How do you write a chariot move in xiangqi notation?
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
A chariot move follows the standard pattern: piece, starting file, direction (進 for advance, 退 for retreat, 平 for sideways), and a destination, which for an advance or retreat is the number of points travelled, and for a sideways move is the file arrived at. So 車一進五 means the chariot starting on file one advances five points.
Why the distance matters here but not for a soldier
A chariot can travel any distance along a clear line, so notation has to say how far, not just which direction. This is the same reason horse and cannon moves that travel in a straight line before capturing also specify a count, while the one-point-at-a-time soldier never needs to.
Disambiguating two chariots on the same file
When both of a player's chariots sit on the same file, plain file-based notation can't tell them apart, so 前 (front) and 後 (rear), or + and - in WXF notation, identify which one moved instead of a starting file.
Related questions
Does a capturing chariot move look different from a non-capturing one in notation?
Not in the move notation itself; the destination and direction are written the same way whether or not a piece was captured there.
Is chariot notation ever written with a plain destination square instead of distance?
Yes, in coordinate-based systems like ICCS, though standard Chinese and WXF notation use the direction-and-count format described here.
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