Home Discussion Topics Dictionary Almanac

Signup Login

Xiangqi

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Xiangqi'

Start a new discussion about 'Xiangqi'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Xiangqi is a two-player Chinese

China

China is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....

board game

Board game

A board game is a game in which counters or pieces that are placed on, removed from, or moved across a "board"...

in the same family as Western chess

Chess

Chess is a board game played between two players. The current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from a similar, much older game of Indian origin...

, chaturanga

Chaturanga

Chaturanga is an ancient Indian game which is presumed to be the common ancestor of the games of chess, shogi, and makruk, and related to xiangqi and janggi....

, shogi

Shogi

, in English, also known as Japanese chess, is a two-player board game in the same family as Western chess, chaturanga, Chinese Xiangqi, and is the most popular of a family of chess variants native to Japan...

and janggi

Janggi

Janggi is the Korean name for a strategic board game widespread in Korea. It was derived from Chinese Xiangqi. The game looks very similar to Chinese Xiangqi, such as starting position of pieces, and the 9 x 10 point board, without the Chinese river in the middle. In addition, Janggi also has some...

. The present-day form of Xiangqi originated in China

China

China is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....

and is therefore commonly called Chinese chess in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...

. The first character

Chinese character

A Chinese character, also known as a Han character , is a logogram used in writing Chinese , Japanese , less frequently Korean , and formerly Vietnamese , and other languages...

象 Xiàng here has the meaning "image" or "representational", hence Xiangqi can be literally translated as "representational chess". The game is sometimes called "elephant chess" after an alternative meaning of 象 as "elephant".

Harold James Ruthven Murray

Harold James Ruthven Murray

Harold James Ruthven Murray , was a prominent chess historian, and the first to publish the theory that chess originated in India.Murray, the eldest of eleven children, was born near Peckham Rye in Peckham, London...

in his A History of Chess spelled its name as "Hsiang-k'i" (using the Wade-Giles

Wade-Giles

Wade–Giles , sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization system for the Mandarin language used in Beijing. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Wade during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert Giles' Chinese–English dictionary of 1892.Wade–Giles' was the main...

Romanization system for Standard Mandarin), and translates 棋 more generally as "game": "the image game" (or "the elephant game"); the meaning of 棋 may have shifted down the centuries.

The game represents a battle between two armies, with the object of capturing the enemy's "general" piece.
Xiangqi is one of the most popular board game

Board game

A board game is a game in which counters or pieces that are placed on, removed from, or moved across a "board"...

s in China. Distinctive features of Xiangqi include the unique movement of the pao ("cannon") piece, a rule prohibiting the generals (similar to chess

Chess

kings) from facing each other directly, and the river and palace board features, which restrict the movement of some pieces.

Besides China and areas with significant ethnic Chinese communities, Xiangqi is also a popular pastime in Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east...

Board

Xiangqi is played on a board that is 9 lines wide by 10 lines long. In a manner similar to the game Go

Go (board game)

Go is a strategic board game for two players. It is also known as igo , weiqi or wei ch'i or baduk...

(Wéiqí 圍棋), the pieces are played on the intersections, which are known as points. The vertical lines are known as files, while the horizontal lines are known as ranks.

Centered at the first through third ranks of the board is a square zone also mirrored in the opponent's territory. The three point by three point zone is demarcated by two diagonal lines connecting opposite corners and intersecting at the center point. This area is known as 宮 , the palace or fortress.

Dividing the two opposing sides (between the fifth and sixth ranks) is 河 hé, the river. The river is often marked with the phrases 楚河 , meaning "Chu

Chu (state)

Chǔ was a kingdom in what is now central and southern China during the Spring and Autumn period and Warring States Period . Its ruling house had the surname mi , and clan name xiong , and originally was of the noble rank of zi, roughly comparable to a viscount.It was originally known as Jing and...

River", and 漢界 (in Traditional Chinese) or 汉界 (in Simplified Chinese) , meaning "Han

Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the peasant rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...

border", a reference to the Chu-Han War. Although the river provides a visual division between the two sides, only a few pieces are affected by its presence: "soldier" pieces have an enhanced move after crossing the river, while "elephant" pieces cannot cross.

The starting points of the soldiers and cannons are typically marked with small crosses, but not all boards have these marks.

Play

The pieces start in the position shown in the diagram above. Which player moves first has varied throughout history, and also varies from one part of China to another. Some Xiangqi books state that the black side moves first; others state that the red side moves first. Also, some books may refer to the two sides as north

North

North is one of the four cardinal directions, specifically the direction that, in Western culture, is treated as the fundamental direction:* North is used to define all other directions....

and south

South

South is one of the cardinal directions and is opposite to the north.By Western convention, the bottom side of a map is south; the southern direction has azimuth or bearing of 180°....

; which direction corresponds to which color also varies from source to source. Generally, red goes first in most modern formal tournaments.

Each player in turn moves one piece from the point it occupies to another point. Generally pieces are not permitted to move through a point occupied by another piece. A piece can be moved onto a point occupied by an enemy piece, in which case the enemy piece is "captured" and removed from the board. A player cannot capture one of his own pieces. Pieces are never "promoted" (converted into other pieces), although the pawn/soldier is able to move sideways after it crosses the river.

Generally all pieces capture using their normal moves. Some pieces have special moves or capture moves, as described below.

The game ends when one player captures the other's general. When the general is in danger of being captured by the enemy player on his next move, the general is "in check" (將 (trad.) / 将 (simp.) . A check should be announced. If the general's player can make no move to prevent the general's capture, the situation is called "checkmate" (將軍 (trad.) / 将军 (simp.)).

Under some sets of rules, if the general is not actually taken for some reason, the other player does not lose and can continue playing. Under other rules, it is sufficient to reach checkmate.

A player with no legal moves left loses.
In Xiangqi, a player (often with material or positional disadvantage) may attempt to check or chase pieces in a way that the moves fall in a cycle, forcing the opponent to draw the game. The following special rules are used to make it harder to draw the game by endless checking and chasing (regardless of whether the positions of the pieces are repeated or not):

The side that perpetually checks with one piece or several pieces will be ruled to lose under any circumstances unless he or she stops the perpetual checking.
The side that perpetually chases any one unprotected piece with one or more pieces will be ruled to lose under any circumstances unless he or she stops the perpetual chasing. Chases by generals and soldiers are allowed however.
If one side perpetually checks and the other side perpetually chases, the perpetually checking side has to stop or be ruled to lose.
When neither side violates the rules and both persist in not making an alternate move, the game can be ruled as a draw.
When both sides violate the same rule at the same time and both persist in not making an alternate move, the game can be ruled as a draw.

Different sets of rules set different limits on what is considered "perpetual". For example, Club Xiangqi rules allow a player to check/chase six consecutive times using one piece, twelve times using two pieces, and eighteen times using three pieces before considering the check/chase a perpetual check/chase.

The above rules to prevent perpetual checking and chasing are popular, but they are by no means the only rules. There are a large number of confusing end game situations.

Pieces

The pieces are flat circular disks, each with a Chinese character on, sometimes engraved into the surface. The black pieces are marked with somewhat different characters from the corresponding red pieces; this practice may have originated in situations where there was only one material available to make the pieces from and no coloring material available to distinguish the opposing armies.

General

The generals are labelled with the Chinese character 將 (trad.) / 将 (simp.) (general) on the black side and 帥 (trad.) / 帅 (simp.) (marshal) on the red side. Legend has it that originally the pieces were known as emperors, but when an emperor of China heard about the game, he executed two players for "killing" or "capturing" the emperor piece. Future players called them generals instead.

The general starts the game at the midpoint of the back edge (within the palace). The general may move one point either vertically or horizontally, but not diagonally. A general cannot move into a file, which is occupied by the enemy general, unless there is at least one piece positioned between the generals in the file. The general may not leave the palace.

Guard

The advisors (also known as guards or ministers, and less commonly as assistants, mandarins, or warriors) are labelled 士 ("scholar", "gentleman", "officer

Non-commissioned officer

Non-commissioned officer , abbreviated to NCO or Non-com , is a term in many armed forces indicating leadership ranks less senior than commissioned officers...

") for black and 仕 ("scholar", "official") for red. Rarely, sets use the character 士 for both colours.

The advisors start to the sides of the general. They move one point diagonally and may not leave the palace, which confines them to five points on the board. They serve to protect the general.

The advisor is probably derived from the mantri in Chaturanga

Chaturanga

Chaturanga is an ancient Indian game which is presumed to be the common ancestor of the games of chess, shogi, and makruk, and related to xiangqi and janggi....

, like the queen in Western chess.

Elephant

The elephants are labelled 象 xiàng (elephant) for black and 相 xiàng (minister) for red. They are located next to the advisors. These pieces move exactly two points diagonally and may not jump over intervening pieces. If an elephant is blocked by an intervening piece, it is known as "blocking the elephant's eye" (塞象眼). They may not cross the river; thus, they serve as defensive pieces

Because of an elephant's limited movement, it can be easily trapped or threatened. Typically the two elephants will be used to defend each other.

The Chinese character

Chinese character

A Chinese character, also known as a Han character , is a logogram used in writing Chinese , Japanese , less frequently Korean , and formerly Vietnamese , and other languages...

s for "minister" and "elephant" are homophone

Homophone

A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose , or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms...

s and both have alternative meanings as "appearance" or "image". However, both are referred to as elephants in the game.

Horse

The horses are labelled 馬 for black and 傌 for red in sets marked with Traditional Chinese character

Traditional Chinese character

Traditional Chinese characters are the two standard sets of printed Chinese characters. The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han Dynasty, and have been more or less stable since the 5th century The retronym...

s and 马 mǎ for both black and red in sets marked with Simplified Chinese character

Simplified Chinese character

Simplified Chinese Characters are one of two standard sets of Chinese characters of the contemporary Chinese written language. They are based mostly on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms that were used in printed text for over a thousand...

s. Some traditional sets use 馬 for both colours. They begin the game next to the elephants. A horse moves one point vertically or horizontally and then one point diagonally away from its former position. It is important to note that the horse does not jump as the knight does in Western chess. Thus, if there were a piece lying on a point one point away horizontally or vertically from the horse, then the horse's path of movement is blocked and it is unable to move in that direction. Note, however, that a piece two points away horizontally or vertically or a piece a single point away diagonally would not impede the movement of the horse. A blocked horse is also known as "hobbling the horse's leg" (蹩馬腿). The diagram on the left illustrates the horse's movement.

Since horses can be blocked, it is sometimes possible to trap the opponent's horse. It is possible for one player's horse to attack the opponent's horse while the opponent's horse is blocked from attacking, as seen in the diagram on the right.

Chariot

The chariots are labelled 車 for black and 俥 for red in sets marked with Traditional Chinese character

Traditional Chinese character

s and 车 for both black and red in sets marked with Simplified Chinese character

Simplified Chinese character

s. Some traditional sets use 車 for both colors. All of these characters are pronounced as . The chariot moves and captures vertically and horizontally any distance, and may not jump over intervening pieces. The chariots begin the game on the points at the corners of the board. The chariot is considered to be the strongest piece in the game.

The chariot is sometimes known as the "rook" by English speaking players, since it is like the rook in Western chess. Chinese players (and others) often call this piece a "car", since that is one modern meaning of the character 車.

Cannon

The cannons are labelled 砲 for black and 炮 pào for red. They are homophone

Homophone

s.

砲 pào means a "catapult

Catapult

A catapult is any one of a number of non-handheld mechanical devices used to throw or hurl a projectile a great distance without the aid of explosive substances—particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. Although the catapult has been used since ancient times, it is proven...

" for hurling boulders. 炮 pào means "cannon". The 石 shì radical of 砲 means 'stone', and the 火 huǒ part of 炮 means 'fire'. However, both are referred to as cannon in the game.

In Xiangqi, each player has two cannons. The cannons start on the row behind the soldiers, two points in front of the horses. Cannons move like the chariots, horizontally and vertically, but capture by jumping exactly one piece (whether it is friendly or enemy) over to its target. When capturing, the cannon is moved to the point of the captured piece. The cannon may not jump over intervening pieces if not capturing another piece. The piece which the cannon jumps over is called the 炮臺 (trad.) / 炮台 (simp.) pào tái ("cannon platform"). Any number of unoccupied spaces may exist between the cannon and the cannon platform, or between the cannon platform and the piece to be captured, including no spaces (the pieces being adjacent) in both cases. Cannons are powerful pieces at the beginning of the game when platforms are plentiful, and are used frequently in combination with chariots to achieve checkmate. Although cannons can be exchanged for a horse immediately from their starting positions, this is usually not favorable, in part due to the superiority of cannons over horses at the beginning of the game. The two cannons, when used together, can form a check that cannot be stopped easily. As they line up in the attack against the opposing general, the back cannon checks the general while the front cannon, serving as the platform, prohibits blocking for the opposing side. The opposing side can only move the general, capture the back cannon, or block between the two cannons.

Soldier

Each side has five soldiers, labelled 卒 (pawn/private) for black and 兵 (soldier) for red. Soldiers are placed on alternating points, one row back from the edge of the river. They move and capture by advancing one point. Once they have crossed the river, they may also move (and capture) one point horizontally. Soldiers cannot move backward, and therefore cannot retreat; however, they may still move sideways at the enemy's edge.

The soldier is sometimes known as the "pawn" by English speaking players, since it is similar to that piece in Western chess.

Approximate relative values of the pieces

Piece	Point(s)
Soldier before crossing the river	1
Soldier after crossing the river	2
Advisor	2
Elephant	1 - 2
Horse	4 - 5
Cannon	4 - 5
Chariot	9

These advisory values do not take into account positional advantages. For example, the chariot at the corner in the beginning of the game is not very useful, but it can be moved to points where it affects the game much more, for example near the center of the board or the opponent's palace. Also, the value of a cannon drops as the game goes on due to having fewer platforms for use in capturing, while the value of the horse increases slightly due to fewer obstructions. Despite the chariot having the highest value of 9 points, it should be pointed out that often, players will, at certain game scenarios, value a cannon/horse on or exceeding the level of a chariot due to the piece's unique attack style. What's left on the board is also important to value of piece. For example, in a mid or late game, if red still has two chariots and black has one advisor left, that advisor is very valuable for black because it is very easy for red to checkmate with two chariots if black does not have an advisor.

Equipment

One player's pieces are usually painted red

Red

Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked human eye...

(or, less commonly, white

White

White is a color, the perception which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in nearly equal amounts and with high brightness compared to the surroundings. A white visual stimulation will be void of hue and grayness.White light can be...

), and the other player's pieces are usually painted black

Black

Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...

(or, less commonly, blue

Blue

Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...

or green

Green

Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...

).

Xiangqi pieces are represented by disks marked with a Chinese character

Chinese character

A Chinese character, also known as a Han character , is a logogram used in writing Chinese , Japanese , less frequently Korean , and formerly Vietnamese , and other languages...

identifying the piece and painted in a colour identifying to which player the piece belongs. Modern pieces are usually made with plastic, though some sets use pieces made of wood

Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of trees . In a living tree it transfers water and nutrients to the leaves and other growing tissues, and has a support function, enabling woody plants to reach large sizes or to stand up for themselves...

, and more expensive sets may use pieces made of jade

Jade

Jade is an ornamental stone.The term jade is applied to two different metamorphic rocks that are made up of different silicate minerals:...

. In more ancient times, many sets were simple unpainted woodcarvings; thus, to distinguish between the pieces of the two sides, most corresponding pieces use characters that are similar but vary slightly between the two sides.

The oldest Xiangqi piece found to date is in Henan Provincial Museum - a 俥 piece.

In mainland China, most sets still use traditional characters for the pieces.

Notation

There are several types of notation used to record Xiangqi games. In each case the moves are numbered and written with the same general pattern.

(first move) (first response)
(second move) (second response)

.
.

It is clearer but not required to write each move pair on a separate line.

Notational system 1

The book The Chess of China describes a notational system of absolute positional references in which the ranks of the board are numbered 1 to 10 from closest to farthest away, followed by a digit 1 to 9 for files from right to left. Both values are relative to the moving player. Moves are then indicated as follows:

[piece name] ([former rank][former file])-[new rank][new file]

Thus, the most common opening in the game would be written as:

炮 (32)–35, 馬 (18)–37

Notational system 2

A notational system partially described in A Manual of Chinese Chess and used by several computer software implementations describes positions in relative terms as follows:

[single-letter piece abbreviation][former file][operator indicating direction of movement][new file, or in the case of purely vertical movement, number of ranks traversed]

The file numbers are counted from each player's right to each player's left.

In case there are two identical pieces in one file, symbols + (front) and - (rear) are used instead of former file number.
Direction of movement is indicated via an operator symbol. A plus sign is used to indicate forward movement. A minus sign or hyphen

Hyphen

The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. It is often confused with dashes , which are longer and have different uses, and with the minus sign which is also longer...

is used to indicate backwards movement. A dot or period

Full stop

A full stop or period is the punctuation mark commonly placed at the end of several different types of sentences in English and many other languages...

or equal sign is used to indicate horizontal or lateral movement. If a piece (such as the horse or elephant) simultaneously moves both vertically and horizontally, then the plus or minus sign is used rather than the period.

Thus, the most common opening in the game would be written as:

C2.5 H8+7

The single letter piece abbreviations are

Piece	Initial(s)
Advisor	A
Cannon	C
Chariot	R*
Elephant	E
General	G
Horse	H
Soldier	S

^{*for Rook, because using C would conflict with the letter for Cannon}

Notational system 3 (unofficial, for players of Western Chess)

Letters are used for files and numbers for ranks. File "a" is on Red's left and rank "1" is nearest to Red. A point's designation does not depend on which player moves; for both sides "a1" is the lowest left point from Red's side.

[single-letter piece abbreviation][former position][capture indication][new position][check indication][analysis]

Pieces are abbreviated as for system 2, except that no letter is used for the soldier.

Former position is only indicated if necessary to distinguish between two identical pieces that could have made the move. If they share the same file, indicate which rank moves; if they share the same rank, indicate which file moves. If they share neither rank or file then the file is indicated.

Capture is indicated by "x". No letter is used to indicate a non-capturing move.

Check is indicated by "+", double check by "++" and triple check by "+++". Checkmate is indicated by "#".

For analysis purposes, bad moves are indicated by "?" and good moves by "!". These can be combined if the analysis is uncertain ("!?" might be either but is probably good; "?!" is probably bad) or repeated for emphasis ("??" is a disaster).

Thus, the most common opening in the game would be written as:

Che3 Hg7

An example of a brief game ("the early checkmate") is

Cbe3 Che7?
Ch5 Cb4??
Cxe6+! Cxe4??
Ce5#

After the described notation:
Black is mated and therefore loses the game. Notice how Red's doubled cannons can't be blocked, and that the general can't move off the file either.

|}

Yet another opening trap is an early fork by the cannon of the unmoved enemy chariot and general.

Chg3 Che7
Hc3 Hc8?
g5! Ch3?
g5xg6!! Cxc3??
Cxg10+ Ae9
Cxi10+ <diagram>

After the described notation:
Black played foolishly and now he has lost a chariot and a foot-soldier for a horse.

|}

Gameplay

Because of the size of the board and the low number of long-range pieces, there is a tendency for the battle to focus on a particular area of the board.

Tactics

Triple check:
Red moves his horse from e5 to d7, giving check and exposing a double check from chariot and cannon.

There are several tactics

Military tactics

Military tactics, the art of organizing an army, are the techniques for using weapons or military units in combination for engaging and defeating an enemy in battle....

common to games in the chess family, including Xianqgi. Some common ones are briefly discussed here, see Chess tactics for more details.

Fork: When one enemy piece attacks more than one piece simultaneously, they are forked.
Pin: A piece is pinned when it cannot be moved without exposing another more important piece to be captured. A cannon can pin two pieces at once on one file or rank, and unlike in western chess, the horse can pin pieces as well.
Skewer: A piece is skewered when it is attacked and, on moving, exposes another less important piece to be captured.
Double Check and Discovered Check: Discovered check occurs when a friendly piece moves so that it unblocks a line for a chariot, cannon, and less often, the horse, to check the enemy general. The piece uncovering the check can move anywhere within its powers regardless of if the opponent has those squares under protection. Double check may or may not be blockable. The blockable type is in a position with a chariot checking the general and acting as a platform for a cannon situated behind, but this can be blocked by moving a piece between the general and the chariot, blocking the cannon's fire and the one of the chariot's as well. The unblockable type is when a horse is between the enemy general and a friendly chariot. The horse can check the general and uncover a discovered check from the chariot. No piece can block because there is an attack from both directions, and both can't be blocked at once.In either case, capturing one of the checking pieces doesn't get the general out of check either, and sometimes this results in mate.

Particular to Xiangqi is triple check, where three pieces simultaneously threaten the enemy general. This arises with a cannon, a chariot, and a horse. The horse moves to give check uncovering a double check from the chariot and the cannon, which uses the chariot as a platform. This check can't be blocked and capturing a checking piece doesn't work either.

It is also potent to double the cannons on the general's file to give check, since no piece can block such a check except by moving between the cannons or capturing the rear cannon.

Use of pieces

Usually, the soldiers do not support each other unless the player has no better move. This is because from the initial position, it takes a minimum of 5 moves of a soldier to allow twin soldiers to protect each other.

The two chariots are not normally lined up together as they are the most powerful piece and in doing so, a player risks the chances of losing at least one chariot to an inferior piece of the enemy. Depending on the situation, it may be advantageous to position a chariot at one of the corners of the enemy's side of the board, where it is very difficult to dislodge, and threatens the enemy general.

It is common to use the cannons independently to control particular ranks and files. Using a cannon to control the middle file is often considered vital strategy, because it helps to lock certain pieces such as the advisors and elephants in certain positions to prevent a check. The two files adjacent to the middle rank are also considered important and horses and chariots can be used to push for checkmate here.

However, the two cannons on the same file is also a powerful formation. For example, the rear cannon threatens the general; moving a piece in front of the cannons to block the attack does not work, because then the front cannon will still attack the general.

A common defensive configuration is to leave the general at its starting position, deploy one advisor and one elephant on the two points directly in front of the general, and to leave the other advisor and the other elephant in their starting positions, to the side of the general. In this setup, the paired-up advisors and elephants support each other, and the general is immune from attacks by cannons. However, with the loss of a single advisor or elephant, the general becomes vulnerable to cannons, and this setup may need to be abandoned. The defender may move advisors or elephants away from the general, or even sacrifice them intentionally, to ward off attack by a cannon.

Openings

Dāng tóu pào:
Red moves his cannon over from h3 to e3.
(Noted as "炮(32)–35," "Ce3,"or "C2.5")

Mǎ lái tiào:
Black moves his horse out from h10 to g8
(Noted as "馬(18)–37," "Hg8," or "H8+7")

Since the left and right flank of the starting setup are symmetrical and therefore equivalent, it is customary to always make the first move from the right flank. Starting on the left flank is considered to be needlessly confusing.

The most common opening is to move the cannon to the central column, an opening known as 當頭炮 (trad.) / 当头炮 (simp.) dāng tóu pào. The most common reply is to advance the horse on the same flank. Together, this move-and-response is known by the rhyme 當頭炮，馬來跳 (trad.) / 当头炮，马来跳 (simp.) . The notation for this is "1. 炮 (32)–35, 馬 (18)–37" or "1. C2.5 H8+7". See also the diagrams to the right.

This is usually followed by the most common second move, 出車 (trad.) / 出车 (simp.) chū jū—"chariot sortie"—in which the first player moves a chariot forward one space (usually the right one - moving the left one loses the horse, but you can reply by trapping the cannon with your chariots).

The most common reply is to move the right advisor diagonally. 上士 shàng shì.
This is to prevent a series of events that leads to the first player quickly checkmating the second.

Less common first moves include:

moving an elephant to the central column
advancing the soldier on the third or seventh file
moving a horse forward
moving either cannon behind the 2nd soldier from the left or right

General advice for the opening includes rapid development of at least one chariot, because it is the most powerful piece and the only long-range piece besides the cannon. It may not be a bad move to develop one horse to the edge of the board, for example, to avoid being blocked by one of one's own soldiers that cannot advance. Usually, at least one horse should be moved to the middle.

History

Xiangqi has a long history. Though its precise origins have not yet been definitely confirmed, the earliest indications reveal the game may have been played as early as the 4th century BC, by Tian Wen (田文), the Lord of Mengchang (孟嘗君) for the state of Qi

Qi (state)

Qi was a powerful state during the Spring and Autumn Period and Period of the Warring States in ancient China. Its capital was Linzi, which is part of the present city of Zibo in Shandong Province....

, during the Warring States Period

Warring States Period

The Warring States Period , also known as the Era of Warring States, covers the period from 476 BCE to the unification of China by the Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE...

. (See chess in early literature

Chess in early literature

One of the most common ways for chess historians to trace when the board game chess entered a country is to look at the literature of that country. Although due to the names associated with chess sometimes being used for more than one game , the only certain reference to chess is often several...

or timeline of chess

Timeline of chess

- Early history :* 6th century - The game Chaturanga probably evolved into its current form around this time in India.* ca. 600 - The Karnamuk-i-Artakhshatr-i-Papakan contains references to the Persian game of Shatranj, the direct ancestor of modern Chess. Shatranj was initially called "Chatrang"...

.) Judging by its rules, Xiangqi was apparently closely related to military

Military

A military is an organization authorized by its nation to use force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. As an adjective the term "military" is also used to refer to any property or aspect of a military...

strategist

Strategist

A strategist is a person skilled in designing and planning action and policy to achieve a major or overall aim.A design strategist has the ability to combine the innovative, perceptive and holistic insights of a designer with the pragmatic and systematic skills of a planner to guide strategic...

s in ancient China. The ancient Chinese game of Liubo may have had an influence as well.

The chess historian Harold James Ruthven Murray

Harold James Ruthven Murray

wrote that Chinese chess arose as a modification of the chess that spread from India

History of India

The known history of India - the name in this context includes the areas now known as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh - begins with the Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent, from c. 3300 to 1300 BCE. Its Mature Harappan period...

(see History of chess

History of chess

The history of chess, specifically that of Western Chess, spans some 1500 years. The earliest predecessors of the game originated in India in the 6th century AD and spread to Persia from there. When the Arabs conquered Persia chess was taken up by the Muslim world, from where it reached Southern...

), and that "in China it took over the board and name of a game called 象棋 in the sense of "Constellation Game" (rendered by Murray as "Astronomical Game"), which represented the apparent movements of naked-eye-visible astronomical objects in the night sky, and that the earliest Chinese references to 象棋 meant the Astronomical Game and not Chinese chess".

The word Xiàngqí 象棋 means "elephant game" and "figure game". It can also be treated as meaning "constellation

Constellation

In modern astronomy, a constellation is an area of the celestial sphere, defined by exact boundaries.The term "constellation" can also be used loosely to refer to just the more prominent visible stars that seem to form a pattern in that area.-Definitions:...

game", and sometimes the xiàngqí board's "river" is called the "heavenly river", which may mean the Milky Way

Milky Way

The Milky Way, or simply the Galaxy, is the galaxy in which the Solar System is located. It is a barred spiral galaxy that is part of the Local Group of galaxies...

, Murray theorized that previous games called xiàngqí may have been based on the movements of sky objects. However, in the name 象棋 (棋 means "game"), the Chinese character

Chinese character

A Chinese character, also known as a Han character , is a logogram used in writing Chinese , Japanese , less frequently Korean , and formerly Vietnamese , and other languages...

象 means "elephant" and "figure"; it originated as a stylized drawing of an elephant, and was used also to write a word meaning "figure", likely because the two words were pronounced the same. The connection between 象 and astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...

is marginal, and arose from constellation

Constellation

s being called merely "figures" in astronomical contexts where other meanings of "figure" were less likely; this usage may have led some ancient Chinese authors to theorize that the game 象棋 started as a simulation of astronomy.

During the Spring and Autumn Period

Spring and Autumn Period

The Spring and Autumn Period was a period in Chinese history, which roughly corresponds to the first half of the Eastern Zhou dynasty...

and the Warring States Period

Warring States Period

The Warring States Period , also known as the Era of Warring States, covers the period from 476 BCE to the unification of China by the Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE...

, wars were fought for years running. A new strategy board game was patterned after the array of troops (according to a hypothesis by David H. Li

David H. Li

David H. Li is an author on Chinese history and chess. He has written several books and also translated several Chinese classics to English. He was born in 1928 in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China, and moved to the United States in 1949, where he still lives in Bethesda, Maryland. He was an accountant and...

, this was developed by Han Xin

Hán Xìn

Han Xin , also known as Marquess of Huaiyin , was a capable military commander who served under Liu Bang.- Early life and career :Han's father died early, and, like many Chinese at the time, he lived a childhood in destitution...

in the winter of 204 BC-203 BC to prepare for an upcoming battle). This was the earliest form of Xiangqi.

During the Cao Wei

Cao Wei

Cao Wei was one of the empires that competed for control of China during the Three Kingdoms period. With the capital at Luòyáng, the empire was established by Cao Pi in 220, based upon the foundations that his father Cao Cao laid...

, Jin

Jìn Dynasty (265-420)

The Jìn Dynasty , one of the Six Dynasties, following the Three Kingdoms period and followed by the Southern and Northern Dynasties in China. The dynasty was founded by the Sima family...

and Northern and Southern Dynasties, a kind of strategy game was popular among the people. It laid a foundation for the finalized pattern of Xiangqi. In ancient times, both the educated and uneducated alike enjoyed Xiangqi.
Three forms of the game took shape after the Song Dynasty

Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...

. One of them consisted of 32 pieces. They were played on a board with 9 vertical lines and 9 horizontal lines. Popular in those days was a board without a river borderline; the Korea

Korea

Korea is a civilization and formerly unified nation currently divided into two states. Located on the Korean Peninsula, it borders China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait....

n game of janggi

Janggi

is derived from this earlier riverless version. The river borderline was added later, and this form of the game has lasted to the present day.

With the economic and cultural development during the Qing Dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty , also known as the Manchu Dynasty, was the last ruling dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912...

, Xiangqi entered a new stage. Many different schools of circles and players came into prominence. With the popularization of Xiangqi, many books and manuals on the techniques of playing the game were published. They played an important role in popularizing Xiangqi and improving the techniques of play in modern times.

A Western-style Encyclopedia of Chinese Chess Openings

Encyclopedia of Chinese Chess Openings

The Encyclopedia of Chinese Chess Openings is a classification of all possible openings of Chinese chess , including rarely used openings. The editor of Encyclopedia of Chess Network included the first game of the 8197 Board as the basis, to draw up the ECCO code...

was not written until 2004.

The earliest literary reference to Xiangqi comes from the 6th century.

One theory is that Xiangqi came from the "classic" war between the two historical powers Chu

Chu (state)

(楚) and Han

Han Dynasty

(汉), which happened around 210 BC, a few years after the First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang

Qin Shi Huang

Qin Shi Huang , personal name Ying Zheng , was king of the Chinese State of Qin from 246 BCE to 221 BCE during the Warring States Period. He became the first emperor of a unified China in 221 BCE. He ruled until his death in 210 BCE at the age of 50.Qin Shi Huang remains a controversial figure in...

(秦始皇) and the fall of his Qin Dynasty

Qin Dynasty

The Qin Dynasty was the ruling Chinese dynasty between 221 and 206 BC. The Qin state was named because the people of is homeland were called the qin. The Qin's strength had been consolidated by Lord Shang Yang during the Warring States Period, in the 4th century BC...

. The result of the war turned out to be dramatic: Liu Bang (刘邦), the leader of Han, being weak at the first, defeated Chu, and led to the suicide of Chu's leader, Xiang Yu (项羽). Thus, another very important dynasty, Han (汉), was established. In the current board of the game Xiang Qi, there are four Chinese characters in the empty space between the two sides, meaning Chu's River, Han's Border (楚河汉界).

Tournaments and leagues

Although Xiangqi has its origin in Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...

, there are Xiangqi leagues and clubs all over the world. Each European nation generally has its own governing league; for example, in Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...

, Xiangqi is regulated by the United Kingdom Chinese Chess Association. Asian countries also have nationwide leagues, such as the Malaysia Chinese Chess Association in Malaysia

Malaysia

Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants...

.

In addition, there are also several international federations and tournaments. For example, the Chinese Xiangqi Association hosts several tournaments every year, including the Yin Li and Ram Cup Tournaments. There is also an Asian Xiangqi Federation and a World Xiangqi Federation, which hosts tournaments and competitions bi-annually, though most are limited to players from member nations.

Rankings

The Asian Xiangqi Federation and its corresponding member associations also rank players in a number format similar to the rankings

Elo rating system

The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess and Go. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....

of chess

Chess

. The best player in China

China

China is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....

, according to the 2006 Chinese National Ratings, is Xu Yinchuan

Xu Yinchuan

Xu Yinchuan is currently considered to be one of the world's best players in Xiangqi, or Chinese Chess.Xu was born in Huilai, Guangdong Province, China in August 1975...

with a rating of 2628. Other strong players include Lu Qin

Lu Qin

Lu Qin is currently considered to be one of the world's best players in Xiangqi, or Chinese Chess.Lu was born in Huiyang, Guangdong Province, China in 1962. He is one of a handful of grandmasters from Guangdong Province, China, which is notable for being the home of many famed grandmasters of...

and Hu Ronghua

Hu Ronghua

Hu Ronghua , a native of Shanghai, is considered to be the all-time strongest player of Xiangqi, or Chinese Chess.His reputation is legendary: he first won the Chinese national championship in 1960 at age 15. At the time, many commentators thought it was an accident that such a young person won...

.

The Asian Xiangqi Federation also bestows the title of grandmaster to select individuals around the world who have excelled at Xiangqi or have made special contributions to the game. Though there are no specific criteria for becoming a grandmaster, the list of grandmasters is limited to fewer than a hundred people.

Computers

The game-tree complexity

Game complexity

Combinatorial game theory has several ways of measuring game complexity. This article describes five of them: state-space complexity, game tree size, decision complexity, game-tree complexity, and computational complexity.-Measures of game complexity:...

of Xiangqi is approximately 10¹⁵⁰, so in 2004 it was projected that a human top player will be defeated before 2010.

And in the Computer-Human Xiangqi Dual Meet in 2006http://www.jcraner.com/qianhong/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37, the final score was Computer 5.5 - Human 4.5

Xiangqi is one of the more popular competitions at the annual Computer Olympiad

Computer Olympiad

The Computer Olympiads are a multi-games event taking place every year in which computer programs compete against each other. The majority of the games are board games but other games such as Bridge take place as well...

.

Computer Xiangqi Programs

Chinese Chess Soul

Qianhong Xiangqi

NEU Chess

XieXie

XQ Master

Hidden Lynx

HOXChess

Computer Xiangqi Servers

ThaiGB

Ajax Chinese Chess

Club Xiangqi

PlayXiangqi

Variations

Variations of the game have been created, such as Blitz games

Blitz chess

Fast chess, also known as blitz chess, lightning chess, sudden death, speed chess, bullet chess and rapid chess, is a type of chess game in which each side is given less time to make their moves than under the normal tournament time controls of 60–180 minutes per player.-Overview:The different...

, Supply Chess and two variations "blind" chess.

In Blitz games, each player only has around 5–10 minutes each (depending on rules), leading to a fast-paced game with no room for thought and moves have to be made by instinct.

In Supply Chess, a team of two players plays against another team, with one person taking the black pieces and another taking the red pieces. Any pieces obtained by killing the opponent's pieces is given to the teammate. These pieces can be deployed by the teammate to give him an advantage over the other player, so long as he observes the following rules:

The piece can only be on your own side
The piece cannot cause your opponent to be in check

There have been instances of Blitz-Supply chess, but such competitions are usually friendly or small scale, as much criticism has arisen over these variations of chess. Players often use tactics such as rapidly exchanging pieces to force out a draw in blitz games.

In supply chess, one player often exchanges all his pieces with his opponent to allow his teammate to confuse his opponent with the large number of pieces on the board. Four cannons or chariots on the board would lead to an almost unbreakable control of key lanes, virtually assuring victory.

In blind chess, played by two, all of the pieces are jumbled, flipped so the character of the piece is concealed and placed on the squares on only one side of the river. The players assume a colour and take alternate turns. The object of the game is to capture all of your opponent's pieces.

At each turn, the player can do one of three things. They may choose to uncover a concealed piece, move one of their own pieces to an empty square (pieces can only move to an adjacent square and not diagonally regardless of its movement style in original Xiangqi) or they may choose to capture one of their opponents pieces. There are limitations for the last option however.

Each piece, although move the same way, has a "rank" that enables it to capture pieces beneath its rank when the other piece is directly next to it. In Taiwanese version, the order of rank (from highest to lowest) goes as general>advisor>elephant>chariot>horse>cannon>soldier. A special rule enables the cannon making captures the same way in the original game and may only capture any pieces on the board by jumping exactly one piece (whether it is friendly or enemy, the platform) over to its target. Because of this rule, although by rank the cannon is higher than soldier, it cannot capture a soldier even when the soldier is placed directly next to it. In Hong Kong version, the order of rank is general>chariot>horse>cannon>elephant>advisor>soldier. In either versions, soldier is the lowest rank but also one of the most important as it is the only piece that can capture generals (which is the most powerful piece in blind chess)

The game continues until one of the players has lost all of their pieces. Blind chess is mostly a game of luck as the player cannot choose where their pieces are set up. They can only increase their chances by moving pieces and uncovering appropriately, calculating the odds that the uncovered piece next to them can be friend or foe, superior or inferior. This variant is more well known in Hong Kong than in mainland China. It is similar to the related game Luzhanqi

Luzhanqi

Luzhanqi is a two-player board game from China. It bears many similarities to Dou Shou Qi and the Western board game Stratego...

.

A second variation of blind chess involves playing without a visible chess board. The players have to memorize the positions of the pieces on the chess board. A third person is occasionally asked to keep track of the game with an actual chess board in case of disputes. The players calls out their moves with four character notations in the format [piece name][former file][advance/retreat/horizontal][new file/ranks advanced]. For example, if a horse was in rank 3 file 3 and it was to move to rank 4 file 5, the notation used would be the Chinese words "horse 3 advances to 5". If a chariot was to move from rank 3 file 3 to rank 3 file 6, it would be "chariot 3 horizontal to 6". If a piece advances forward without changing file, the number of steps forward or back is used instead.

Another variant is called "Formation". In "Formation", your pieces are jumbled up, then placed all randomly on one side of the river, except for the generals and advisors which must be at their usual positions in normal Xiangqi. The elephants must also start at a square where they could reach from their usual positions. All other rules are the same as in Xiangqi.

External links

Xiangqi: Chinese Chess at the Chess Variant Pages (Yen, Chen, Yang, Hsu)—review
Introduction to Chinese Chess by Peter Donnelly
An Introduction to Xiangqi for Chess Players
http://www.agame.com/game/chinese-chess.html
PlayOK -Play Xiangqi online, free!
Club Xiangqi - Play Chinese Chess online with or without a user fee
PlayXiangqi - A free online service with Open Source client and Open Server API
Xiangqi on Apple iPhone / iPod Touch

Xiangqi

Board

Play

Pieces

General

Guard

Elephant

Horse

Chariot

Cannon

Soldier

Approximate relative values of the pieces

Equipment

Notation

Notational system 1

Notational system 2

Notational system 3 (unofficial, for players of Western Chess)

Gameplay

Tactics

Use of pieces

Openings

History

Tournaments and leagues

Rankings

Computers

Variations

Further reading

External links