Xiangqi Rules

Overview

Xiangqi (Chinese Chess) is a two-player board game. Red and Black each have 16 pieces and take turns moving on a 9 × 10 board. Each kind of piece has its own way of moving and captures the opponent's pieces according to that movement; the goal is to checkmate the opponent's General.

• Goal: Leave the opponent's General with no escape, that is, checkmate the opponent, or leave them with no legal move.
• Game: Everything from setting up the pieces until a win, loss or draw is one "game".

The Board and Pieces

The board is made of 9 vertical lines (files) and 10 horizontal lines (ranks). Pieces are placed on the intersections of the lines, 90 points in all.

• River: The empty band across the middle of the board, between the 5th and 6th ranks, is called the river (楚河漢界, "Chu River, Han Border"). It divides the board into Red's half and Black's half.
• Palace: At the center of each side's back edge is a 3 × 3 area marked with diagonal lines, called the palace (九宮). It is where the General and Advisors move.

Starting position (Black at the top, Red at the bottom):

車 馬 象 士 將 士 象 馬 車
・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・
・ 砲 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ 砲 ・
卒 ・ 卒 ・ 卒 ・ 卒 ・ 卒
・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・
──── 楚河    漢界 ────
・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・
兵 ・ 兵 ・ 兵 ・ 兵 ・ 兵
・ 炮 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ 炮 ・
・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・
俥 傌 相 仕 帥 仕 相 傌 俥

Each side has 16 pieces. Red and Black pieces are written with different characters but move the same way:

How to Play

• Red moves first, then the two sides alternate, each moving one of their own pieces one move per turn. When it is your turn you must move; you cannot pass.
• If the point a piece moves to holds an opponent's piece, that piece is captured (removed from the board) and the moving piece takes its place. You cannot move onto a point occupied by your own piece. Xiangqi has no ranking among pieces: any piece that can reach a point by its own move can capture any opponent's piece on that point.
• Check: When a move leaves your piece able to capture the opponent's General on the next move, that is "check".
• No moving into check: Any move that would leave your own General open to capture afterwards is illegal and cannot be played. So when you are in check, you must deal with it immediately (move away, capture the checking piece, or block it).
• Generals may not face each other (flying general, 飛將): The two Generals may not stand on the same file with no pieces between them. Any move that would create this position is illegal.

Capturing

In xiangqi, the capture rules are part of each piece's movement. Except for the Cannon, every piece "captures the same way it moves".

General (帥／將)

Moves one point at a time, only vertically or horizontally (not diagonally), and cannot leave its own palace. It must also obey the rule that "Generals may not face each other".

Advisor (仕／士)

Moves one point diagonally at a time and cannot leave its own palace. So an Advisor has only five points it can stand on in the palace: the four corners and the center.

Elephant (相／象)

Moves exactly two points diagonally at a time, commonly described as moving "corner to corner of a 田-shaped square". Two restrictions:

• Cannot cross the river: It can only move within its own half.
• Blocking the elephant's eye (塞象眼): If the point in the middle of the 田 shape is occupied by any piece (of either side), the move is not allowed.

Chariot (俥／車)

Moves any number of points along a file or rank, but cannot jump over any piece along the way. It can capture the first opponent's piece it reaches.

Horse (傌／馬)

Moves one point vertically or horizontally, then one point diagonally outward, commonly described as moving "corner to corner of a 日-shaped rectangle". One restriction:

• Hobbling the horse's leg (蹩馬腿): If the first point it passes (the point right next to the Horse in the direction it is moving) is occupied by any piece (of either side), neither of the two destinations in that direction can be reached.

・ Ａ ・ Ｂ ・        To jump to Ａ or Ｂ, the horse (馬)
・ ・ 子 ・ ・        must first pass the point directly above it;
・ ・ 馬 ・ ・        that point holds a piece (子), so neither Ａ nor Ｂ can be reached.

Cannon (炮／砲)

• When not capturing: Moves like a Chariot, any number of points along a file or rank, without jumping over any piece.
• When capturing: It must jump over exactly one piece along a file or rank (called the "screen" (炮架); it can belong to either side) and capture the first piece it reaches behind the screen, which must be an opponent's piece. There can be any number of empty points between the Cannon and the screen, and between the screen and the target.
• A Cannon cannot capture a piece directly with nothing in between, the way a Chariot can.

Soldier (兵／卒)

• Before crossing the river: Can only move one point forward at a time.
• After crossing the river: Can move one point forward, or one point left or right.
• It can never move backward. Once it reaches the opponent's back rank, it can only move sideways.

Winning, Losing and Draws

After every move, the following conditions are checked in order; the first one that applies decides the result:

There is no overall move limit: the 60-move rule and the limited material mean every game eventually ends.

A game can also end because of a player: resigning (the side that resigns loses).

Notes:

• Stalemate is a loss, not a draw. This differs from chess: if it is your turn and you have no legal move, you lose.
• Definition of "the same position": every piece on the board is in exactly the same place, and the same side is to move. Positions are only compared with those since the most recent capture (after a capture, earlier positions can never recur).
• 60-move rule: only a capture resets the count. Checks and Soldier moves do not reset it.
• Exact condition for insufficient material: neither side has a Chariot, Horse or Cannon, and neither side has a Soldier that has crossed the river. As soon as this holds, the game is drawn immediately, even if one side still has Soldiers that have not crossed the river.
• Why the order matters: for example, if the 120th move without a capture also checkmates the opponent, it is scored as a win, not a draw.

Forbidden Moves

Xiangqi does not allow a player to drag a game out by "repeating the same moves over and over". It is handled as follows: when the same position occurs for the third time, the most recent cycle (all moves between the previous occurrence of this position and this one) is examined and ruled on according to the rules below. Unlike Banqi (Dark Chess), forbidden moves in xiangqi are ruled on after the fact: such moves are not blocked in advance, but when the position occurs for the third time the result is decided directly.

Perpetual Check

If every move one side makes in the cycle is a check, that is perpetual check.

• Only one side gives perpetual check: the side giving perpetual check loses.
• Both sides give perpetual check (checking each other on every move): draw.

Perpetual Chase

What "chase" means: after a move, one of your pieces can legally capture a particular opponent's piece, and this capture threat is newly created by this move (it did not exist before the move). If in the cycle every move one side makes newly chases the same opponent's piece, that is perpetual chase.

• Only one side gives perpetual chase: the side giving perpetual chase loses.
• Both sides give perpetual chase, or neither does: draw.
• If the cycle mixes checks in (for example, alternating one check and one chase): as long as every move is a check or a new chase and the chases target the same piece, it counts as perpetual attack (one check, one chase is perpetual attack); if only one side does this, that side loses — it is not a draw.

What counts as a "chase" and what does not:

Note: the capture threat only counts if the capture would be legal. If making that capture would leave your own General open to capture or put the Generals face to face, it is not a legal capture and does not count as a chase.

Examples

Perpetual check loses: A Black Chariot keeps checking the Red General from one side and then the other, and the Red General can only shuttle between two points.

In the cycle, every Black move is a check and Red gives no check: Black is giving perpetual check, so Black loses.

Perpetual chase loses: A Red Chariot keeps chasing an unprotected Black Horse. The Black Horse jumps back and forth between two points, and the Red Chariot follows back and forth between two points to keep chasing it. When the same position occurs for the third time, every Red move in the cycle newly chases the same Black Horse, while Black neither chases nor checks: Red is giving perpetual chase, so Red loses.

Simple repetition is a draw: Both sides shuffle pieces back and forth with idle moves, with no checks and no chases; when the same position occurs for the third time, the game is drawn.

To avoid losing this way: before the same position occurs for the third time, choose a different move.

Reading the Move Notation

Each move is written with four parts: piece + starting file + direction + destination. Chinese notation writes moves such as 炮二平五 or 馬8進7; the English (WXF-style) notation is described here.

• Files: the nine vertical lines are numbered 1–9 from each player's own right to left. (In Chinese notation Red writes the numbers as Chinese numerals 一–九 and Black uses 1–9.) So Red's file 2 and Black's file 8 are the same line.
• Piece letters: G General, A Advisor, E Elephant, H Horse, R Chariot, C Cannon, S Soldier.
• Direction: + forward (toward the opponent), - backward, = sideways along the rank. (Chinese: 進 forward, 退 backward, 平 sideways.)
• Last number:
  • Pieces that move in straight lines (General, Chariot, Cannon, Soldier) write how many steps when moving forward or backward, and the destination file when moving sideways.
  • Pieces that move diagonally (Advisor, Elephant, Horse) always write the destination file.
• Two identical pieces on the same file: instead of the starting file, write + for the front one or - for the rear one after the letter (Chinese: 前 front, 後 rear). For example R++1 = the front Chariot moves forward one step (Chinese 前俥進一).

Examples:

Special Rules and Rulings

• You must move: when it is your turn you must make a move; you cannot pass. Having no legal move is a loss (checkmate or stalemate).
• Illegal moves cannot be made: illegal moves cannot be played, such as moving into check, putting the Generals face to face, moving a hobbled Horse, moving a blocked Elephant, or moving a piece out of its allowed area.
• Perpetual check and perpetual chase can be played but lose: these two are only ruled on "when the position occurs for the third time", so keep an eye on repeated positions yourself.
• Only the most recent cycle counts: when ruling on perpetual check or perpetual chase, only the moves between the previous occurrence of the position and this one are examined.
• Mixed cycles, such as one check and one chase, or one check and one idle move: one check and one chase (every move is a check or a new chase of the same piece) is perpetual attack, and if only one side does it, that side loses; one check and one idle move (checks alternating with moves that chase nothing) is not perpetual attack and is a draw.
• The position's merits are not judged: a win is never awarded because one side is ahead in material; every result comes only from the conditions listed under "Winning, Losing and Draws".
• No takebacks: once a move is made it cannot be taken back, and you cannot return to an earlier position to replay it.

Rules basis: piece movement follows the standard rules of xiangqi; rulings on perpetual check, perpetual chase and repeated positions use a simplified version of the Asian xiangqi rules; draws by the 60-move rule and insufficient material follow the conditions listed above.