Chinese chess piece names explained: Red and Black characters, pinyin, meanings, and English and Vietnamese names for all seven xiangqi pieces.
Chinese chess has seven kinds of piece, and each has a Red name and a Black name: the General (帥/將), Advisor (仕/士), Elephant (相/象), Horse (傌/馬), Chariot (俥/車), Cannon (炮/砲) and Soldier (兵/卒). The two sides use different characters for the same role, so you can tell pieces apart by character as well as color.
The paired characters are either homophones or near-synonyms. 仕 and 士 are both read shì, 相 and 象 are both xiàng, 傌 and 馬 are both mǎ, 俥 and 車 are both jū, and 炮 and 砲 are both pào. 帥 and 將 both name a military commander, and 兵 and 卒 both mean a soldier. Three of Red's characters, 仕, 傌 and 俥, are simply Black's character with the person radical 亻 added. The pieces play identical roles, but a diagram printed in one color, or a player who struggles to tell red from black, can still identify most pieces from the characters alone.
The game itself is called 象棋 xiàngqí in Chinese and cờ tướng in Vietnamese. The characters above are traditional forms. Sets printed in simplified characters are common in mainland China, where 帅 replaces 帥, 将 replaces 將, 马 replaces 馬, and 车 replaces 車. Chinese commentary calls the two sides 红方 (紅方) hóngfāng, Red, and 黑方 hēifāng, Black, and in modern rules Red moves first. Simplified sets usually write 马 and 车 on both sides and often use 炮 for both Cannons. Here is every piece in turn, with the names you are likely to meet in books, apps, and game records.
The General: 帥 and 將
Red's General is 帥 (simplified 帅) shuài, meaning commander-in-chief, the same character found in 元帥 yuánshuài, marshal. Black's General is 將 (simplified 将) jiàng, meaning general. In English the piece is called the General or the King, and in Vietnamese it is Tướng, the same word that appears in cờ tướng.
Each side has one General. It moves one point at a time horizontally or vertically and may never leave the 3x3 palace. English notation usually abbreviates it as K or G, and engine formats such as FEN use K. Whatever you call it, the whole game revolves around this piece: checkmate it, or leave its side with no legal move at all, and you win.
The two Generals may never face each other on the same file with nothing between them, a restriction known as the flying general rule. It sounds purely defensive, but it means a General can control an entire file, which makes it a surprisingly useful attacker in the endgame.
The Advisor: 仕 and 士
Red's Advisor is 仕 shì, a character meaning to serve as an official. Black's is 士 shì, meaning a scholar, gentleman, or officer. Both are read the same way. English speakers call the piece the Advisor, Guard, Counsellor, or Mandarin, and the Vietnamese name is Sĩ.
Each side has two Advisors. They move one point diagonally and, like the General, never leave the palace, so an Advisor can only ever stand on five points: the four corners and the center of the palace. Notation uses A. The names fit the job: these are the General's closest attendants, standing beside it to block attacks rather than going out to fight.
The Elephant: 相 and 象
Red's Elephant is 相 xiàng, meaning minister, as in 宰相 zǎixiàng, chancellor. Black's is 象 xiàng, meaning elephant, and it is the same character that begins 象棋 xiàngqí, the Chinese name of the game. In English the piece is the Elephant, the Minister, or sometimes the Bishop, and in Vietnamese it is Tượng.
Each side has two Elephants. An Elephant moves exactly two points diagonally, cannot cross the river, and is blocked if the point between its start and its destination is occupied, which Chinese players call blocking the elephant's eye (塞象眼 sāi xiàng yǎn). Its range confines it to seven points on its own half of the board, which makes it a defender through and through. English notation usually writes E, while FEN and many engines use B, borrowing the Bishop's letter from Western chess.
The Horse: 傌 and 馬
Red's Horse is 傌 mǎ, the character 馬 with the person radical added, although many sets simply write 馬 on both sides. Black's Horse is 馬 mǎ, simplified 马, meaning horse. English speakers also call it the Knight, and the Vietnamese name is Mã.
Each side has two Horses. A Horse moves one point horizontally or vertically and then one point diagonally outward, much like a chess knight, except that it can be blocked. If the point directly beside it in the direction of travel is occupied, that path is shut, a situation Chinese players call hobbling the horse's leg (蹩马腿, traditional 蹩馬腿, bié mǎ tuǐ). English notation uses H, and FEN uses N.
The Chariot: 俥 and 車
Red's Chariot is 俥 jū, another person-radical form, and many sets write 車 for both sides. Black's is 車, simplified 车. In everyday Mandarin 車 is read chē and means a vehicle or car, but in xiangqi it is read jū, so the piece is a jū, not a chē. English speakers call it the Chariot or the Rook, and Vietnamese players call it Xe.
Each side has two Chariots, one in each corner at the start. A Chariot moves any number of points along a rank or file and cannot jump over pieces. It is the strongest piece on the board, which is why losing one early is so often decisive. Notation uses R, from Rook.
The Cannon: 炮 and 砲
Red's Cannon is usually written 炮 pào, with the fire radical 火, and Black's 砲 pào, with the stone radical 石. The stone radical fits the old meaning of a stone-throwing catapult, and the fire radical fits a gunpowder weapon. Sets vary, and many simplified-character sets use 炮 for both sides. In English the piece is the Cannon, occasionally the Catapult, and in Vietnamese it is Pháo.
Each side has two Cannons. A Cannon moves exactly like a Chariot when it is not capturing, but it can only capture by jumping over exactly one piece, of either color, which is called the screen or cannon mount (炮架 pào jià). That unusual capture rule is why newcomers often find the Cannon the strangest piece to handle. Notation uses C.
The Soldier: 兵 and 卒
Red's Soldier is 兵 bīng, meaning soldier or troops, and Black's is 卒 zú, meaning a foot soldier or private. English names include Soldier, Pawn, and Private. The Vietnamese name is Tốt, and you will also hear Chốt. The two characters also appear together in the everyday word 兵卒 bīngzú, meaning rank-and-file soldiers, which shows how close their meanings are.
Each side starts with five Soldiers. Before crossing the river a Soldier moves one point straight forward. After crossing it may also move one point sideways, but it never moves backward and never promotes. Notation uses P, or sometimes S. Do not underestimate it: a Soldier across the river becomes a genuine attacker, and a single well-placed Soldier can be enough to checkmate a lone General.
Learn the characters and practice on XiangqiPlay
If the characters feel like a barrier, you are not alone, and that is exactly why Western-style piece sets exist. They replace the characters with chess-like symbols or pictures so a beginner can start playing on the first day. On XiangqiPlay you can switch the board between Chinese characters and chess-style symbols whenever you like.
It is still worth learning the characters. There are only fourteen of them, seven per side, and Chinese-language books, diagrams, and game records all use them. A simple method is to play with the characters switched on, say each piece's name aloud as you move it, and pair each character with its movement rule until recognition becomes instant.
A few quick tells help when you read a traditional diagram. The person radical 亻 marks Red's Advisor, Horse, and Chariot. 帥, 相 and 兵 are Red, while 將, 象 and 卒 are Black, and the Cannons are usually 炮 for Red and 砲 for Black. If a set writes 馬 and 車 on both sides, fall back on color for those two. By ear it is even simpler: only the General (shuài or jiàng) and the Soldier (bīng or zú) sound different between the sides, and every other pair shares one pronunciation.
Then put the names to work. Try the free puzzle library of 5,000 engine-proven mate puzzles, play the computer at beginner, intermediate, or advanced level, or invite a friend to a game. Playing on XiangqiPlay requires a free account, and every piece you can name at a glance makes the board easier to read.
XiangqiPlay Team
XiangqiPlay newsroom
