Xiangqi Rules & Strategy

The basics

1. The board has 9 vertical and 10 horizontal lines, and pieces stand on the crossings. The empty strip in the middle is the river.
2. Red moves first, then you alternate. You can't pass.
3. Move onto an enemy piece to capture it; the captured piece leaves the board.
4. Check means the other general could be captured next move. The player in check must deal with it right away by moving the general, blocking, or capturing the attacker. If nothing works, it's checkmate and that side loses.
5. Flying general: the two generals may never face each other along a file with nothing in between. A move that allows it isn't legal, and neither is moving away the last piece between them.
6. You can't leave your own general in check, so every move has to answer a check or avoid creating one.

How the pieces move

General

Steps one point along a line, but never leaves its palace, the 3×3 area marked with diagonals.

Advisor

Steps one point diagonally, inside the palace.

Elephant

Moves exactly two points diagonally and can't cross the river. If the point in between (the elephant's eye) is occupied, it's blocked.

Horse

Moves one point straight, then one diagonally outward. If the straight step is blocked by any piece (the horse's leg), it can't go that way.

Chariot

Slides any distance along a line, as long as nothing is in the way.

Cannon

Moves like a chariot, but to capture it must jump over exactly one piece of either colour (the screen) and take the first enemy piece beyond it, at any distance.

Soldier

Steps one point forward. After crossing the river it can also step sideways, but never backward.

Winning, losing and draws

• Stalemate loses: if it's your turn and you have no legal move, even without a check, you lose. That's different from Western chess, where it's a draw.
• Perpetual check loses: when the same position appears for the third time and one side gave check on every one of its moves in between, that side loses.
• Other repetition is a draw: the same position (same pieces, same side to move) three times without a perpetual check is a draw.
• Sixty moves without a capture is a draw: if each player makes 60 moves (120 in total) and nothing is captured, the game is drawn.

Tournament rules also cover perpetual chasing (hunting the same piece forever). domi only judges perpetual check.

Playing online

• Clock: each player has 10 minutes in total and 1 minute per move. Both run down on your turn, and running out of either loses the game. If Red runs out before the first move, the game is cancelled with no result.
• Resigning and leaving: resigning loses. Leaving after the first move also loses; leaving before it cancels the game with no result.
• Draw offers: once each side has moved, you can offer a draw on your turn. Your opponent can accept or decline, and moving counts as declining. After a decline, play 10 more moves each before offering again.
• Disconnecting: your clock keeps running while you are offline, and running out of time loses. Being offline for 15 seconds before the first move cancels the room with no result.
• Rematch: after a game you have 15 seconds to decide on a rematch. Sides swap when both agree.
• Scoring: only games between two different signed-in accounts score. A win is 3 points, a draw 1 and a loss 0; resigning, running out of time and leaving mid-game are losses. Guest games are unranked.

Did you know?

The words on the river, 楚河 and 漢界 ("Chu River" and "Han Border"), are said to recall the Chu–Han contention more than two thousand years ago, when two armies faced each other across a border, just like Red and Black. Source