Chinese chess online

Every position, move and legality claim on this page is verified programmatically against our open rules engine, which implements the WXF laws and is tested against the official 110-diagram repetition casebook.

Three ways to start a game

All three take one click from the app, and none of them installs anything.

• Quick match — you are paired with whoever else is waiting at the same time control. This is the fastest route to a real opponent, and games played this way count towards your rating.
• Open challenges — a live lobby of games people have posted. Browse the time controls on offer and accept the one you want, instead of being matched blind.
• The computer — four strengths, available with no account at all. Hints are there if you want them, which makes it the right choice for a first game.

You can also open a private room and send the link to one person. Nobody else can join it, which is what you want for a game against a friend in another country.

What you need (almost nothing)

A browser. That is the whole list.

• No download and no app store. The board is a web page; it loads on a phone, a tablet, a laptop or a desktop.
• No payment. Playing, the lessons, the puzzles and the analysis board are all free.
• No account, to play the computer. Rated games against people need one, because a rating has to belong to somebody.

On a phone the board scales to the screen and the pieces stay large enough to hit with a thumb — the most common failure of free Chinese chess sites, and the one worth checking before you commit an evening to a site.

Opponents, ratings and time controls

Every completed rated game moves your rating up or down depending on who you played and how it ended, which is what stops the pairing pool from being a lottery: after a handful of games you are matched with people who give you a real game.

Games can be played rated or casual. Casual games leave your rating alone, which is the right setting when you are trying an opening you do not know yet. The leaderboard ranks rated players only.

Time controls run from fast blitz to slower rapid games with an increment — the clock adds a few seconds after each move, so a won position is not lost to the clock alone.

The rules that actually decide close games

Most free boards implement the moves and stop there. The hard part of xiangqi is not the moves — it is repetition: when a series of checks or chases is forbidden, and who loses when neither side will give way. Our engine implements the World Xiangqi Federation laws and is verified against the official 110-diagram casebook on every build, so a game that comes down to a chase ends the way the rulebook says it ends rather than the way the software happened to be written.

If you are new to those rules, the short version is on perpetual check and chase, and the full set is in the rules section.

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