---
title: "How Do You Write a Chariot Move in Xiangqi Notation? · Xiangqi Master"
description: "Piece, starting file, direction (advance, retreat, or sideways), and destination: for example 車一進五 moves the chariot on file one forward five points."
url: https://xiangqimaster.com/blog/how-do-you-write-a-chariot-move-in-xiangqi-notation
updated: 2026-09-23
source: Xiangqi Master (https://xiangqimaster.com)
license: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
---

# 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.

## Related xiangqi resources

Reading notation

炮二平五 and C2=5 — the same move, two ways

How the chariot moves

Like a rook, and the strongest piece on the board

Chariot endgames

The most common endgame of all

## Try it on a real board

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