How to play Xiangqi: rules and winning tips
How every Xiangqi piece moves and captures, how check and the flying general work, and the opening and tactical ideas that win games. The boards below are live positions checked by the game's own rules.
Xiangqi is played on the points of a board with 9 files and 10 ranks. A river splits it in half, and each side has a 3 by 3 palace around its general. Red sits at the bottom and moves first. In the diagrams, files run a to i from left to right and ranks 0 to 9 from red's side, so red's general starts on e0.
Knowing what each piece can do, and how strong it is, comes before anything else. Green dots mark the points a piece can move to.
The general and the advisors
The general is your king, and keeping it safe comes first. It moves one point up, down, left or right, and it can never leave the palace. It also may not step onto a file where it would face the other general with nothing in between.
Advisors are the general's personal guards. Each moves one point diagonally and must stay inside the palace, so an advisor can only ever stand on five points. They block attacking lines and cover the points next to the general.
Elephants and horses
Elephants move exactly two points diagonally and can't cross the river, so they only ever defend. They can't jump either. If the point halfway along the diagonal, the elephant's eye, is occupied, that move is blocked.
Horses move one point straight, then one point diagonally outward, an L-shape like the chess knight. The difference is that a horse can be blocked. If the point next to it in the direction it wants to go is occupied (players call this hobbling the horse's leg), it can't move that way. That makes horses weaker and more predictable than knights.
Chariots and cannons
The chariot is the most valuable piece. It moves like a chess rook, any number of points along a rank or file, and can't jump. Chariots carry both attack and defence.
The cannon is unique to Xiangqi. When it isn't capturing, it moves exactly like a chariot. To capture, it must jump over exactly one piece, the screen, and land on the enemy piece beyond. The screen can belong to either side. With no screen, or with two, there is no capture.
Because a cannon needs a screen, it can make threats no other piece can, including discovered attacks when a screen moves in or out of its line.
Soldiers
A soldier moves one point straight forward until it has crossed the river. After that it may also move one point sideways. It never moves backward, and it doesn't promote at the far edge. A soldier across the river is a real attacker.
The flying general, check and checkmate
The two generals may never face each other on the same file with nothing between them. No move may leave them like that. So a piece standing alone between the generals is pinned. Moving it off the file would expose the generals to each other, and the game won't allow it.
A general is in check when an enemy piece attacks it. You must get out of check straight away, by moving the general, capturing the attacker or blocking the line. You can never make a move that leaves your own general in check. If no move gets you out, it is checkmate and you lose.
Unlike chess, a player with no legal move who is not in check also loses, so stalemate is a win for the side that caused it.
Opening principles
Follow these principles from the first move.
- Control the central files. Holding the files around the e-file, where the generals live, limits your opponent's moves and opens attacking chances.
- Develop chariots and cannons early. They are your strongest pieces, so get them off their starting points to build pressure and control key points.
- Protect the palace. Keep defenders in and around it while you prepare your own attack.
- Take the initiative. Xiangqi rewards aggressive play. Look for attacking chances early and often, because passive positions collapse fast.
The beginner's guide walks through the most common first moves on the board.
Tactical patterns to learn
- Put a piece in front of your cannon to give it a screen. The cannon then threatens whatever enemy piece stands beyond it.
- Chariots are strongest on clear ranks and files, so trade pieces to open lines for them.
- Your general's back rank is easy to attack. Keep a chariot or cannon ready to defend it.
- Look for double attacks that hit two targets at once. Cannons and chariots are best at making double threats that can't both be parried.
Differences from Western chess
These differences matter most if you are coming from chess.
- The river and palace shape everything. Elephants can't cross the river, and the palace keeps the general and advisors inside, so defence looks nothing like chess.
- No chess piece works like the cannon. Using it well, and defending against it, is central to the game.
- Fighting starts from the first move. Passive openings get into trouble much sooner than in chess.
- Tempo matters more. Losing the initiative is punished hard, so keep your play active the whole game.
For the full reference, including the finer points, see the official Xiangqi rules.
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Xiangqi
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