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 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
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?
Yes, a soldier permanently blocked by the general or steered to a useless edge point 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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