The rules of xiangqi
Everything needed to play a legal game of Chinese chess: the board, the seven pieces and exactly how each one moves and captures, how a game is won, and the endings that surprise players arriving from international chess. If you would rather see the pieces move first, the illustrated introduction is the better place to start.
The board, the river and the palace
The board is a grid of nine files and ten ranks. Pieces stand on the intersections — the points — not inside the squares, which gives ninety playable points rather than sixty-four. Files are counted from each player's own right, so file one for Red is file nine for Black.
Across the middle lies the river, an unmarked rank that no line crosses. It is not an obstacle for most pieces, but two of them care about it deeply: elephants may never cross it, and soldiers gain a new power once they do.
At each end sits the palace, the three-by-three zone marked with two diagonals. The general and its two advisors spend the entire game inside it and may never step out. Every other piece may enter and leave freely. Red sets up at the bottom and moves first; players then alternate, and passing is not allowed.
The object of the game
You win by delivering checkmate: attacking the enemy general so that no legal move can save it. Everything else on this page exists to serve that single aim.
Unlike international chess there is no stalemate to fall back on. A player who cannot make any legal move loses — being stuck is a defeat, not a draw. That one difference reshapes endgames more than any other rule here.
The seven pieces
Each side has sixteen pieces of seven kinds. The two characters shown are Black's and Red's forms of the same piece — they differ in writing but move identically, a convention that survives from hand-carved sets.
Movement and capture are listed separately on purpose. For five of the seven they are the same motion, but the cannon captures in a way it cannot move, and the soldier's options change the moment it crosses the river.
- Moves
- Any number of points in a straight line along a rank or file, so long as every point in between is empty.
- Captures
- By moving onto the first enemy piece in its path and removing it. It cannot jump over anything.
- Limits
- None. The chariot is the strongest piece on the board and behaves exactly like the rook in international chess.
- Moves
- One point orthogonally, then one point diagonally outward — an L, the same shape as the chess knight.
- Captures
- By landing on an enemy piece at the end of that L.
- Limits
- It does not jump. If the orthogonal point it steps through is occupied by any piece, friend or enemy, the horse is hobbled and that direction is closed. Blocking a horse's leg is a basic defensive idea.
- Moves
- Exactly like a chariot: any distance along a rank or file over empty points.
- Captures
- Only by leaping. There must be exactly one piece — the screen — between the cannon and its target, and either colour will serve. The cannon then takes the first piece beyond the screen.
- Limits
- One screen, never two, and never zero: a cannon cannot capture a piece it can see along an empty line. This split between quiet moves and captures has no equivalent in international chess.
- Moves
- Exactly two points diagonally, always the full distance — never one, never three.
- Captures
- By landing on an enemy piece at the end of that diagonal.
- Limits
- It may never cross the river, which confines it to seven points on its own half as a defender. It is also blocked if the midpoint of its step — the eye — is occupied by any piece, including its own.
- Moves
- One point along a palace diagonal.
- Captures
- By landing on an enemy piece on that diagonal point.
- Limits
- It may never leave the palace, giving it only five reachable points for the whole game. Advisors exist to shield the general, and losing both leaves a general badly exposed to chariots and cannons.
- Moves
- One point orthogonally — never diagonally.
- Captures
- By moving onto an adjacent enemy piece inside the palace.
- Limits
- It may never leave the palace. It is also bound by the facing generals rule: the two generals may never stand on the same file with nothing between them. That makes a general on an open file quietly control that file, since moving a piece off it would expose one's own general and is therefore illegal.
- Moves
- One point straight forward. After crossing the river it may also move one point sideways.
- Captures
- By moving onto an enemy piece on any point it could otherwise move to.
- Limits
- It can never retreat, and it never promotes. A soldier that reaches the last rank — the old soldier — has no forward move left and can only shuffle sideways for the rest of the game.
Capturing
A capture is made by moving onto a point held by an enemy piece, which is removed from the board. Captured pieces never return, and no piece may move onto a point held by one of its own.
Every piece captures by its own movement rule with the single exception of the cannon, which needs a screen. That exception is worth internalising early: a cannon and its target alone on an open file are not attacking each other at all.
Check and answering it
When a piece attacks the enemy general, that is check. The player in check must answer it immediately and has only three ways to do so: move the general to a safe point, capture the attacking piece, or interpose a piece to block the line.
Any move that leaves your own general under attack is illegal, and so is any move that would place the two generals on the same open file. There is no need to announce check — it is simply a position the rules will not let you ignore.
Because a general on an open file constrains the enemy general, checks and threats can arrive along lines that look empty. This is one of the most common ways a player new to xiangqi loses a won position.
How a game is won and lost
Checkmate ends the game: the general is in check and no legal move answers it. A player may also resign, or lose on time in a timed game.
A player with no legal move at all loses, even when not in check. International chess calls this stalemate and scores it a draw; xiangqi scores it a win for the player who caused it. Trapping the enemy is as good as mating it.
Repetition is not a neutral escape either. Under the World Xiangqi Federation rules used here, a player who checks perpetually loses rather than draws, and so does a player who perpetually chases an unprotected piece. The rule exists so that a losing side cannot force a repetition to save itself.
Draws
Games are drawn by agreement, or when neither side has enough material to force checkmate. Draws are far less common than in international chess, largely because being unable to move is a loss and perpetual checking is punished.
Two automatic draws apply on this site. A position repeated three times is drawn — unless the adjudicator rules it perpetual check or perpetual chase, in which case the offending player loses. Sixty half-moves, thirty from each player, without a single capture also ends the game as a draw.
Reading move notation
Traditional notation names the piece, the file it stands on, an action, and a destination: 炮二平五 is "cannon on file two moves level to file five". Files are numbered from each player's own right, so both sides count their own from the same edge.
The three actions are advance, retreat and level. Chariots, cannons, generals and soldiers moving straight forward or back give the number of points travelled; moving level, they give the destination file. Horses, elephants and advisors always name the arrival file, because their destination is unambiguous once the file is known.
When two identical pieces stand on the same file, front and rear replace the file number. Game records on this site show every move in full, so notation is worth being able to read but is never required in order to play.
Put the rules to work
Reading the rules gets you to the first move. The guided lessons drill each piece against a live board, and a game against an opponent near your rating teaches the rest faster than any page can.