Xiangqi guides: openings, skills and a glossary

Openings

The 20 opening guides cover Red's first moves, such as the central cannon and the flying elephant, and Black's defences, such as the screen horses and the counter-palace horse. If you are not sure where to begin, read the central cannon guide first, then the screen horses, the defence Black plays most often against it.

• The Central Cannon中炮Red's first move puts a cannon on the centre file, aimed at Black's centre soldier. This guide walks through a twelve-move line, Black's most common answers and the mistakes that beginners make on both sides.
• The Screen Horses屏风马If you meet the central cannon as Black, the screen horses gives you a solid setup: both horses come out to guard the centre soldier. The guide plays a twelve-move line, shows the common mistakes and follows the defence from the Kangxi era to modern research.
• The Same-Direction Cannons顺炮Black answers the central cannon with a central cannon of its own, brought from the same side of the board. This guide covers the mutual attack on the centre soldiers, the course line, a beginner's trap and the mistakes to avoid.
• The Flying Elephant飞相Red's first move takes an elephant to the centre file. Play through the course line, see Black's usual answers, avoid the common mistakes and learn how an opening long mocked by a proverb became popular in the 1980s.
• The Pointing Finger仙人指路Red opens by pushing the soldier in front of a horse and waits for Black to show a plan. The guide takes you through the course line, Black's most common replies in the archive and the mistakes to avoid.
• The Counter-Palace Horse反宫马Black answers the central cannon with two horses and a cannon on a corner of the palace. The guide walks you through the archive's most played line of the defence and the mistakes to avoid, and it covers the defence's history.
• The Palace-Corner Cannon过宫炮Red's first move takes a cannon across the palace, so both cannons stand on one wing. Play through the course line, see how Black answers in the archive's games, avoid the common mistakes and read about the opening's place in a Qing manual.
• The Advisor-Corner Cannon士角炮Red's first move puts a cannon on the palace corner in front of its own advisor. This guide plays through the course line and Black's usual replies, explains the cannon's two jobs and lists the mistakes to avoid.
• The Horse Opening起马局In the horse opening, Red brings out a horse first, and a cannon can follow later to the centre, the advisor's file or the edge. This guide walks you through the course line, Black's main replies in the archive and the mistakes to avoid.
• The Five-Seven Cannons五七炮After the central cannon, Red brings the other cannon to the seventh file. This guide shows the system against the screen horses and against the counter-palace horse.
• The Opposite-Direction Cannons列炮Black answers the central cannon with the cannon from the other side of the board. This guide covers the mutual attack on the centre soldiers, the course line, Black's plan when Red's cannon takes the centre soldier and the mistakes to avoid.
• The Two-Headed Snake两头蛇Red advances the soldiers in front of both horses, on the third and seventh files, so that both horses can jump forward. The guide takes you through the course line, Black's most common replies in the archive and the mistakes to avoid.
• The Edge Horse边马局In the edge horse, Red's first move takes a horse to the edge of the board and clears room for a chariot. This guide walks you through the course line, Black's most common replies in the archive and the mistakes to avoid.
• The Three-Step Tiger三步虎In three moves in a row, Red brings out a horse, moves a cannon to the edge and takes the chariot out. This guide walks you through the course line, Black's replies in the archive, the order to use against a central cannon and the mistakes to avoid.
• The Single Horse Defence单提马If you meet the central cannon as Black, the single horse defence guards the centre soldier with one horse and sends the other to the edge or leaves it at home. The guide plays a twelve-move line, shows Black's replies in the archive and the mistakes to avoid.
• The Rushed Centre Soldier中炮急进中兵In this central cannon system, Red pushes the centre soldier from e3 to e4 early in the game. The guide walks through a twelve-move line, three lines from the archive and the mistakes to avoid on both sides.
• The Five-Six Cannons五六炮Red puts the second cannon beside the central cannon, on the sixth file. This guide shows the system in a twelve-move course line and three lines from the archive, with the mistakes to avoid.
• The River-Patrol Cannon中炮巡河炮After the central cannon, Red advances the other cannon two points to b4, the last rank on Red's side of the river. This guide walks through the course line, Black's answers in the archive and the mistakes to avoid.
• The Edge Cannon边炮Red's first move takes a cannon to the edge file to make way for the chariot and the horse. No archive game opens with it, so play through the course line, see three archive lines that reach an edge cannon later and avoid the common mistakes.
• The Mutual Pawn Opening对兵局In the mutual pawn opening, Black answers Red's soldier move with a soldier move of its own and keeps its plan hidden too. The guide plays the course line, shows Red's most common replies in the archive and points out the mistakes to avoid.

Skills

These five guides explain the principles of the opening, twelve named checkmate patterns, how moves are written down, what the pieces are worth, and how the basic endings are won or drawn. After the checkmate patterns, practise each mate with the puzzles in the Learn section.

• Opening principlesLearn what the first moves of a game are for, from the central cannon and an early chariot to a trap on the centre soldier.
• Twelve named checkmate patternsLearn to recognise and set up twelve named checkmates, each with its Chinese name and a board that plays the mate.
• How to read xiangqi notationThis guide teaches you to read a xiangqi move in the site's coordinates, in the letter form and in the Chinese form, and to follow a game record.
• Piece valuesThis guide gives the values players commonly use for the xiangqi pieces and explains how the worth of the horse, the cannon, the chariot and the soldiers changes during a game.
• Endgame basicsThis guide explains the principles and rules that decide xiangqi endings and gives the known results of endings with a soldier, a cannon or a chariot.

Terms

Keep the glossary at hand while you read the guides.

• Xiangqi glossaryLook up sixty terms that the guides use, from the pieces and the rules to openings and mating patterns, each with its Chinese name.

The twenty openings in the archive

This table counts the archive's 29,164 games between human players by opening, so you can see how often each one is played, how its games end and how long they last. A game counts in the row of Red's system, in the row of each variation of it that the table lists, so a five-seven cannons game also counts for the central cannon, and in the row of Black's answer. The rows overlap, and the two share columns count only the dated games.