Xiangqi Rules Cheat Sheet: Every Rule on One Page

Board and setup

The board has 9 files and 10 ranks, which gives 90 points, and the pieces stand on the intersections rather than inside the squares. The river runs across the middle, between ranks 5 and 6. Each side has a palace, the three-by-three block of points marked with an X in the middle of its back edge, on files d, e and f.

Red's back rank, from a1 to i1, reads Chariot, Horse, Elephant, Advisor, General, Advisor, Elephant, Horse, Chariot. The two Cannons stand on b3 and h3, and the five Soldiers on a4, c4, e4, g4 and i4. Black mirrors this on ranks 10, 8 and 7. Red moves first, the players then alternate, and from the starting position Red has 44 legal first moves.

The characters differ by colour. XiangqiPlay shows Red's pieces as 帥 仕 相 傌 俥 炮 兵 and Black's as 將 士 象 馬 車 砲 卒, in the order General, Advisor, Elephant, Horse, Chariot, Cannon, Soldier. Some sets use the same characters for both sides' Horses and Chariots, so the colour of the piece is what counts.

The seven pieces

General (帥, 將). One point up, down, left or right, never diagonally, and never out of the palace, which gives it nine points in all. The two Generals may never face each other on the same file with nothing between them.

Advisor (仕, 士). One point diagonally, along the palace lines only. It can stand on just five points: the four corners of the palace and its centre.

Elephant (相, 象). Exactly two points diagonally, and never across the river, so there are only seven points it can ever reach. If the point midway along the diagonal is occupied by any piece, the move is blocked. Chinese players call this blocking the elephant's eye.

Horse (傌, 馬). One point straight, then one point diagonally outward, so it can reach up to eight points. The first step must be clear: a piece of either colour standing right beside the Horse blocks both moves in that direction. This is hobbling the horse's leg (蹩马腿), and it is why two Horses do not always attack each other.

Chariot (俥, 車). Any distance along a rank or file, as long as the path is clear. It captures the first enemy piece in its line and may go anywhere on the board.

Cannon (炮, 砲). Moves exactly like a Chariot when it is not capturing. To capture, it must jump over exactly one piece of either colour, called the screen, and land on the enemy piece beyond it. No screen means no capture, and two pieces in between means no capture either. From the starting position, Red's Cannon on b3 could already take the Horse on b10 using Black's own Cannon on b8 as the screen, although Black's Chariot would simply take it back.

Soldier (兵, 卒). One point straight forward. After crossing the river it may also step one point sideways, but it never moves backward or diagonally. There is no promotion: a Soldier that reaches the last rank stays a Soldier and can only step sideways from then on.

Check and how to answer it

A piece that could capture the enemy General on its next move is giving check, and the side in check must deal with it at once. Any legal move that leaves the General safe will do: move the General, capture the checking piece, or put something in the way.

Two kinds of block are special to xiangqi. A Horse's check can be stopped by occupying its leg, the point right beside the Horse that it would step through. A Cannon's check can be stopped by adding a second piece between the Cannon and the General, or, if the screen is one of your own pieces, by moving that screen off the line. Each works by breaking the attacker's movement rule.

You may never make a move that leaves your own General in check. That includes stepping into a Chariot's line or onto a point a Horse covers, moving a piece that shields your General, and creating a screen that lets an enemy Cannon fire.

The flying general rule

The two Generals may never stand on the same file with no piece between them. Any move that creates that position is illegal, whether you step your General onto the open file or move away the last piece standing between them.

In practice your General controls its whole file. The enemy General cannot step onto it, and a lone piece standing between the two Generals is pinned. A Chariot, Cannon or Soldier in that spot may only move along the file, and a Horse, Elephant or Advisor there cannot move at all. A great many endgame wins depend on this.

How a game is won

Checkmate wins: the General is in check and no legal move gets it out. The second way to win surprises chess players. If the side to move has no legal move at all, even without being in check, that side loses. Chess calls this stalemate and scores it as a draw. Xiangqi scores it as a loss for the player who cannot move.

Here is a quick example. Put Black's General on d10, a Red Soldier on e9 and Red's General on f1, with Black to move. The Soldier covers e10 in front of it and d9 beside it, so Black's General has nowhere to go. It is not in check, but Black has no legal move and loses.

Games also end by resignation, and in timed games a player whose clock runs out loses on time.

Repetition: perpetual check and perpetual chase

Xiangqi does not treat every repeated position as a draw. Perpetual check, 长将, means giving check on every move of a repeating cycle. Perpetual chase, 长捉, means threatening the same piece, usually an unprotected one, on every move of a cycle. Both are forbidden. The side doing it must change its move, and if it refuses, it loses.

If neither side is forcing the repetition, or both are, the game is drawn. The detailed chase rules differ between rule books, such as those of the Asian Xiangqi Federation and the Chinese Xiangqi Association, and the event's rules decide close cases. On XiangqiPlay, the third occurrence of the same position triggers an automatic review of the cycle, and if only one side checked on every move, or chased the same piece on every move, that side loses.

Draws

The everyday draws are by agreement, when one player offers and the other accepts, and by a repetition that nobody is forcing. Tournament rule books also recognise positions where neither side can possibly win, and they set move limits for long stretches without progress, with exact numbers that depend on the rules in use. On XiangqiPlay you can offer a draw from the game controls, and repetitions are adjudicated for you.

What xiangqi leaves out

There is no castling, no en passant, no promotion and no double first step for Soldiers. You cannot pass, so if it is your turn you must move. And no piece jumps over another except the Cannon when it captures. Horses and Elephants are blocked rather than leaping.

Keep it handy, then play

Rules stick fastest when the board enforces them. On XiangqiPlay the board only accepts legal moves and marks every point a selected piece can reach, which makes hobbled Horses and missing Cannon screens easy to see. Play the computer at any of its eight levels from Easy to God, test your eye on 5,000 engine-proven puzzles at /puzzles, and open a free account to start playing.