What happens when only soldiers (and generals) are left on the board?
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
Whoever's soldiers are more advanced, and whose turn it is to press them forward, usually decides it. A pure soldiers-and-generals endgame comes down to counting: how many moves each side's most advanced soldier needs to become a real threat, and whether the defending general can physically get in front of it in time.
Why the general matters so much here
With no other pieces on the board, the general is one of the very few things that can block a soldier at all, since soldiers never retreat and cannot be traded off in the ordinary sense once they reach the palace area. Its position is often the deciding factor.
Counting races
Treat it like a race: count the moves your most advanced soldier needs against the moves the opponent's needs, including any moves their general spends blocking yours. Whoever's count is faster is usually winning, provided the count is checked carefully rather than assumed, exactly the discipline behind winning with a crossed soldier more generally.
Related questions
Can a lone soldier ever be stopped for good?
Against a bare general, only once it has reached the last rank: a soldier still short of it, with its own general helping, forces mate. With soldiers on both sides it is a race instead, and a soldier pushed down to the last rank, or held up by the general for long enough, is effectively out of the game.
Is this endgame common?
Less common than piece endgames, since games are usually decided before material reduces this far, but it appears in long, closely fought games.
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