How to play xiangqi

Xiangqi is a two-player game about trapping the other side's general. If you have played chess, most of your instincts carry over and about four things will trip you up — this page is written so that neither group has to guess.

You can learn enough to play a real game in about ten minutes. Read this page, then open a board and send the link to someone.

What you are trying to do

Win by checkmating the enemy general — attacking it so that no move of theirs escapes. There is no material target, no promotion race and no clock you have to beat. Trap the general and the game is over.

You also win if your opponent has no legal move at all, even when their general is not under attack. Remember this one: in chess that would be a draw.

Setting up the board

Pieces sit on the intersections of the lines, not inside the squares — so a nine-by-ten grid holds ninety of them. Each side starts with sixteen pieces on the back rank and in front of it.

1. Put the general on the middle point of your back rank, inside the marked palace, with an advisor on each side of it.
2. Outside the advisors go the two elephants, then the two horses, then the two chariots in the corners.
3. Put the two cannons on the third rank, in front of the horses.
4. Put five soldiers on the fourth rank, on every other point starting from the edge.
5. Red moves first. If you are playing here, the board is already set up for you.

Learn the pieces in this order

Do not try to memorise all seven at once. Three of them you already know, and the other four are where the game actually lives.

1. Chariot — a rook. Any distance along a line. Nothing to learn, and it is your strongest piece.
2. Soldier — one step forward, no double move, no diagonal capture, no promotion. After it crosses the river it can also step sideways.
3. Horse — a knight that cannot jump. A piece directly beside it blocks the two moves that would step through it.
4. Cannon — moves like a chariot, but captures only by jumping exactly one piece and taking the first piece beyond. This is the piece that makes xiangqi its own game.
5. General, advisor, elephant — the three defenders. The first two never leave the nine-point palace; the elephant never crosses the river.

Each one has its own section with a diagram in the rules — including the two blocking rules, which are much easier to see than to read.

The four things that catch chess players out

There is a fifth, and it has no chess equivalent at all: the two generals may never face each other down a file with nothing between them. A piece standing between them often cannot move at all.

Your first few moves

You do not need opening theory to start, but you do need a plan, and almost every strong game follows the same three priorities.

• Get the chariots out. They are worth about two horses each, and the side whose chariots move first usually decides where the game is fought.
• Put a cannon on the middle file. The central cannon (當頭炮) is the most common first move in the game — it points straight at the enemy general and asks them to answer immediately.
• Develop horses toward the centre, where they have all eight moves, rather than to the edge where they have four.

The usual reply to a central cannon is to bring both horses in front of the general — the screen horses (屏風馬). If you learn one opening and one answer to it, learn these two.

Five mistakes beginners make

1. Treating the horse like a knight. It is blocked by the piece beside it, so the escape you counted on may not exist.
2. Forgetting the cannon needs a screen. A cannon with a clear line to a piece cannot take it. Players lose material to this in both directions.
3. Moving the advisors out. They cannot come back quickly, and a general without them is far easier to mate.
4. Pushing soldiers early. They never move backward, so every push is permanent. A soldier is worth more after it crosses the river — not before.
5. Checking for the sake of it. Repeating a check that your opponent keeps answering does not draw the game. It loses it.

Questions people ask

Is xiangqi harder than chess?

It is not harder to learn — there are fewer move rules and no castling or en passant. It is different to play: the open board makes attacks arrive faster, and games tend to be sharper and shorter.

Do soldiers promote when they reach the end?

No. A soldier that reaches the last rank simply has nowhere left to go forward and can only move sideways from then on. There is no promotion in xiangqi.

Can I keep checking the general forever?

No, and it is worse than pointless. If you are the only side repeating and every one of your moves is a check, you lose the game.

Why does red move first?

By convention, the same way white does in chess. It is a small advantage, which is why serious matches are played in pairs of games with the colours swapped.

Is it called xiangqi or something else?

Xiangqi (象棋) is the game's own name. Vietnamese players call it cờ tướng. You will also see it described in English by comparison with chess, but the game is old enough and distinct enough to go by its own name.

What do I need to play here?

Nothing. There is no account and nothing to install. Open a board, send the link, and whoever opens it first plays the other side.

Play a game

The fastest way past this page is to lose a few games. Open a board and send the link to a friend, or solve an endgame puzzle on your own first. When a rule comes up mid-game, the rules page has one section per piece.