Updates

Guides and master profiles in a plainer voice, with common mistakes

The guides, the master profiles and the pages on the rules, the history of xiangqi and xiangqi against chess have been revised for players. Each guide now says who it is for and what it covers, explains what each move is for and ends with what to practise next, and every opening guide has a new section on the mistakes beginners make. The master profiles tell each career in order, and their game notes were checked move by move against the games.

See it on the siteGuides →Masters →

Lesson videos on the how-to-play page, and how we make this site

The how-to-play page now shows the first-steps lesson videos beside the sections they teach, in English, Vietnamese and Simplified Chinese; a video loads from YouTube only when you press play. A new page describes how the guides, profiles and archive figures are made and checked: the opening lines and the engine checks, how the archive figures are computed, the four language editions, review before publication and corrections.

See it on the siteHow to play →How we make this →

Openings by the numbers, and nine deeper profiles

Each opening guide now ends its archive section with the numbers behind the opening: its results by period, counting only the dated games, the replies at its decision position and how each scored, the best scores on each side, and three games linked to their pages in the archive. The guides hub compares the twenty openings in one table. Nine profiles of women's national champions gained a career table, with games by year and event, results with each opening and the most frequent opponents, and their featured game now has notes at its key moments, written from the moves themselves. Most profiles now also give the player's results against the most frequent opponent in the archive. Gao Hua's profile is now a section of the masters page, and several figures on the profiles were corrected.

See it on the siteGuides →Masters →

Game of the week: Tang Dan vs Chen Lichun, 2007

A new page each week: one game from the master game archive or from the site, with the engine's evaluation at three key moments and a short commentary. The first is Chen Lichun's win over Tang Dan at the 2007 national team tournament, which ends with a forced mate in four and a chariot sacrifice.

See it on the siteGame of the week →

The daily puzzle, open to everyone

Anyone can now solve the daily puzzle without an account: a new checkmate puzzle each day, the same one for every player, with each move checked as you play. With a free account, the days you solve build a streak and earn points.

See it on the siteDaily puzzle →

The master game archive, open to everyone

Anyone can now browse the master game archive without an account: every master's games by opponent, side, result and decade, and every opening's games by who held Red and Black. Visitors can replay five archive games a day, and an account keeps its own daily allowance.

See it on the siteMaster games →

The rankings, finished games and player profiles, open to everyone

Anyone can now read the rankings, replay a finished game on its own page and open a player's profile with their ratings and recent games, without an account. Profiles and game pages are kept out of search engines, and every player can hide their profile from visitors in their settings.

See it on the siteRankings →

Twenty opening guides with 39 boards

The twenty opening guides have been revised: their ideas are shown on the board, and their figures come from the archive's games. In most guides, the first section ends with a board that plays the opening's defining moves and draws the lines they create, and eighteen guides add a board with the moves that the archive's players chose most often in the position where the opening's main choice is made, each marked with its share of the games. Each guide now shows its walkthrough, its boards and its archive lines on the same wing, and the counter-palace horse's walkthrough follows the archive's most played line of that defence, in which 炮8平6 (C8=6) takes the cannon to f7. Some facts were corrected on the way: at the start of the game no piece guards the centre soldier that the central cannon attacks, and the counter-palace horse places its cannon between its two horses.

See it on the siteCentral cannon →Screen horses →

The guides hub, five skill guides and the glossary, with 27 boards

The guides hub, the five skill guides and the glossary have been revised. The skill guides show their ideas on boards that play the moves. The checkmate guide has a board for each of its twelve patterns, which draws the mating move, the check and every point next to the general that it cannot use. The endgame guide plays a won ending with a single soldier to its last move, and the opening principles guide shows the central cannon, the first chariot moves and a beginner's trap. Several facts were corrected on the way: a cannon is worth 4 points, as much as a horse, and a lone chariot generally cannot win against both advisors and both elephants.

See it on the siteCheckmate patterns →Endgame basics →

Xiangqi vs chess, compared piece by piece, with chess diagrams

The Xiangqi vs chess page now compares the two games piece by piece, and each comparison sets an animated xiangqi board beside a chess diagram that shows the same idea. The pairs range from the chariot and the rook, which move in the same way, to the cannon, which has no counterpart in chess. The last pair shows a player with no legal move, who loses in xiangqi but draws in chess. The chess rules on the page are now stated exactly, and the summary table gives this site's no-capture rule correctly as 30 moves by each side.

See it on the siteXiangqi vs chess →

What is xiangqi, About, Contact, Features and Plans in clearer sentences

The What is xiangqi page now shows the board, the river and the main differences from chess on six animated boards, and its history gives the year of the first World Xiangqi Championship. The About, Contact, Features and Plans pages now read in clear, complete sentences. The Play, Learn, Train and Study sections of Features now link to the pages they describe, and the Plans page lists each plan's benefits once. The product figures on these pages come from the site's own data, and the checkmate lessons are now counted correctly as 12.

See it on the siteWhat is xiangqi →About →Contact →Features →Plans →

A More menu and a home page that starts with the rules

The header of the home page, the guides and the other public pages now has a More button, which opens a list of the site's main pages. The home page now starts with the rules, explained beside three animated boards, and then shows four openings, four masters and what you can do on the site. The board at the top of the home page replays 45 master games from Chinese national events, and it now shows the players' names in your language.

See it on the siteHome →

Lessons and how to play in plain sentences, with boards that show each rule

The first-steps lessons and the how-to-play page now read in plain, complete sentences. The page now draws the board's lines, sides and coordinates step by step, and it introduces each piece in turn, with separate boards for where the piece starts, how it moves, how it captures and its limits. The boards on the page play more slowly, repeat while you read, and can be paused.

See it on the siteHow to play →

Lessons and how to play, one idea at a time

The first-steps lessons and the how-to-play page now teach in one order, and nothing is named before it is explained: the board comes first, on its own, then the pieces, how they move and capture, check and the ways a game ends, and the ways of writing moves last. On the how-to-play page every idea is a short paragraph with its own board right after it.

See it on the siteHow to play →

How to play, now on full boards: every rule drawn and animated

The how-to-play page now shows each rule on a full board, drawn on and animated the way the first-steps lessons do it: the board and its coordinates, where every piece starts and how it moves, check and the ways out of it, stalemate, perpetual check and chase, the draws, and both ways of writing a move. It also explains the coordinate form (h2e2) and the letter form (C2=5) in full. Each board plays once when it comes into view and keeps its last frame; Replay plays it again.

See it on the siteHow to play →

First steps: five illustrated lessons on the board, the pieces, their moves, check and notation

Learn's basics now open with a first-steps course for members. Five short lessons explain the board and how every point is named, the seven pieces and where they start, how each piece moves and captures, check, checkmate, perpetual check and chase and the draws, and how moves are written, in coordinates such as h2e2 and in WXF such as C2=5. Every idea has its own board, drawn and animated, and each lesson ends with quick checks that earn up to three stars.

An analysis board: play both sides from any position and see the engine's best lines

Members have a new Analysis tab. Start from the standard position, from a position you set up in the position editor, or from any move of a finished game with Analyse from here, then play the moves for both Red and Black. At every position the engine shows its five best lines, each with an evaluation and a short note, and every move you play gets a verdict against the engine's choice. Tap a move in a line to play it; the moves you try branch into variations that you can make the main line or delete. Explain describes any move in plain words. The board is saved on your device, and Copy link opens the same line for another member. Engine lines pause while you play a live game against a person, and paid plans search longer.

Share a finished game: a public replay link, or a private one

After a game ends, either player can share it from the result dialog, the game menu or the analysis page. The link opens a replay page of its own, with the board, both clocks, the move sounds, autoplay and every move in notation, and anyone can open it without an account. It goes out through the phone's own share sheet, X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger, LINE, Reddit, LinkedIn, Weibo, email or SMS, as a QR code for WeChat, or as a copied link. Each link starts public, and its owner can make it private at any time; after that it opens for nobody else.

One page teaches the game, the guides read like a coach, and a wrong puzzle move plays on

The rules and the illustrated introduction were two pages saying the same things; they are one page now, in learning order, and every piece card shows the piece's icon in both colours, where it starts on the board, an animated board of its moves, and separate lines for how it moves, how it captures and what it may not do. The 26 guides were revised so that every sentence says who does what and why, with the reasons you can check on the board and none of the slogans. In the puzzles a wrong move is no longer pushed back: the engine answers it and you play on until the mate-in-N budget is spent, the mated general falls before the result appears, and the solution replay lives in the panel above the board.

See it on the siteHow to play →Guides →

Rules, dated history, named opening lines and master biographies

The rules, the introduction to xiangqi, the how-to-play page and the comparison with chess were revised: the rules are the ones played in tournaments, the history carries its dates, and every number is computed from the site's own data. All 20 opening guides carry named variations in Chinese notation with diagrams, the archive's figures for each line and an example game to replay. The 33 master profiles state each player's national titles, tell the player's career and give the player's record in the archive: sides, scores, favourite systems, most frequent opponent and longest game. All of it in English, Vietnamese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese.

See it on the siteHow to play →Guides →Masters →About →

The board reacts: fallen generals, captured pieces leave, and the room tells you more

A decisive game now ends with the loser's general falling over and staying down, and a captured piece is knocked off the board toward its own side instead of vanishing. The result dialog rises in with its stamp and no longer replays the last move. Player cards carry a green or grey dot for who is connected, direct and game chat make a sound for a new message and one when yours is sent, you can see when the other player is typing, and a small card offers to resume a game in progress from any other page. On iPhone, sound comes back after switching apps. The landing page's board stays flat, the 3D view starts at a 20° tilt, and every clickable control now shows the pointer.

A 3D board, with a camera you can tilt, turn and zoom

Every board on the site can now be shown in 3D: a tilted wooden board with raised pieces, the same interactions and animations as the flat one, chosen under Board view in the profile settings and the in-game settings. Tilt and turn sliders and a small toolbar change the angle within limits, the wheel zooms toward the pointer, and the right mouse button orbits. The last move is marked with a soft ring around the piece and a dot where it left.

See it on the siteHow to play →

A lobby room and friends

The Chat tab gained a public Lobby room for everyone online, with links, emoji and a picker, and typed emoticons become emoji when sent. You can add friends by name, accept or decline requests, and see your friends and who is online, with shortcuts to message or challenge them. The Chat badge counts unread messages and incoming requests.

Direct messages, an online players page, and challenge pop-ups

A Chat tab for private messages between members, with a floating messenger that follows you around the site and an unread count on the tab. The online count opens a page of who is playing right now. A challenge you send stays visible on the Challenges page, an incoming one pops up wherever you are, and the clock ticks aloud in the last 30 seconds of a move.

Every guide and profile now says when it was last revised

Each guide and master profile carries the date of its last substantive revision, in the page and in its structured data, and the byline links to a new section on the About page explaining how the pages are written, verified and translated. This updates page and its RSS feed are new too, and the home page now leads straight into the guide library. The plans and contact pages read fully without scripts.

See it on the siteGuides →About →

Smoother puzzles, a fixed theme switch, and opening filters

The puzzle player always offers Next once a puzzle is done, and a wrong try in a lesson is now forgiven quietly instead of interrupting with a popup. Switching themes no longer mismatches the button and the board. The opening explorer and the database pages filter games by seat, so you can look at an opening from red's side or black's alone.

Flip the board, WXF move names, and review from either side

Any board can be flipped to play or watch from black's side. Move lists show WXF notation alongside the traditional form, and a finished game can be reviewed from either player's point of view. Ink & Paper is now the default theme for new visitors.

One board design across the whole site

The boards in the guides and master profiles now match the home board exactly: same frame, file numbers and river. Autoplay on a replay no longer scrolls the page while it runs.

See it on the siteGuides →Masters →

Thirty-three master profiles with replayable famous games

Each professional in the masters section has a profile page: a career biography with the player's national titles, their record in the archive, and famous games you can replay move by move on an animated board, with the key moments marked.

See it on the siteMasters →

Animated walkthroughs in every opening guide

Every opening guide now walks through the first twelve moves of its model line on a live board, one annotated step at a time, with move names in your own language: C2=5, Pháo 2 bình 5 or 炮二平五. The guides gained history sections, an at-a-glance strip and practical tips, and the checkmate patterns article gained three more diagrams.

See it on the siteGuides →

A public guide library, in four languages

Twenty opening guides, five skill articles and a sixty-term glossary, free to read without an account, in English, Vietnamese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese. New About and Masters pages explain who runs the site and where the archive comes from.

See it on the siteGuides →About →

File numbers get their own band on every board

The board frame, file numbers and river marking are now the same on the home page, in the guides and in play, and the file numbers sit in their own band so back-rank pieces never cover them.

See it on the siteHow to play →

Sound that starts with the game

Move and capture sounds now start with the first move, with no tap needed first, keep working after you switch apps on a phone, and check is announced everywhere a game is shown, including replays.

Continue with Google

You can create an account or sign in with a Google account, alongside email and password.

An assistant that answers from the site's own pages

A chat widget on the public pages answers questions about the rules, plans and how the site works, from the site's own content. In a game, Explain describes the engine's suggestion in plain words.

The rules, shown on a board

The rules page shows every rule on a real board, including the ending rules for perpetual check and chase, and each example position is verified against the game engine so a diagram cannot show something the rules forbid.

See it on the siteHow to play →

The Xiangqi Arena sound collection

A new default sound collection recorded for the site, with a distinct cue for each captured piece, joins the existing collections in Settings.

A public Compare plans page

What each membership includes, and the exact limits the server enforces, readable before you create an account.

See it on the sitePlans →