Central Cannon vs Fan Gong Ma
Every position, move and legality claim on this page is verified programmatically against our open rules engine, which implements the WXF laws for movement, checkmate and both repetition rulings: a side that forces a repetition by perpetual check or perpetual chase loses rather than drawing. The chase half has not been validated against the official casebook.
Direct answer
反宫马 answers the Central Cannon with two horses and a cannon placed between them, at the advisor's corner. It is a close relative of Screen Horses, and the reason to prefer it is specific: the cannon in the middle defends the horses against exactly the kind of pressure that troubles the Screen Horses structure, at the cost of being a slower and more cramped setup.
The opening moves
Watch where Black's cannon goes on move four. That square is the whole point of the opening.
Xiangqi position. Red: soldier a3, soldier c3, soldier e3, soldier g3, soldier i3, cannon b2, cannon h2, chariot a0, horse b0, elephant c0, advisor d0, general e0, advisor f0, elephant g0, horse h0, chariot i0. Black: chariot a9, horse b9, elephant c9, advisor d9, general e9, advisor f9, elephant g9, horse h9, chariot i9, cannon b7, cannon h7, soldier a6, soldier c6, soldier e6, soldier g6, soldier i6. Red to move.
The weakness it fixes
Screen Horses works because the two horses defend each other. Its weakness is that the defence is mutual rather than external: pressure applied to the right point can make one horse's defence of the other irrelevant, usually by blocking a leg or deflecting the piece behind.
反宫马 adds a defender that is not one of the horses. The cannon between them:
- Covers the horses without being a horse, so a move that blocks a horse's leg does not also remove the defence.
- Watches the central file from the side, which matters because the cannon only needs one screen and the crowded centre supplies plenty.
- Keeps the advisor's corner occupied, which is one of the squares an attacking horse wants for a palace-corner check.
What you pay for it is space and speed. The cannon in the middle is in its own pieces' way, and the structure takes a move longer to finish than Screen Horses does.
Where it goes from here
Red's usual approach is to attack before the structure is complete, since 反宫马 is a move slower. Black's is to finish developing and then use the extra solidity: once both horses and the cannon are in place, the position is genuinely hard to break down, and the game turns into the kind of long manoeuvring fight where structure beats tempo.
If you like Screen Horses but keep losing a horse to the same trick, this is the opening to try next. Screen Horses →
Related questions
What is 反宫马 in xiangqi?
A defence against the Central Cannon: two horses with a cannon placed between them at the advisor's corner. The cannon defends both horses, which fixes the main structural weakness of Screen Horses.
Is 反宫马 better than Screen Horses?
Not better, different. It is more solid because the horses have a defender that is not another horse, and slower because the cannon in the middle takes a move and occupies space its own pieces want.
Where exactly does the cannon go?
To the advisor's corner on the same side it started, which the notation spells C8=6. The position on this page shows it, and the move is verified against the engine at build time.
.