What is the technique for a chariot versus a lone elephant and a soldier?
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
The chariot side is generally winning, and the technique is to isolate the soldier from whatever protection the elephant can offer before capturing it, since an elephant alone provides very limited defensive resistance once the soldier it is trying to protect comes under direct attack. Once the soldier falls, a bare elephant cannot hold off a chariot at all.
Why the elephant cannot really help the soldier here
The elephant's defensive range is limited to specific diagonal points, and it can never cross the river to actively shield an advanced soldier. If the soldier is not sitting on one of the few points the elephant actually covers, it has no real protection at all, and the chariot can usually manoeuvre to attack it from a direction the elephant cannot reach regardless.
What to actually do with the chariot
Use checks and attacks to drive the elephant away from whatever coverage it does provide, then capture the soldier once it stands undefended. After that, a lone elephant against a chariot is a completely standard, easily winning technique. See how the elephant moves for exactly which points it can and cannot cover.
Related questions
Is this ever a draw?
Rarely, if the soldier happens to sit on a point the elephant genuinely does cover and the chariot has no way to attack it without losing the thread; in practice this is uncommon.
Does it matter if the soldier has already crossed the river?
It gains sideways movement once across, which can help it dodge briefly, but it does not change the fundamentally losing nature of the position.
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