Xiangqi: Play Chinese Chess Online Free

What is Xiangqi?

Xiangqi, also called Chinese chess, is the two-player strategy game of generals, chariots and cannons, played on the lines of a board that a river cuts in half. This version is free to play in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer, and it follows the standard rules exactly.

Play the computer at five levels, from a Beginner that a first-time player can beat to a Master that thinks for several seconds a move. Pass one screen back and forth with a friend, or play someone on another device online.

New to the game? Choose the International pieces, which use pictures in place of Chinese characters, and open How to play. A practice board there shows how each of the seven pieces moves, blocked moves included.

Red moves first. Tap a piece to see every point it can reach, trap the enemy general so that no move can save it, and the game is yours.

How to play Xiangqi

1. 

   1Start a game

   Pick Computer, a level and your colour next to the board, then make the first move. Red always moves first, and the game starts as soon as you do.

2. 

   2See where a piece can go

   Tap or click one of your pieces. Dots mark every point it can move to and rings mark the pieces it can take. Tap a dot, or drag the piece there.

3. 

   3Capture with the cannon

   A cannon takes by jumping. It needs exactly one piece, of either colour, between it and its target. With no piece to jump, or with two, it cannot capture.

4. 

   4Answer every check

   A general in check glows red. Move it, block the line or take the attacker. A move that would leave your general attacked is marked with a small cross, and tapping it tells you why.

5. 

   5Learn each piece

   Open How to play for a practice board. Pick any of the seven pieces and move it around to see its moves, the blocked elephant and the hobbled horse.

6. 

   6Choose your piece set

   The Pieces menu switches between Traditional discs with Chinese characters and International discs with pictures. The rules and the board stay the same.

7. 

   7Win by checkmate

   Attack the general so that no move can save it and the game ends. The result window offers a new game in one tap, or a look back over the board.

The rules in full

1. The board has nine files and ten ranks, and the pieces stand on the points where the lines cross. Red moves first, then the players take turns, one move each.
2. The general moves one point up, down or sideways and never leaves its palace, the box of nine points marked with diagonal lines.
3. The advisor moves one point diagonally and also stays inside the palace.
4. The elephant moves exactly two points diagonally and never crosses the river. A piece on the point in between, the elephant's eye, blocks the move.
5. The horse moves one point straight and then one point diagonally outward. It cannot jump: a piece next to it on the straight step blocks that move.
6. The chariot moves any distance along a rank or a file until something is in the way, and captures the first enemy piece it meets.
7. The cannon moves like the chariot. To capture, it must jump over exactly one piece of either colour and take the first piece beyond it.
8. The soldier moves one point forward. Once it has crossed the river it may also step one point sideways. It never moves backward and never promotes.
9. The two generals may never face each other along a file with no piece between them.
10. Every check must be answered at once, and you may not make a move that leaves your own general under attack.
11. You win by checkmate. You also win when your opponent has no legal move at all: in Xiangqi a stalemate is a loss, not a draw.
12. Checking forever is not allowed. Any other position that comes up three times is a draw, and so is sixty moves by each side without a capture.

Xiangqi tips and strategy

• Bring your chariots out in the first few moves. A chariot left asleep in its corner is the most common beginner mistake.
• A cannon on the centre file, aimed at the enemy general through a single piece, is the classic opening threat. Guard your central soldier with a horse.
• Keep your advisors and elephants at home. They are the general's only bodyguards and are worth more in defence than they look.
• Horses can be blocked. Put a piece next to an enemy horse to take away its moves, and check your own horse's legs before you plan an attack around it.
• A soldier across the river is worth about twice a soldier at home. Push one when it is safe: it can never come back, but it never needs to.
• Use your general. Because the generals cannot face each other, a general on an open file helps your attack like a chariot that cannot be taken.

What is Xiangqi?

Xiangqi (say "shyahng-chee") is Chinese chess, one of the most played board games in the world. It belongs to the same family as chess, shogi and janggi, and it has been played in close to its present form for many centuries.

Two armies, Red and Black, start with sixteen pieces each: a general, two advisors, two elephants, two horses, two chariots, two cannons and five soldiers. The pieces are flat discs, and they stand on the crossing points of the lines, not inside the squares.

Two features give the board its character. The river across the middle stops elephants and strengthens soldiers. The palace, a small box at each end, is the only place the general and its advisors may ever stand.

Xiangqi rules used in this game

Moves, check, checkmate, the facing-generals rule and the loss by stalemate follow the standard modern rules, as set out in the rulebook of the Asian Xiangqi Federation and played in clubs everywhere. Nothing is simplified or left out.

Perpetual check is forbidden. If a move would bring the same position up for the third time, and you have given check on every move since it first appeared, the game refuses the move and you must play something else.

Every other position that comes up three times is a draw. That includes perpetual chasing, where one piece hounds another back and forth: tournament rules judge chases case by case, and this game treats them all as drawn.

A game is also drawn after sixty moves by each side without a capture, or when neither side has a piece left that can cross the river.

How the Xiangqi pieces move

The chariot is the strongest piece and moves like a rook in chess. The cannon moves the same way but captures only by jumping one piece. The horse is like a chess knight that can be blocked.

As a rough guide to trades, count a chariot as 9 points, a cannon as 4.5, a horse as 4, an elephant or an advisor as 2, and a soldier as 1 at home or 2 across the river.

Xiangqi vs chess: the main differences

Pieces sit on points, so the board is nine by ten. There is no queen and no castling, and soldiers never promote.

The general is confined to its palace, which makes attacks faster and more direct than in chess. The cannon, with its jumping capture, has no chess cousin at all.

Stalemate is a win for the player who delivers it, the generals may not see each other down an open file, and you are not allowed to check forever. Draws are rarer as a result.

Play Xiangqi against the computer

Five levels cover every kind of player. Beginner moves fast and makes plenty of mistakes. Casual sees simple threats. Club looks four moves ahead, and Expert and Master search much deeper, for up to two and a half and five seconds a move.

Its thinking runs in the background, so the page never freezes while it works.

Undo takes back your last move and the reply. Hint points out a good move: twice a game on Beginner, once on Casual and Club, and not at all on Expert and Master. An unfinished game is saved on your device and waits for you.

Two-player Xiangqi: one screen or online

Choose Same screen to play a friend on one phone, tablet or computer. Take turns on the same board, and use Flip to turn it around if you sit on opposite sides.

Choose Online to play someone on another device. Quick match pairs you with the next player who is ready, and Invite a friend makes a private game with a link to send. No account is needed.

Online, the server checks every move against the same rules engine, so neither player can make an illegal move. You can offer a draw, resign, or ask for a rematch when the game ends.

Traditional and International pieces

The Traditional set shows each piece as a Chinese character on an ivory disc, red for one side and black for the other. The two sides often use different characters for the same piece.

General: 帥 and 將. Advisor: 仕 and 士. Elephant: 相 and 象. Horse: 傌 and 馬. Chariot: 俥 and 車. Cannon: 炮 and 砲. Soldier: 兵 and 卒. In each pair the red piece comes first.

The International set swaps the characters for pictures: a crown, a shield, an elephant, a horse, a tower, a cannon and a foot soldier. Switch sets at any time, even in the middle of a game.

Xiangqi checkmate puzzles

Tap Puzzles for a set of checkmate problems: mate in one, in two and in three. You always play Red, and the computer defends for Black as well as it can.

Every puzzle was found and checked by this game's own engine, and each has exactly one first move that forces the mate. A wrong move is handed back so you can try again.

Mate-in-one puzzles are the Easy ones and come with two hints each. The first names the piece to move and the second points to it, but neither shows where it goes. The harder puzzles have no hints.

Reading Xiangqi notation

The move list uses the traditional notation: a letter for the piece, the file it stands on, a sign for the direction, and then a file or a distance.

C2=5 means the cannon on file 2 moves sideways to file 5. H8+7 is a horse on file 8 going forward to file 7. A plus sign is forward, a minus sign is backward and an equals sign is sideways.

Each player counts the files from 1 to 9 starting at their own right hand, and the numbers along the edges of the board show them.

Xiangqi FAQ