Advisor
士 / 仕 · shì · scholar or officer
A short range defender that moves one point diagonally and never leaves the palace, protecting the General from cannons and chariots.
Advisors look weak and are not. They are the difference between a palace that holds and a palace that falls, because most mating patterns in xiangqi depend on a specific palace point being undefended.
Each side has two, and they can only ever occupy five points inside the palace. That limitation is also a tactic: an Advisor that steps to one side to block a threat cannot come back quickly, so the strongest attacks are the ones that force an Advisor to move at all.
There is a rule of thumb worth carrying into the endgame. A palace missing an Advisor falls to attacks that a complete palace shrugs off, so in a position with heavy pieces left, an Advisor is often worth more than the soldier you would normally value it against.
In practice
Losing both Advisors against a pair of chariots is usually losing. Trade a soldier to keep them, not the other way round.
Related terms
- Palace九宫The three by three square marked with a cross at each end of the board, which the General and the two Advisors may never leave.
- General将 / 帅The piece you must protect and the piece your opponent must trap, confined to the nine points of its own palace.
- Elephant象 / 相A defensive piece that moves exactly two points diagonally, cannot cross the river, and can be blocked by a piece sitting in the middle of its path.
- Iron gate bolt铁门栓A mate where a cannon on the middle file freezes the palace and a chariot delivers the blow the defender cannot answer.