A realistic 30-day xiangqi training plan: rules and piece safety, basic mates, openings, tactics, endgames and game review, using free guides and puzzles.
A good xiangqi training plan gives every day one small, clear job. This one runs for 30 days in six blocks of five: rules and piece safety, basic mates, openings, tactics, endgames, and review. Each day takes thirty to forty-five minutes, split between a short read, a few puzzles and one game.
It is built for players who know how the pieces move but still lose games to oversights. It does not promise a rating number at the end, because no honest plan can. What it offers is a month of steady, varied practice and, by day thirty, a clear picture of which mistakes you still make.
The shape of a training day
Start with about ten minutes of reading: one guide, or part of one, from the list for that block. Then spend ten to fifteen minutes on puzzles. XiangqiPlay's daily puzzle changes at midnight UTC, and Custom Puzzles lets you filter the library by rating and theme, so you can match the puzzles to the week's topic.
Finish with one game against the computer at a level where you win some and lose some, on a long clock or none, followed by five minutes looking back over it. Finished games against the computer are saved to My Games, and the recap can analyse each one and mark your biggest errors. If you miss a day, carry on from where you stopped rather than doubling up.
Days 1 to 5: rules and piece safety
Make sure the rules are airtight before building on them. Read How Every Xiangqi Piece Moves: General, Chariot, Cannon, Horse and More, then Illegal Moves in Xiangqi: Every Rule You Must Know. On day three, cover The Flying General Rule in Xiangqi, Explained with Examples and Stalemate in Xiangqi: Why It's a Loss, Not a Draw, two rules that catch out many newcomers.
Then turn to safety. Xiangqi Piece Values: What Every Piece Is Really Worth tells you what a trade really costs, and 5 Common Xiangqi Blunders and How to Avoid Them covers the errors that throw pieces away. For this block's games, play Easy or Medium with danger alerts on. They highlight any of your pieces the computer could capture next move. Set yourself one target: finish each game without leaving a piece hanging.
This is also the week to build the habit the rest of the month depends on. Before every move, ask what your opponent's checks, captures and threats will be once your move is on the board. Say them in your head if it helps. It is slow at first and gets quicker every day you do it.
Days 6 to 10: basic mates
A mating attack is far easier to find when you have seen its shape before. Start with 5 Checkmate Patterns Every Xiangqi Beginner Should Know and Xiangqi Mate in One: Learning to Spot the Kill. Then take one named pattern a day: Cannon Behind the Horse: Xiangqi's 马后炮 Checkmate, Double Chariot Checkmate in Xiangqi and the Iron Bolt, and Palcorner Horse Checkmate: How the 挂角马 Mate Works.
The puzzle library carries most of the load in this block. It holds 5,000 engine-proven mates in one, two and three moves. Spend the first days on mates in one, and move on to mates in two once you are finding the ones quickly and without mistakes. How to Solve Xiangqi Puzzles: A Step-by-Step Method gives you a routine for every position: checks first, then captures, then threats, and every defence tested before you move.
In your games, look for a mate every time the computer's General loses an Advisor or an Elephant. Even when nothing is there, the search trains your eye.
Days 11 to 15: one opening per colour
Openings repay a short plan quickly, as long as you keep it small. Read 7 Xiangqi Opening Principles That Instantly Improve Your Play first. Then pick one system for each colour. The Central Cannon Opening: A Complete Guide for Xiangqi Players is the natural choice as Red, and The Screen Horse Defense: How to Answer the Central Cannon is the classic reply as Black.
On days thirteen and fourteen, read 6 Xiangqi Opening Traps to Set (and Avoid) and Building Your First Xiangqi Opening Repertoire. Play every game of the block with your chosen openings. From Medium upwards the computer opens from a small book of classical lines that includes the central cannon against the screen horses, so you will meet the main positions again and again. After each game, find the move where you left familiar ground and ask whether your next few moves followed the principles.
Days 16 to 20: tactics
With your openings settled, train the short combinations that win material. Essential Xiangqi Tactics: Forks, Pins, and Discovered Attacks is the overview. Follow it with Forks in Xiangqi: Winning Material with a Single Move, Pins and Skewers: Essential Xiangqi Tactics, Removing the Defender in Xiangqi: Deal With the Guard First and, on day twenty, How to Calculate Deeper in Xiangqi.
Keep the daily puzzles going, and once during this block try Puzzle Race, where you solve as many puzzles as you can against the clock. Speed is not the goal of the month, but a timed session shows which patterns you know on sight and which you still have to work out.
In your games, look at every enemy Horse leg and every Cannon screen before you move, and ask what changes if one piece steps away. A screen appearing or a leg opening is the start of a great many xiangqi tactics, and both are easy to miss when you only look at the piece you plan to move.
Days 21 to 25: endgames
Endgames reward knowledge more than any other phase, because so many of them have known results. Read Xiangqi Endgame Fundamentals Every Player Must Know first, then Chariot Endgames in Xiangqi: Winning and Drawing Techniques and The Soldier in the Endgame: How a Pawn Wins Games. Finish the block with 8 Xiangqi Endgame Drills to Sharpen Your Technique, and work through a few of the drills rather than just reading them.
Change how you treat your games this week. When a game against the computer reaches an ending, play it out instead of resigning or offering a draw early. Use your General actively, keep your Soldiers moving forward together, and remember that leaving your opponent with no legal move wins outright.
Days 26 to 30: review and a fresh look
Spend the last block looking back. Open My Games, pick the month's losses and choose Analyse this game for each. The recap scores accuracy for both sides and labels each move, from Best down to Blunder. Write down the first serious mistake in every game and sort them into a few groups, such as hung pieces, missed mates, opening trouble and endgame errors.
The group that keeps growing is your theme for next month. Go back over puzzles you got wrong through Puzzle History, and save the ones worth repeating to My Puzzles. On day thirty, play a couple of games at the level you started on and one level higher. Compare them with your first week, not by result alone, but by how often you left a piece hanging or missed a mate.
Adjusting the plan
If a block feels too easy, move faster through its reading and add harder puzzles. If it feels too hard, repeat it before moving on, because a plan that takes six weeks beats one abandoned in the second. After the month, How to Practice Xiangqi: A Study Plan That Actually Works shows how to turn this into a steady weekly routine.
Everything the plan uses is free on XiangqiPlay: the guides above, 5,000 engine-proven puzzles at /puzzles, and a computer opponent with eight levels from Easy to God. You need a free account to play and to keep your games for review.
XiangqiPlay Team
XiangqiPlay newsroom
