Xiangqi basics

The board and the pieces

A xiangqi board has 9 files and 10 ranks, and the pieces sit on the intersections, not inside the squares.

Every section below has a board you can tap. Tap a piece and the board marks every point it can move to right now.

Those points are not hard-coded by hand: the same engine the game uses computes them.

The blank band across the middle is the river, splitting the board in two: Red at the bottom, Black at the top.

The 3×3 boxes at each end are the palaces; the general and its advisors never leave them.

Each side has sixteen pieces, and the same ranks are printed with different glyphs for Red and Black (general, advisor, elephant, horse, chariot, cannon, pawn).

Red moves first, then Black, one move at a time.

How each piece moves

Each example comes as a pair: first how the piece normally moves, then what changes when the restriction applies.

Winning, losing and a few special rules

Check and checkmate

A move that would capture the enemy general next is a check. The checked side must answer it: move the general away, capture the attacker, or block with another piece.

If none of the three is possible, it is checkmate and that side loses.

Ignoring a check is not a foul, it is simply impossible: the engine never generates such a move, so you cannot play one in the game.

The two generals may not face each other

On the same file, if nothing stands between the two generals the position is illegal.

So you may not move the piece between them aside and let the generals face each other. This often becomes a tactic: pinning the enemy general to the file.

Draws and stalemate

Having no legal move on your turn is stalemate, and in xiangqi stalemate is a loss, not a draw — the opposite of Western chess.

The only real draws are 60 moves without a capture, or the same position repeated three times.

A few opening ideas

• Bring the chariot out first: it is the fastest and strongest piece, so put it on an open line rather than rushing the pawns.
• Keep the horse mobile: horses hate a blocked leg, so push the pawn in front of it or jump it out early instead of letting your own pieces trap it.
• The cannon needs a screen: it captures over exactly one piece, so the central cannon opening uses your own center pawn as a screen to threaten the enemy center at once.
• Do not dismantle your own palace: advisors, elephants and the general are the core of your defense — unless there is a clear gain, leave them where they are.
• Do not be greedy for pawns: winning one extra pawn in the opening while your chariots and horses fall two moves behind rarely pays off.

Want to try it? Start a xiangqi game: five computer levels, or two players taking turns on one device.