What's new
What changed on Xiangqi Arena and when, newest first. Everything here is live on the site; the dates are the days each change shipped.
RSS feed →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.
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.
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.
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.
Each professional in the masters section has a profile page: a career biography checked against championship records, 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 →
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 →
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.
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 →
Move and capture sounds now begin with the first move rather than after a tap, survive switching apps on a phone, and check is announced everywhere a game is shown, including replays.
You can create an account or sign in with a Google account, alongside email and password.
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 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 siteRules →How to play →
A new default sound collection recorded for the site, with a distinct cue for each captured piece, joins the existing collections in Settings.
What each membership includes, and the exact limits the server enforces, readable before you create an account.
See it on the sitePlans →