The Advisor-Corner Cannon

A cannon on the advisor's corner

Red opens with 炮二平四 (C2=4), or with 炮八平六 (C8=6) on the other wing. On this page the cannon goes from h2 to f2, the corner of the palace in front of the advisor on f0. Leaving h2 also clears the h-file, which Red's chariot uses two moves later.

On the board below, both sides bring out a horse after the cannon move: Black's goes to c7, and Red's goes from h0 to g2. Black's second horse comes to g7, and Red's chariot steps from i0 to h0. From there it attacks Black's cannon on h7 along the file that Red's cannon has left.

The advisor-corner cannon is one of the more common cannon openings, together with the palace-corner cannon. ECCO, the Chinese system of opening codes drawn up in 2004, files it under A50 to A54.

The course line, move by move

The board plays the line that the site's opening course teaches for the advisor-corner cannon. It starts with the opening's standard move, and a computer engine continued it from there. The course teaches it on the left wing, and this page mirrors it onto the right wing, where the archive and the standard names of the variations put the opening.

Over the twelve moves, both sides bring out both horses and a chariot, and Red moves an advisor and an elephant to the centre file. The line ends with Black's cannon on h3, where it attacks Red's soldier on e3 while Red's chariot attacks the cannon.

Step through the board and read what each move is for. Afterwards, the opening course in Learn lets you watch the line and then play both sides of it yourself. If you play Black, a drill there has you defend against the same line.

How does Black reply?

Black has three usual replies: the right central cannon, 炮2平5 (C2=5), the soldier push 卒7进1 (P7+1) and the left horse, 马8进7 (H8+7). The board below starts after 炮二平四 (C2=4), a position that 476 archive games reached. Its arrows mark the same three moves, which were also the replies Black chose most often in those games.

Black often answers with a central cannon, or first trades a cannon for one of Red's horses so that the central cannon becomes stronger. Of the archive's three named lines below, two continue after the right central cannon, and the third is the soldier push alone.

What is the cannon there for?

The cannon on the advisor's corner has two jobs. In defence, it guards against an enemy chariot rushing in to block an elephant's eye. In a counter-attack, it can use a screen to bombard the enemy camp, so the opening suits attack and defence alike. The line with Red's cannon to f7 is an example of the second job: from f7 the cannon attacks both of Black's horses, each over one of Black's own cannons.

The opening also keeps Red's plans open. As the position requires, the advisor-corner cannon can turn into a counter-palace horse, a single horse set-up or the five-six cannons. It suits you if you like to see Black's reply before you choose a set-up.

The course line also follows the five opening principles that Xiangqi Arena teaches: bring the chariots out early, do not move one piece again and again, do not grab soldiers, keep both wings balanced and keep the general safe. Each side brings out a chariot by its third move, and no piece of either side moves twice in the twelve moves.

Common mistakes

A common mistake is to move the cannon again soon after it reaches f2, looking for something to attack. Each extra cannon move is a move your horses and chariots do not get, which is why the principles warn against moving one piece again and again. Once the cannon leaves the corner, it also stops guarding against a chariot that rushes in to block an elephant's eye. In the line with Red's cannon to f7, the cannon goes forward only after both sides have brought out their horses and chariots.

Another mistake is to develop only the cannon's wing. The cannon, a horse and a chariot all come out on the right, and it is tempting to keep playing there while the left wing waits. A slower wing can come under attack, which is why the principles ask you to keep both wings balanced. In the course line, Red's fourth move brings the other horse from b0 to c2, and that horse guards the soldier on e3 when Black's cannon attacks it from h3.

As Black, the mistake to avoid is ignoring Red's chariot once it reaches h0. Red's cannon has left h2, so the chariot attacks Black's cannon on h7, and at that moment nothing guards it. If Black plays elsewhere, the chariot can take the cannon for nothing. In the course line, Black's chariot steps to h9 at once to guard it, which also brings a chariot out early.

The advisor-corner cannon in the archive

Of the archive's 29,164 games between human players, 476 open with the advisor-corner cannon. Red wins 35% of them, 36% end in a draw and Black wins 29%. A game lasts 43 moves on average.

For comparison, Red wins 37% of all the archive's games, and 36% are drawn. The player who chose the advisor-corner cannon most often as Red is Li Wangxiang, in 58 games.

A cannon opening of the early 1980s

The advisor-corner cannon became popular in the early 1980s. The palace-corner cannon, the other way to bring a cannon to a corner of the palace, is an old opening. No opening wins games by itself, but this one gives Red's cannon a job from the first move.