Xiangqi FAQ

Xiangqi (象棋), or Chinese chess, is a two-player strategy game on a 9×10 grid of intersections divided by a river, with a nine-point palace at each end. Each side has 16 pieces and wins by checkmating the enemy general.

Yes. “Xiangqi” is the Mandarin name and “Chinese chess” the usual English description of the same game.

“Shyahng-chee”, from Mandarin xiàngqí, IPA [ɕi̯âŋ tɕʰǐ]. The x is a soft sh rather than a ks sound, and the q is the ch of “cheese” rather than a k. The first syllable falls in pitch and the second rises. More on the name and what it means.

Thirty-two in total, 16 each, of seven types: one general, two advisors, two elephants, two horses, two chariots, two cannons and five soldiers. Chess has 16 a side too, but of six types and in different proportions. Where each of them starts.

Ninety: nine files by ten ranks. Pieces sit on the intersections rather than inside the squares, which is the most common mistake when setting a board up for the first time. The board, explained.

Yes. Any piece may enter either palace. The palace confines the general and its two advisors, which may never leave it; it keeps nothing out. The only piece that can never reach the enemy palace is the elephant, and that is the river stopping it rather than the palace. How the horse moves.

It took its modern form during the Song dynasty (960–1279), so about a thousand years ago. No single inventor is recorded. Claims that the game is two or three thousand years old are dating the name 象棋, which is older than the game it now refers to. The history in full.

By checkmate, or by leaving your opponent with no legal move. In xiangqi, stalemate is a loss rather than a draw.

Pieces sit on intersections; the general and advisors never leave the palace; elephants never cross the river; the cannon captures by jumping a screen; there is no promotion or castling; stalemate loses; and repetition is adjudicated rather than automatically drawn.

Yes. Play here, against the computer or a real opponent, with no download and no payment.

Start with the board setup, then the beginner's guide, then play. The academy sets out the whole route.

The Central Cannon is the most popular and the sharpest. For beginners it is also the most instructive, because its plan is direct.

Because the rules define it that way: a player with no legal move is 困毙, “trapped to death”, and loses. It removes a defensive resource that western chess players rely on, and it makes many endgames winnable that would otherwise be drawn.

No. The player giving perpetual check loses. See perpetual check and chase.

No. You can play and learn without one. An account adds a rating, saved games and progress tracking.

Nine files by ten ranks, giving 90 intersections. A river divides the two halves, and each side has a three by three palace marked with diagonals. The full setup.

On the intersections, where the lines cross, not inside the squares. This is the single most common mistake when setting up a board for the first time, and it changes the geometry of every move.

Red always moves first. Red is conventionally the side nearer the player with the red pieces, and the advantage of moving first is real but small.

The gap across the middle of the board. It matters for two pieces: elephants may never cross it, and soldiers gain sideways movement once they do. What changes at the river.

The three by three area at each end marked with diagonal lines. The general and both advisors must stay inside it for the whole game. Every other piece may enter and leave freely.

No. The general is confined to the nine points of its own palace for the entire game, which is why attacks in xiangqi are so concrete: the target never moves. How the general moves.

No. An elephant is a purely defensive piece that never leaves its own half. It also moves exactly two points diagonally and can be blocked at the midpoint. How the elephant moves.

No, and this is the biggest difference from the chess knight. A xiangqi horse moves one point orthogonally then one diagonally, and a piece on that first point blocks it completely. How the horse moves.

By jumping exactly one piece, of either colour, along a straight line. With no piece in between it cannot capture at all, and with two it cannot either. How the cannon moves.

The single piece a cannon jumps over in order to capture. Any piece can be a screen, including one of the defender's. Moving a screen away switches a cannon's attack off, which is a defensive resource worth remembering.

No. There is no promotion. A soldier that crosses the river gains sideways movement, and that is the whole of its upgrade. A soldier on the far rank can only move sideways from then on.

Yes, like any other piece, as long as it stays inside the palace and does not move onto a point that is attacked. In the endgame the general is a genuinely useful attacker.

Two of each. Both are defensive only, and together they form the structure that decides most endgames. Why they matter so much.

No. There is no castling, no en passant and no promotion. The general stays in its palace from the first move to the last, so there is nothing to castle into.

The two generals may never face each other down a file with nothing in between. It makes a general into an attacking piece, because it takes away the file opposite it, and it creates a pin no other game has. The rule in full.

You lose. A player with no legal move is 困毙, trapped to death, which is a loss rather than the draw it would be in chess. Why stalemate loses.

No. Repetition is adjudicated. Perpetual check loses for the player giving it, and perpetual chase is judged under a set of rules rather than agreed as a draw. Our own engine enforces both in games between people; the chase half has not been validated against the official casebook. How repetition is judged.

Sixty moves without a capture is a draw. In practice this only matters in endgames, and it is comfortably enough time to force any of the basic checkmates.

Yes, and it is a standard attacking formation. The front cannon becomes the screen the rear one needs, which is the double cannon mate.

Each move names the piece, the file it is on, and whether it advances, retreats or moves along a rank. Files are counted from each player's own right, so the same file has two numbers. Reading notation.

Cannon on file two moves sideways to file five. It is the Central Cannon opening move, written C2=5 in the WXF romanisation. The opening it starts.

The World Xiangqi Federation's romanised notation, which writes 炮二平五 as C2=5. It carries exactly the same information as the Chinese and is easier to type. Every move on this site is given in both.

Roughly: chariot 9, cannon 4.5, horse 4, advisor and elephant 2 each, soldier 1 before the river and 2 after it. When those numbers stop being true.

Early in the game, yes. Late in the game, no. A cannon needs a screen to capture, so it weakens as pieces leave the board, while a horse gets freer. The reversal explained.

Basic checkmates, then tactics, then endgames, and openings last. Most players do this in reverse and lose the same games to the same tactics. A practical order of work.

Bring at least two pieces to the palace, open a line into it, and remove an advisor if you can. One attacker is always met by one defender. How an attack is built.

馬後炮, horse behind cannon, where the cannon checks through its own horse and the horse covers the escape points. The pattern, with a position to play.

A casual game runs about twenty to forty minutes. Online blitz takes five minutes or less, and tournament games with an hour each side can run several hours. Games are usually shorter than chess games because the attacks are more forcing.

Estimates run into the hundreds of millions, mostly in China, Vietnam and the wider Chinese diaspora. By number of players it is among the most played board games in the world.

Yes, closely. Janggi descends from xiangqi and keeps the same board, the palace and most of the pieces. The differences are real though: janggi has no river restriction on its elephants, its cannons cannot capture other cannons, and a player may pass.

Both descend from earlier Indian games, and xiangqi took its modern form during the Song dynasty, about a thousand years ago. Claims that it is two or three thousand years old are dating the name rather than the game. What the sources actually say.

Yes. China has a professional league and a national grandmaster title, and there are international championships run by the World Xiangqi Federation. Vietnam also has a strong professional scene.