Is there anything like the cannon in western chess?
These answers restate the rules implemented by our open-source engine, which follows the WXF laws for movement, checkmate and both repetition rulings: a side that forces a repetition by perpetual check or perpetual chase loses rather than drawing. The chase half has not been validated against the official casebook. Where an answer refers to a specific position, that position lives on the linked reference page, where the build verifies it before publishing.
Direct answer
No. Nothing in standard chess captures by jumping over an intervening piece. The cannon is the piece that makes xiangqi its own game rather than a chess variant, and it is the single biggest adjustment for a chess player — because it inverts the intuition that clearing a line strengthens an attack.
Why the intuition inverts
In chess, you open lines to attack. With a cannon, an empty line is a line with no attack on it: the cannon needs exactly one screen to capture. So you can create a threat by putting a piece in the way, and destroy one by taking a piece out of the way.
Both directions are everyday tactics here and neither has a chess analogue.
The closest relatives
Korean janggi has a cannon (포) that also jumps, but it cannot jump another cannon and cannot capture one, and it needs a screen to move as well as to capture. Shogi has nothing comparable. The xiangqi cannon is essentially unique.
Related questions
Is the cannon stronger than a knight?
Slightly, in the opening — about 4.5 against 4 — and weaker in the endgame, when screens run out.
Does janggi's cannon work the same?
Similar but not identical: it needs a screen to move too, and cannot use or take another cannon.
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