resources

History of xiangqi

When the game was invented, and what is actually documented

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