Chinese chess pieces and how they move
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Direct answer
Xiangqi has seven piece types — the general, advisor, elephant, horse, chariot, cannon and soldier — each written with a different character for Red and Black. A side has 16 pieces: one general, two each of advisor, elephant, horse, chariot and cannon, and five soldiers. Two of them have no equivalent in western chess: the cannon, which captures by jumping a screen, and the horse, which can be blocked rather than always jumping cleanly.
The seven pieces, at a glance
Every piece sits on an intersection of the board's lines, not inside a square, and each type is written with one character for Red and a different one for Black — the two armies are told apart by calligraphy, not colour of a piece shape. Click any name below for the full rule page, with an interactive board and every case checked.
| Piece | Chinese | Per side | Roughly worth | How it moves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General | 帥 / 將 | 1 | — | One point orthogonally — and it may never leave the three-by-three palace. |
| Advisor | 仕 / 士 | 2 | 2 | One point diagonally, and also confined to the palace — five points is all it ever reaches. |
| Elephant | 相 / 象 | 2 | 2 | Exactly two points diagonally. Never crosses the river, and a piece on the midpoint blocks it. |
| Horse | 傌 / 馬 | 2 | 4 | One point orthogonally, then one diagonally outward — an L, like a knight, but it can be blocked. |
| Chariot | 俥 / 車 | 2 | 9 | Any distance along a rank or file, like a rook. The strongest piece on the board. |
| Cannon | 炮 / 砲 | 2 | 4.5 | Moves like a chariot, but captures only by jumping exactly one piece, friend or foe. |
| Soldier | 兵 / 卒 | 5 | 1–2 | One point forward. Gains sideways movement, but never backward movement, once it crosses the river. |
Sixteen pieces a side, thirty-two on the board: one general, two advisors, two elephants, two horses, two chariots, two cannons and five soldiers.
The two pieces with no chess equivalent
If you already play western chess, five of these seven map onto a piece you already know: general/king, advisor≈nothing quite, elephant≈bishop-ish, chariot=rook, soldier≈pawn. Two do not, and they are the two that decide most games.
The cannon moves exactly like a chariot when it is not capturing, but to take a piece it must jump exactly one other piece — its own or the opponent's — sitting anywhere between it and the target. No piece in western chess behaves like this.
The horse moves in the same L-shape as a knight, but unlike a knight it does not jump: if the square it steps through first is occupied, that direction is blocked. Chinese players call this 蹩马腿 — "hobbling the horse's leg" — and it is the single rule that most changes how the piece should be used compared with a chess knight.
Where they start
All 32 pieces, in their starting places. The chariots anchor the corners, the cannons sit two points in front of them, and the five soldiers form a line with a one-point gap between each — the arrangement the board setup page explains point by point. Click any piece below to see its legal moves from here.
The starting position — all seven piece types, in the places they begin. Click one to see its moves.
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.
What the pieces are worth
The rough values in the table above (chariot 9, cannon 4.5, horse 4, advisor and elephant 2, soldier 1 rising to 2 after the river) hold for an average middlegame position and break down often enough to matter. What the pieces are worth covers the three situations where the numbers stop being true.
The names, in Chinese
The table above gives Red's character before Black's for each piece — Red's general is 帥, Black's is 將, and so on. For the pronunciation, the simplified-script forms, and why the two armies write some pieces differently, see the pieces in Chinese.
Related questions
What are the 7 pieces in Chinese chess called?
General, advisor, elephant, horse, chariot, cannon and soldier. Chinese chess (xiangqi) writes each one with a different character for Red and Black, so there are technically fourteen glyphs for the seven roles.
How many pieces does each side have in Chinese chess?
Sixteen: one general, two advisors, two elephants, two horses, two chariots, two cannons and five soldiers — the same total as western chess, split across seven piece types instead of six.
What is the strongest piece in Chinese chess?
The chariot, worth roughly twice a horse or a cannon. It moves any distance along a rank or file, like a rook, and is uncontested as the most valuable piece on the board. See what every piece is worth.
Which Chinese chess piece has no equivalent in western chess?
The cannon, which captures only by jumping exactly one piece, and — with a caveat — the horse: it moves like a knight but, unlike a knight, can be blocked. See how the cannon moves.
Can the elephant cross the river in Chinese chess?
No. The elephant defends its own half of the board and never crosses the river, which is also why it cannot take part in an attack on the enemy palace.
What are Chinese chess pieces called in Chinese?
象棋's pieces in Chinese, with pronunciation and both scripts, are covered in full on the pieces in Chinese.
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