What does xiangqi have that chess doesn't?
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
Five things with no chess equivalent at all: the cannon, which captures only by jumping a screen; the river, a boundary that locks the elephant and empowers the soldier; the palace, confining the general for the whole game; the flying general rule, forbidding the two generals from facing off on an open file; and stalemate as a loss rather than a draw.
Why this list matters for a chess player learning xiangqi
These five are exactly the things that cannot be inferred from chess experience, because nothing in chess maps onto them even loosely. Everything else, calculation, tactics, tempo, transfers reasonably well; these five have to be learned as genuinely new rules. See does chess experience help at xiangqi for what does carry over.
A sixth worth mentioning: no promotion
Xiangqi soldiers never promote. A soldier that survives to the far side of the board gains sideways movement once it crosses the river and nothing further after that, a much smaller reward than a chess pawn reaching the eighth rank.
Related questions
Does janggi share any of these five?
Some, modified. Janggi's cannon needs a screen to move as well as to capture; its general uses the palace diagonals xiangqi's does not. See xiangqi vs janggi.
Is the flying general rule ever relevant in a real game?
Yes, regularly. It removes moves that would otherwise look safe, and it occasionally supplies a mating idea when the defender's own general blocks its own escape.
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