Xiangqi mates: mate in one
Mate in one means: it is your move, and a single move kills the opponent’s general. It is the shortest mate and the starting point of every mating pattern.
The two conditions for mate in one
- First, the move must give check: the opponent has to answer it at once and cannot do anything else.
- Second, after the check the opponent has no move at all: the general cannot run, and no piece can block or capture.
Only when both hold is it checkmate. Do the first alone and the opponent escapes — which is the counter-example every puzzle here shows.
The board has Red at the bottom and Black at the top. Tap one of your red pieces, then tap a highlighted destination; if you go wrong, the engine tells you how Black escapes.
Try a puzzle
Pawn and rook: mate in one
Red to move. This is the simplest mate in one: one piece gives check while the other takes away the black general’s escape squares.
Answer:d4-c4
The answer is pawn 6→7: the pawn steps sideways onto the file next to the black general, closing file 5 (the only file it could slide to) while the rook gives check on file 4. The general is boxed in on three sides and held in front by the rook — no move left, checkmate in one. The lesson: a check is only the first half; closing the escape is what makes the mate.
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Rook and horse: bring the rook onto the general’s file
Red to move. The horse is already in place, but the checking blow has to come from the rook: work out which file it must slide to.
Answer:a9-d9
The answer is rook 9→6: the rook slides along the back rank onto the general’s file 4 and checks it there. Left and right are walled off by the palace, and stepping up (backwards) still leaves it on file 4 in the rook’s line — checkmate. Checking with the horse first (horse 9→8) only lets the general step back out of it: this puzzle is about who gives the check, and about whether the opponent still has a move afterwards.
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The same pattern, mirrored: rook 1→4
Red to move. This is the previous puzzle mirrored left-to-right: the black general sits near its own right edge and the rook is on Red’s 1st file.
Answer:i9-f9
The answer is rook 1→4: the rook slides to file 4 (file 6 from Black’s side) and checks; the general is squeezed to one side of the palace with left, right and forward all on the rook’s lines, so it has no move. A mirrored position should be recognised as the same mate at a glance — bringing the rook onto the general’s file is the whole idea.
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Rook and cannon: step back first, then mate
Red to move, mate within two. The first move here is not a check: slide the rook back to the black general’s back rank so that nothing Black does can hold.
2 more of your moves (and the opponent answers after each one).
Answer:h1-h4
The answer is the rook dropping three squares to the black back rank (in plain words, “behind the general”). It is not a check, yet all four black moves fail: wherever the general goes, the rook either slides to file 4 with check or checks along the back rank, and the black elephant cannot block the red cannon’s grip on file 4. This puzzle teaches spreading the net before closing it: some mates begin with a non-checking move that takes away every escape at once. (The beginner’s mistake is to check whenever a check is available — that only lets the general out.)
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Cannon and pawn: use the pawn as the screen
Red to move, mate within two. The cannon sits near the river and your own pawn is on file 4 — work out what will serve as the cannon’s screen.
2 more of your moves (and the opponent answers after each one).
Answer:f2-f8
The answer is the cannon dropping six squares to your own back rank. The general is left with only “step forward” (backwards and sideways are walled off), and after it steps forward the red cannon uses the pawn on file 4 as its screen and slides to file 4 for mate. This puzzle teaches the cannon’s borrowed power: a cannon cannot capture without a screen between it and its target — your own pawn or an enemy piece both work, and beginners overlook this more than anything else in xiangqi.
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Horse and cannon: one move covers three roads
Red to move, mate within two. Black has two advisors guarding the palace and Red has only a horse and a cannon — the first move is not a check: work out where the horse must jump so that all three of the general’s directions are covered at once.
2 more of your moves (and the opponent answers after each one).
Answer:g7-f5
The answer is the horse jumping from file 3 to file 4: it lands beside the general and covers its three roads left, up and down (the two advisors only block their own corners). Whichever road the general takes, the horse to file 6 finishes it — that jump both checks and guards the one square left. This puzzle teaches the horse as a square-coverer: it looks slow, but it can cover several squares at once, making it one of the best pieces for closing escapes.