--- title: "How to Decide What to Study Next in Xiangqi ยท Xiangqi Master" description: "Classify your last ten losses by cause, then study whichever cause dominates. The answer is almost never more opening theory." url: https://xiangqimaster.com/blog/how-do-i-decide-what-to-study-next updated: 2026-09-22 source: Xiangqi Master (https://xiangqimaster.com) license: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) --- # How do I decide what to study next 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 > > **Classify your last ten losses by cause, and study whichever category dominates.** Most players do not need to guess what to study; the evidence is sitting in their own recent games. Hung a piece, missed a tactic, lost the opening, lost a won endgame: whichever bucket fills up fastest tells you exactly where the next hour of study should go. ## Doing the classification honestly Go through the games and be specific about the actual moment things went wrong, not the final blunder. A game that was already lost by move twenty because of a missed tactic should be filed under tactics, even if the final mistake happened in the endgame, the same distinction drawn in [how to stop blundering](https://xiangqimaster.com/blog/how-do-i-stop-blundering). ## Resisting the pull toward openings Opening study feels productive and rarely is, at least not compared with the alternative. Almost nobody who does the classification exercise honestly concludes that more opening theory was the missing piece. ## Related questions What if the categories are evenly split? Start with tactics regardless; it has the highest return per hour at almost every level. Should I redo this exercise regularly? Yes, every few dozen games. What is holding you back changes as you improve. ## Related xiangqi resources How to improve What to study, in what order Common mistakes The errors that decide most club games Xiangqi tactics Forks, pins and discovered attacks ## Try it on a real board Reading an answer is one thing; playing it is another. Free, instant, and nothing to install.