General
将 / 帅 · jiàng / shuài
The piece you must protect and the piece your opponent must trap, confined to the nine points of its own palace.
Black's General is written 将 and Red's is written 帅. They are the same piece with different characters, which is true of several xiangqi pieces and is the reason the two armies look different even though they are not.
The General moves one point up, down, left or right, and never leaves the palace. It cannot move diagonally. Lose it and you lose the game, and unlike western chess there is no rule that saves you from a position with no legal moves: a side with nothing legal to play simply loses.
The General also carries one strange and very useful power, the flying general rule, which makes it a long range attacker in exactly one situation.
In practice
Your General is a defender in the endgame. Once the board thins out, walking it up the middle file to support a soldier is normal, strong play rather than a risk.
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.
- Flying General白脸将The rule that the two Generals may never face each other down an open file with no piece in between, which makes an empty middle file a weapon.
- Advisor士 / 仕A short range defender that moves one point diagonally and never leaves the palace, protecting the General from cannons and chariots.
- Checkmate将死A check the defender cannot answer, which ends the game immediately in the attacker's favour.