Two armies on a 9×10 grid, split by a river, each general shut inside a palace he can never leave. Here is what the game is, how every piece moves, how it differs from Western chess, and where to play Xiangqi online free.
Xiangqi is the chess of China: a two-player game about a thousand years old, played by several hundred million people, which makes it one of the most played board games on earth. In English it is usually called Chinese chess, in Vietnam cờ tướng, and in Chinese 象棋 — literally “elephant game”.
It shares an ancestor with Western chess, and for a chess player almost everything is familiar for about two moves. Then the differences take over. The pieces stand on the intersections of a 9×10 grid rather than inside squares, so the board has 90 points rather than 64. A blank band across the middle — the river — stops some pieces dead and changes what others may do once they cross it. Each general spends the whole game inside a marked 3×3 palace and can never step out of it. And one piece, the Cannon, captures only by leaping over another piece, which turns every defender into a possible weapon against its own side.
The result is a faster, sharper game than chess. Attacks start early, the king cannot run away, stalemate is a loss rather than a draw, and decisive results are the norm rather than the exception.
Nine files, ten ranks, and pieces on the crossings. The river runs between the fifth and sixth ranks; the palaces are the crossed 3×3 boxes at each end. Red moves first. This is the starting position of every Xiangqi game:
Each side has sixteen pieces of seven kinds. Red and Black use different characters for the same piece — the same word written two ways — which is why the glyphs below come in pairs.
jiàng / shuài
One point up, down, left or right, and never outside the palace.
The piece the whole game is about. The two Generals may never face each other down an open file — the flying general rule, which has no equivalent in chess.
shì
One point diagonally, also confined to the palace.
Two of them, and they exist only to shield the General. An Advisor that has been traded off is a hole in the defence you will feel later.
xiàng
Exactly two points diagonally, and never across the river.
Blocked if the point halfway along the diagonal is occupied — “blocking the elephant's eye”. It defends its own half and can never attack.
mǎ
One point orthogonally, then one diagonally outward.
A knight that can be blocked. Put a piece on the point it steps through and the move is simply illegal — so horses are far more restrained here than in chess.
jū
Any distance in a straight line, like a rook.
The strongest piece on the board. On the open files of an early Xiangqi position a Chariot is worth roughly two Horses.
pào
Straight lines like a Chariot, but it captures only by jumping exactly one piece.
The piece with no counterpart in chess, and the reason Xiangqi tactics look alien at first: a Cannon needs a screen to bite, so a piece defending a square can be what makes it attackable.
bīng / zú
One point forward; after crossing the river, also one point sideways.
Never backward, and never promoted. Five of them, and the ones that cross the river late in the game decide many endings.
You win by checkmating the enemy General — attacking him with no legal escape. A player with no legal move at all also loses, which is the opposite of the chess rule. The full rules, demonstrated move by move →
The two games are cousins, not translations of each other. These are the differences that actually change how you play:
| Xiangqi | Chess | |
|---|---|---|
| Board | 9×10 lines, pieces on the intersections | 8×8 squares, pieces inside them |
| The river | Splits the board; Elephants can't cross it, Soldiers change move when they do | No equivalent |
| The king | Locked in a 3×3 palace all game | Walks anywhere, and marches in the endgame |
| Jumping piece | The Cannon captures over a screen | Only the knight jumps, and it can't capture over anything |
| Promotion | None — a Soldier stays a Soldier | A pawn becomes a queen |
| Stalemate | A loss for the player with no legal move | A draw |
| Draws | Rare — roughly one game in three at master level | Common — over half at the top |
Yes. Xiangqi (象棋, xiàngqí) is the Chinese name; “Chinese chess” is the English one. They are the same game, and both names describe the board with the river down the middle and the General locked inside a palace.
It is not harder to learn — the pieces are fewer and the rules fit on a page — but it is sharper to play. Attacks arrive faster because Cannons strike across the board from move one, the General cannot run, and stalemate loses instead of drawing, so far fewer games peter out.
Several hundred million, which makes it one of the most played board games in the world — more players than Western chess, concentrated in China, Vietnam (where it is called cờ tướng), Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, and in Chinese communities everywhere else.
Yes. Every game on XiangqiPlay is free and runs in the browser — no download, no plugin, no account needed to play the computer. You can play Chinese chess online against real opponents, against three levels of engine, or against a friend on a private table you share by link.
Start from what is different rather than what is the same: the Cannon needs a screen to capture, the Horse can be blocked, the Elephant never crosses the river, and your king is confined to nine points. The step-by-step tutorial walks through each of those on a real board.