Palcorner Cannon
士角炮 · shì jiǎo pào
Halfway between a threat and a developing move. The Palcorner Cannon puts the cannon on the advisor's file, where it supports a horse, keeps an eye on the centre and stays out of the theoretical arguments the Central Cannon starts. Players who like fresh positions and hate memorising get a lot of mileage out of it.
The moves
1 move from the starting position. Step through them on the board.
- Red. The cannon steps to the advisor's file. It is not aiming at the General, but it covers useful ground and leaves Red's structure undecided.
Why give up the middle file
Because the middle file is where the preparation lives. Off it, the game is decided by who understands the position rather than by who studied the same eight moves more recently.
The cannon is still useful here. It backs the horse that will develop in front of it, it can swing to the centre later when the timing suits you, and it never becomes the lonely attacker that ruins so many Central Cannon games.
The follow up
- Develop the horse the cannon supports, then the chariot behind it. Three pieces, one wing, all working together.
- Keep the option of taking the centre later. An opening that can become a Central Cannon at the right moment is more awkward to face than one that already is.
- Do not let the position drift. Flexibility without a plan is only slowness, and Black will take the centre for free.
What Black usually does
Most opponents take the middle file themselves, because Red left it alone. That is a fair claim and you should expect it rather than resent it. Your compensation is that Black has committed early while your own structure is still open, and a committed cannon can be met by taking away everything it wants to jump.
The other common answer is a quiet mirror: horses out, elephants steady, nobody in a hurry. Those games are decided in the middlegame by the player who finds the better file for a chariot, which is a skill worth having anyway.
A practical way to learn it
Play it for a run of games and write down, after each one, the move where you chose your structure. If that move keeps arriving on move twelve, you are drifting. If it arrives around move five or six, in answer to something Black did, you are playing the opening the way it is meant to be played.
Try it on a real board
Reading an opening and playing one are different skills. Set this line up against the computer, get it wrong a few times cheaply, then take it into a rated game.
Common questions
- Is the Palcorner Cannon sound?
- Yes. It is a recognised opening with its own theory, simply far less common than the Central Cannon.
- Is it a good opening to avoid preparation?
- It is one of the best for that. Opponents who have drilled the Central Cannon structures get almost no use out of that work here, and the positions stay comfortable for the player who knows them.
- What does 士角炮 mean?
- Advisor corner cannon. 士 is the advisor, so the name is literally the square the cannon lands on.
Read next
- Central Cannon中炮Red's cannon swings to the middle file and points straight at the enemy General. The plan behind the Central Cannon, the replies you will face, and the trap that ruins most attacks.
- Horse Opening起马局Develop first, commit later. The Horse Opening keeps every central plan available and transposes into half the opening book, which is exactly why strong players use it.
- Elephant Opening飞相局Red shores up the centre and invites Black to commit first. The Elephant Opening explained: the idea, the structures it leads to, and why patient players win with it.
Every named line is listed on the xiangqi openings index. New to the game? Start with the rules of Chinese chess, or learn the Chinese characters on the pieces.