How to Play Xiangqi | Chinese Chess Rules & Guide
Xiangqi — Chinese Chess — is one of the world's most-played games. This one page teaches the whole thing: the board, all seven pieces, the river and the palace, check and checkmate, and your first online game.
Xiangqi is a two-player battle fought on a grid of nine files and ten ranks, with the pieces standing on the intersections rather than inside the squares. Two landmarks shape every game: a river running across the middle and a three-by-three palace on each side that the General may never leave. Both players see everything from the first move — there is no hidden setup — so Xiangqi is a game of pure calculation and plans. Your goal is simple to state and hard to do: trap the enemy General so it cannot escape. Work through the twelve steps below, learning one piece at a time, then play a round. It comes together faster than it looks.
Step 1: Meet the board — river, palace, and pieces
A Xiangqi board is a grid of 9 vertical lines (files) and 10 horizontal lines (ranks). Pieces sit on the intersections, not inside the cells, which gives 90 points to play on. Down the middle runs the river, and at the top and bottom sits a palace — a small 3×3 box marked with a diagonal cross.
Each player commands 16 pieces of one color. Red always moves first, then players alternate. Nothing is hidden and nothing is shuffled: the position below is exactly how every game begins, and both sides can see all of it from move one.
Your entire goal is to checkmate the enemy General — to attack it so that it has no legal way to get safe. Every rule that follows serves that one aim.
- Each side has 1 General, 2 Advisors, 2 Elephants, 2 Horses, 2 Chariots, 2 Cannons, and 5 Soldiers.
- The river limits the Elephants and changes how Soldiers move once they cross it.
- The palace is a cage: the General and its Advisors can never leave their own 3×3 box.
Step 2: Move the General and Advisors inside the palace
The General (帥 for Red, 將 for Black) is the piece you must protect. It moves one point at a time, straight — up, down, left, or right — and it may never leave the palace, the 3×3 box on its own side. It also may never sit face-to-face with the enemy General on an open file, a rule we cover in step 8.
The Advisors (仕 / 士) are its bodyguards. Each moves one point diagonally and, like the General, is trapped inside the palace for the whole game. Two Advisors give the palace diagonal cover the straight-stepping General cannot provide itself.
Because none of these three pieces can cross the river, they are purely defensive. Your attack has to come from the other five types — so treat the palace as a fortress and keep it tidy.
Step 3: Elephant — a two-point diagonal that cannot cross the river
The Elephant (相 / 象) moves exactly two points diagonally in a single direction — two files over and two ranks up or down — landing on a point of the same shade it started on. It captures whatever sits on that landing point.
There are two catches. First, the Elephant is blocked if the point it steps over — its eye — is occupied by any piece of either color. A blocked Elephant simply cannot use that diagonal. Second, an Elephant can never cross the river: it defends its own half only, and each Elephant can ever stand on just seven points.
That makes Elephants defenders, not raiders. They shield your palace and support Soldiers and Cannons from behind, but they can never join an attack in enemy territory.
Step 4: Horse — an L-shaped leap that can be hobbled
The Horse (傌 / 馬) moves in an L: one point straight, then one point diagonally outward — the same shape as a knight in Western chess, reaching up to eight points around it.
The key difference is that the Xiangqi Horse does not jump. If the point directly beside it — in the straight part of the L, called the horse leg — is occupied, that whole direction is blocked. Opponents exploit this constantly: a single piece parked next to your Horse can shut down half its moves. A Horse in open space, though, is one of the game's most dangerous attackers.
Step 5: Chariot — the strongest piece on the board
The Chariot (俥 / 車) moves in a straight line — along a file or a rank — as far as the path is clear, and captures the first enemy piece it reaches. It is exactly the rook of Western chess, and it is usually your most valuable attacker.
Because a Chariot is only as strong as the lines it can see, a standard idea is to develop it early: move it off the crowded back rank and onto an open file where it controls the length of the board. A single active Chariot often decides the game.
Step 6: Cannon — moves like a Chariot, captures with a jump
The Cannon (炮 / 砲) is the piece that gives Xiangqi its character. When it is not capturing, it moves exactly like a Chariot: any distance in a straight line over empty points.
To capture, it must jump exactly one piece — the screen, or cannon platform — and land on an enemy piece beyond it. The screen can be either color; only one piece may sit between the Cannon and its target. A Cannon standing right next to an enemy, with nothing to jump, cannot capture it.
This split personality makes the Cannon lethal at range. A Cannon aimed down an open file at the enemy General, needing only one screen to fire, is one of the most common threats in the whole game.
| Line from the Cannon | Result | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Cannon · empty · empty | Legal move (no capture) | It slides like a Chariot over empty points. |
| Cannon · screen · enemy | Legal capture | Exactly one screen between Cannon and target. |
| Cannon · enemy | Illegal capture | No screen to jump — the enemy is adjacent. |
| Cannon · screen · piece · enemy | Illegal on the far enemy | A second piece already stops the shot. |
Step 7: Soldier — forward only, until it crosses the river
The Soldier (兵 / 卒) moves one point straight forward and never backward. Before it crosses the river it can only advance in a single file. Once it crosses the river, it earns a new power: it may also step one point sideways, left or right — but it still can never move backward or diagonally.
Soldiers are never promoted, but a Soldier that has crossed the river and can slide sideways becomes a genuine threat, especially near the enemy palace, where several Soldiers can hem in a General. Five per side means they add up.
Step 8: Check, flying generals, and moves you may not make
When a piece attacks the enemy General, that is check. The defender must answer it immediately — by capturing the attacker, blocking the line, or moving the General to safety. If none of those is possible, it is checkmate and the game is over.
There is one rule unique to Xiangqi: the flying general. The two Generals may never face each other along an open file with no piece between them. In effect a General on a clear file already "attacks" the enemy General across the board — so you may not make any move that leaves the two Generals staring at each other. You can even use this: clearing the file yourself can deliver a decisive threat.
You may also never make a move that leaves your own General in check (including opening a flying-general line). On Paofuqi these self-exposing moves are simply never offered — the game will not let you play an illegal move, so you can never lose to one by accident.
Step 9: How a game ends — checkmate, stalemate, and draws
You win by checkmate: the enemy General is in check and has no legal move that escapes it. You never actually capture a General — the game ends the moment checkmate is on the board.
Stalemate is also a loss in Xiangqi. If the player to move has no legal move at all — even when not in check — that player loses. This is the opposite of Western chess, where stalemate is a draw; Paofuqi follows the standard Chinese convention. A player may also resign at any time.
Draws are rare. Paofuqi uses a simple no-capture rule: if 50 full moves (100 half-moves) pass with no capture by either side, the game is a draw. To keep the first version clean, Paofuqi does not adjudicate perpetual check or endless chasing — so treat repetition as a courtesy between players, not a scored rule.
| Outcome | How it happens |
|---|---|
| You win | Checkmate the enemy General, or the opponent is stalemated, or the opponent resigns. |
| You lose | Your General is checkmated, or you have no legal move (stalemate), or you resign. |
| Draw | 100 half-moves pass with no capture by either side. |
Step 10: Play Xiangqi online — free, no download
Paofuqi runs in the browser: no account, no install, no payment. For local two-player or a game against the computer, one device is enough. For online play, each player opens the game and joins the same private room — invite-a-friend rooms only, with no public matchmaking, ratings, or saved games.
- Open Paofuqi Xiangqi.
- Choose local two-player, vs the computer, or Play with a Friend to create or join a room.
- Against the computer, pick one of the five difficulty levels — start low while you learn the pieces.
- For an online room, copy the invite link or share the room code with your opponent.
- The room creator plays Red and moves first; a rematch swaps colors.
Selecting one of your pieces highlights its legal destinations, which is the fastest way to internalize the Horse's leg, the Cannon's jump, and the Elephant's river limit — the board only ever offers legal moves. Online games add a short per-move timer so a game cannot stall forever, and either player can ask for a rematch when it ends.
You never have to play online: local two-player and the computer opponent use the same board and the same rules, with no second device and no link required.
Step 11: Quick rules FAQ
Who moves first? Red always moves first, then players alternate.
Can the General leave the palace? No. The General and both Advisors are confined to their 3×3 palace for the entire game.
Can the Elephant cross the river? No. Each Elephant defends its own half only and can reach just seven points.
Why won't my Horse move there? Its leg is blocked — a piece directly beside it, in the straight part of the L, stops every jump in that direction.
Can a Cannon capture the piece right next to it? No. A Cannon captures only by jumping exactly one screen; with nothing to jump, it cannot take an adjacent piece.
What is the flying-general rule? The two Generals may never face each other on an open file. You may not make any move that clears the file between them.
Is stalemate a draw? No — in Xiangqi the player with no legal move loses.
Can I capture the enemy General? You never need to: the game ends at checkmate. Any move that would leave your own General exposed is illegal and is never offered.
Is Xiangqi the same as Banqi? No. Banqi shuffles a Xiangqi set face-down on half the board and reveals pieces one at a time. Xiangqi is the full, open-information game with every piece visible from the start — see Banqi vs Xiangqi.
Step 12: Practice — play your first real game
You now know all seven pieces: the palace-bound General and Advisors, the river-bound Elephants, the hobble-able Horse, the sweeping Chariot, the jumping Cannon, and the one-way Soldier. Rules become instinct only when you play.
For your first game, develop your Chariots onto open files, keep your Advisors and Elephants home to guard the General, and watch every open file for a Cannon shot — yours and your opponent's. When something feels stuck, remember the leg, the eye, and the screen. Ready? Play Xiangqi now, or start with a face-down twist in the complete Banqi guide.
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