---
title: "Is Memorising Famous Xiangqi Games Worth the Time? · Xiangqi Master"
description: "Less than reviewing your own games, and only useful once tactics are solid. Understanding a plan is worth more than reciting the moves that carried it out."
url: https://xiangqimaster.com/blog/is-memorising-famous-games-worth-the-time
updated: 2026-09-22
source: Xiangqi Master (https://xiangqimaster.com)
license: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
---

# 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](https://xiangqimaster.com/blog/how-do-i-get-better-at-xiangqi), 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.

## Related xiangqi resources

How to improve

What to study, in what order

Analyse your games

Take any position apart with engine support

Opening principles

What the first ten moves are actually for

## Try it on a real board

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