Is memorising famous xiangqi games worth the time?
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
Less useful than it looks, and a lower priority than reviewing your own games. A memorised sequence of moves from a strong game gives you nothing to reuse the moment your own game diverges from it, which it almost always does quickly. Understanding the plan behind a strong player's choices transfers; the specific moves rarely do.
What to take from a strong game instead
Rather than memorising the sequence, extract the plan: what target the winning side identified, roughly when, and how they built toward it. That is the part that will still be useful in a completely different position later.
When it becomes worth the time
Once tactics and your own game review are established habits, studying strong games for plans and patterns becomes a genuinely useful addition. It is a refinement for an intermediate player, following on from the general order of study, not a starting point for a beginner.
Related questions
Are there real, citable classic xiangqi games to study?
Chinese-language collections of annotated games exist and are worth seeking out once you are ready for them; this site does not reproduce specific historical games.
Is this different from studying opening theory?
Overlapping but broader: opening theory covers the first several moves, game study covers the whole plan.
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