How to Play

Key Features

The object of Xiangqi, as with Shogi and western Chess, is to checkmate your opponent's king. (A king is checkmated when no reply can get it out of check.) The side who forces the mate scores a win against his or her opponent.

Unlike western Chess, where a stalemate is a draw, one can also win in Xiangqi by forcing your opponent into a position where there is no legal move. Also, like Go but unlike Chess or Shogi, play is on the intersections rather than the squares of the playing board. In addition, you win if your opponent resigns or oversteps the time limit.

Xiangqi has more possible first moves than western Chess. Double checks are extremely common during play, with occasional triple checks. In fact, it is possible to give quadruple checks in Xiangqi.

A high percentage of western Chess players in China are actually Xiangqi crossovers. Chess Grandmaster Xu Jun, and Ye JiangChuan were both at one time Xiangqi hopefuls. Of course the most famous example is former Women's World Chess Champion Xie Jun, who was a junior Xiangqi champion in Beijing.

The most popular opening is the Cannon Opening, in which Red (who goes first) moves a cannon to the central file, attacking Black's centre pawn. In theory, this gives Red a longer initiative than any other opening.

Rules

The Board
The Xiangqi board is made up of ten horizontal lines and nine vertical lines. The verticals are interrupted by a central-horizontal void called a "river". Two "palaces" are positioned at opposite sides of the board. Each is distinguished by a cross connecting its four corner points.

Pieces
Each player has the following pieces:

The Xiangqi array is shown below:

Traditional Pieces / Westernized Pieces
From left to right on the bottom and top rows, you see: a Rook, a Knight, a Minister, a Guard, a King, a Guard, a Minister, a Knight, and a Rook. On the third rows, you see the Cannons, and on the fourth row you see the Pawns. Pieces at the bottom half are red.

Chinese Pieces	Movement	Westernized Pieces
	Rooks The Rook moves as an orthodox Rook. (See Rook for more information.)
	Knights (Ma) The Knight moves one point orthogonally followed by one point outward-diagonally. It may not leap over occupied points. (See Mao for more information.)
	Elephants The Elephant moves exactly two points diagonally. It may not leap over occupied points. Also, Elephants are confined to their home side of the river. Due to these limitations, the Elephant can see only seven points of the board. (See Elephant for more information.) [The symbols on red and black Elephants differ, but their moves are the same.]
	Mandarins The Mandarin (or Guard) moves one point diagonally. It may never leave the palace. [The symbols on red and black Mandrians differ, but their moves are the same.]
	King or General The King moves as an orthodox King, but cannot move diagonally. It may never leave the palace. (See King for more information.) [The symbols on red and black Kings differ, but their moves are the same.] The two Kings cannot face each other on an open file. For example, a red King on e1 and a black King on e9, with no piece on the e-file between them, is an illegal position. If either King sits exposed on an open file, the other King may not move to occupy that file.
	Cannons (Pao) The Cannon moves differently when it moves to capture than when it moves passively. 1.The Cannon moves passively as an orthodox Rook 2.The Cannon moves to capture as an orthodox Rook which is required to hop over a single screen. In other words, Cannons capture by hoping over a second piece in order to capture a third piece. For example, a Cannon on a1 can take a piece on f1 when exactly one of the points b1, c1, d1, or e1 is occupied by a piece of either color. Cannons only capture when hoping and only hop when capturing. They may never hop over more than one piece in a given move. (See Cannon for more information.)
	Pawns Unlike orthodox Pawns, the Xiangqi Pawn's passive move and capture move are always the same. A starting Pawn moves one point straight-forward. A Pawn crossing the river promotes, keeping its old move and gaining a new move -- a one-point step to either horizontal. Pawns do not promote on the last rank, where they can move only left or right. (See Xiangqi Pawn for more information.) [The symbols on red and black Pawns differ, but their moves are the same.]

Other rules

1. Red moves first.
2. The game is won by checkmating or stalemating the opponent King.
3. Perpetual check is forbidden. You cannot check your opponent more than three times in a row with the same piece and same board positions.
4. You cannot force an enemy piece to move to and from the same two points, indefinitely, in order to avoid capture. If you move a Rook to e5, threatening a Cannon on e6, and your opponent's only viable move is Cannon to f6, then you cannot force that Cannon to and from e6 and f6 by moving your Rook to and from e5 and f5, indefinitely. The purpose of this rule (and the above rule) is to avoid perpetual-check draws. Some of these situations are complicated, but the person who is forcing the perpetual move must usually break it off.
5. The game is a draw when neither side can force a checkmate or a stalemate

Terms