How do I set up a xiangqi board without making mistakes?
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
Start from the general: it goes on the centre point of the back rank, inside the palace, for both sides. Mirror every other piece out from there, advisors either side of the general, then elephants, horses and chariots to the corners, cannons two ranks forward on the second and eighth files, and five soldiers on alternating files (1, 3, 5, 7, 9) on the rank just behind the river.
The check worth doing every time
Count the soldiers. Five per side, with a gap between each, is the detail people misplace most often, especially coming from chess where all eight pawns sit in one unbroken row. If a soldier looks adjacent to its neighbour rather than one file apart, the row is wrong. See board setup for the full reference layout.
A second check for the cannons
Cannons sit two ranks in front of the horses, not directly beside them and not on the same rank as the soldiers. A cannon on the wrong rank changes the whole opening, since its line to the enemy position depends entirely on starting two ranks back.
Related questions
Does it matter which elephant or advisor goes on which side?
No, they are mirror images of each other and either arrangement is legal and standard.
Is there a quick way to verify a full setup?
Compare against a printed diagram or the reference layout on this site's board setup page before your first move.
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