Xiangqi glossary: the terms, in Chinese and English
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.
Direct answer
Xiangqi terminology is Chinese, and most of it has no chess equivalent. This glossary gives every term this site uses — the seven pieces, the river and palace, the rules that decide games, and the openings you meet first — with the characters as they are actually written, a pinyin reading, and a one-line definition. Red and Black spell five of the seven pieces differently.
The pieces
Each side has sixteen pieces. Red and Black write five of the seven types with different characters, though the pieces move identically — the distinction is calligraphic, not mechanical.
- General 帥 / 將 shuài / jiàng
- The king. Moves one point orthogonally and never leaves the palace. Losing it loses the game. Red writes 帥, Black 將. More on this →
- Advisor 仕 / 士 shì
- Moves one point diagonally, confined to the palace — five reachable points in total. Purely defensive, and the piece an attacker most wants to strip away. More on this →
- Elephant 相 / 象 xiàng
- Moves exactly two points diagonally, may never cross the river, and is blocked if the midpoint is occupied. Defensive only. More on this →
- Horse 傌 / 馬 mǎ
- Moves one point orthogonally then one diagonally outward. Unlike a chess knight it cannot jump: a piece on the orthogonal step blocks it. More on this →
- Chariot 俥 / 車 jū
- Moves and captures any distance along a rank or file, exactly like a rook. The strongest piece in xiangqi. More on this →
- Cannon 炮 / 砲 pào
- Moves like a chariot, but captures only by jumping exactly one intervening piece — the screen. The piece with no equivalent in western chess. More on this →
- Soldier 兵 / 卒 bīng / zú
- Moves one point forward. After crossing the river it may also move sideways. It never moves backwards and never promotes. More on this →
The board
Pieces sit on the intersections of the lines, not inside the squares — nine files and ten ranks give 90 points.
- River 楚河漢界 chǔ hé hàn jiè
- The gap across the middle of the board, inscribed “the Chu river and the Han border”. Elephants may never cross it; soldiers gain sideways movement once they do. More on this →
- Palace 九宮 jiǔ gōng
- The three-by-three area at each end marked with a diagonal cross. The general and the two advisors may never leave it. More on this →
- Xiangqi 象棋 xiàng qí
- The game itself — literally “elephant game”. Called Chinese chess in English. It shares an ancestor with western chess but is not a variant of it. More on this →
Rules and situations
The terms below are the ones that decide games, and the last two are the ones most English descriptions of xiangqi get wrong.
- Check 将军 jiāng jūn
- The general is under attack and the threat must be answered. Announcing it aloud is traditional but not required. More on this →
- Checkmate 将死 jiāng sǐ
- The general is in check and no legal move answers it. The game ends immediately. More on this →
- Stalemate 困毙 kùn bì
- A player has no legal move at all. In xiangqi this is a LOSS for the player who cannot move, not a draw as in western chess. More on this →
- Flying general 白脸将 bái liǎn jiàng
- The two generals may never face each other down an open file with nothing between them. It makes pieces absolutely pinned and ends games outright. More on this →
- Hobbling the horse’s leg 蹩马腿 bié mǎ tuǐ
- A piece standing on the orthogonal point a horse must step through removes both moves in that direction — either colour blocks, including your own. More on this →
- Blocking the elephant’s eye 塞象眼 sāi xiàng yǎn
- A piece on the midpoint of an elephant’s two-point diagonal blocks that move, the elephant’s equivalent of hobbling the horse. More on this →
- Cannon screen 炮架 pào jià
- The single piece a cannon jumps over in order to capture. Without exactly one screen a cannon cannot capture at all. More on this →
- Perpetual check 长将 cháng jiāng
- Repeatedly checking to force a repetition. Under WXF rules the player giving perpetual check must vary — and loses if they will not. More on this →
- Perpetual chase 长捉 cháng zhuō
- Repeatedly threatening to capture the same piece to force a repetition. Like perpetual check, the chaser must vary or lose. This is the rule almost no non-Chinese description of xiangqi implements. More on this →
- Waiting move 闲着 xián zhāo
- A move that neither checks nor threatens — the neutral move that breaks a repetition legally, and the usual way to answer a chase without losing the piece. More on this →
Openings and phases
Xiangqi opening theory is deep and named. These are the two systems you will meet first, and the vocabulary for the parts of a game.
- Central Cannon 中炮 zhōng pào
- Red swings a cannon to the central file on move one, aiming straight down it at the black general. The most common and most direct opening in the game. More on this →
- Screen Horses 屏風馬 píng fēng mǎ
- Black answers by developing both horses to defend the central soldier, forming a “screen”. The main reply to the Central Cannon. More on this →
- Opening 开局 kāi jú
- The first phase, where both sides develop chariots, horses and cannons and fight for the central file. More on this →
- Middlegame 中局 zhōng jú
- The phase where the plans made in the opening are executed and most tactics appear. More on this →
- Endgame 残局 cán jú
- The phase of few pieces, where technique decides. Xiangqi endgames are sharper than chess ones because there is no promotion to rescue a lost position. More on this →
- Initiative 先手 xiān shǒu
- Having the move and the threats. Red begins with 先手; the term also simply names the side that moves first. Its opposite is 后手 (hòu shǒu). More on this →
Related questions
Why do Red and Black use different characters for the same piece?
Tradition, not rules. Red writes 帥 仕 相 傌 俥 炮 兵 and Black writes 將 士 象 馬 車 砲 卒. The pieces move identically — only the calligraphy differs, which makes the two armies easy to tell apart at a glance on a board where every piece is a disc with a character on it.
What does 蹩马腿 mean?
“Hobbling the horse’s leg”. A xiangqi horse moves one point orthogonally and then one diagonally, and if a piece stands on that first orthogonal point the move is blocked — the horse cannot jump. Your own pieces block it exactly as your opponent’s do.
What is the difference between 长将 and 长捉?
长将 is perpetual check — repeating a check to force a draw by repetition. 长捉 is perpetual chase — repeating a threat to capture the same piece. Under WXF rules both are illegal to persist with: the player doing it must vary the position, and loses if they will not.
Do I need to read Chinese to play xiangqi?
No. The pieces are learned as seven shapes rather than as characters, and most online sets can show Western symbols instead. Knowing the characters helps when reading opening names or Chinese notation, which is why both are given throughout this site.
