 Xiangqi for everybody
26 November 1999
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By Jouni Tolonen
The object of the game
The game is won by the player who checkmates - threatens to capture with no defence - the opposing king. Unlike in western chess also stalemate - where the side to move has no legal moves - wins the game. Even a single horse is enough to force a win.
What do the pieces look like?
The traditional Xiangqi pieces are round, flat discs having an identifying Chinese character engraved or painted on the top. Real-life pieces have the characters in red and black on white background, but in diagrams the black pieces are usually represented with a black background.
One of the Xiangqi pieces is the black elephant - pronounced 'hsiàng' in Chinese. It is a picture of an elephant with all the important parts. The Chinese name of the game - XiangQi - in fact means 'elephant game'.
This kind of pieces are used in practically all tournaments of Chinese chess. Recently there have been some initiatives for using three-dimensional western chess type pieces. They were going to be used in the WXF World Championships in Hong Kong in 1997 but the brave idea was cancelled - apparently because there were too many players opposing it.
In publications you can find different styles and representations for the elephant:
In some xiangqi books you can find western-style pieces. The western-chess bishop, which moved - before the radical changes of western chess rules in medieval times - diagonally two squares, is a close relative to the Xiangqi elephant. It is still called 'elephant' in many languages, like 'alfil' in Spanish or 'slon' in Russian.
Some other characters for elephant you may encounter:
Moving the pieces
All of the Xiangqi pieces - except the cannon - move in the same way whether they capture an enemy piece or not - by moving to an intersection which is empty or occupied by an enemy piece. Moves can be recorded using the algebraic move notation, where a move is described by a letter for the moving piece plus the coordinates of the destination point. If more than one piece of the same type can move to a point, the moving piece is identified by adding a file letter or rank number after the piece. For a capture, small 'x' is added before the coordinates. Check is identified with a '+' last in the move. For checkmate, 'X' is used.
The King moves in his own palace one point in a horizontal or vertical direction.
In the diagram position the Red king has two moves: Ke2 and Kf1. The move Kd1 is not possible because the kings may never 'see' each other. There must always be at least one piece between the opposing kings. So, Black has also only two moves with his king: Kd10 and Kd8. The move Ke9 is illegal.
Because of "the look of the death", the king can play an attacking role even in the middlegame from his own palace.
The advisor can move only inside the palace, one point at a time along the marked diagonals. Red has two possible moves: Ade2 and Afe2. The move Ae2 is ambiguous, so the initial file of the piece is added. The Black advisor e9 has three possible moves: Ad10, Ad8 and Af8. The Advisor f10 has no legal moves.
The Elephant moves two points diagonally over a vacant point. It cannot cross the river.
The Red elephant c1 has one possible move: Ea3. Move Ee3 is illegal because the intermediate point - which is called the 'elephant's eye' - is occupied. The Elephant i3 has two legal moves: Eg1 and Eg5.
Black has four choices: Ea8, Ece8, Ege8 or Ei8.
The horse moves first one point along a file or a rank, then in the same direction one point diagonally. If the first intermediate point is occupied, the horse cannot move to that direction.
Because it's unable to jump, the horse is a comparatively weaker version of the western chess knight.
The Red horse at e9 does not have a legal move - it is pinned by both kings. The Red horse f3 has a choice of moves Hf5, Hh4, Hh2, Hg1, Hxe1, Hd2, Hd4 and He5.
The Black horse d5 has eight legal moves: He7, Hf6, Hf4, He3, Hc3+, Hb4, Hb6 ja Hc7. The move Hf4 is not a check because a piece at f3 blocks the check. The Black horse e1 does not have legal moves. A at d1 takes away the move to c2, K at e2 takes away the move to d3 and f3 and A at f1 takes away the move to g2.
The chariot moves a desired number of points along a file or a rank, easily crossing the river. In the diagram position the Red chariot has the following legal moves: Rxf10+, Rf8, Rf7, Rf6, Rf5, Rf4 ja Rf3. Moving along the ninth rank is not possible because of the pin by the Black chariot.
Black has moves Rxf9X, Rg10, Rh10 and Ri10.
The pawn moves one point only forwards along a file. After crossing the river the pawn promotes and has three possible moves: forwards one point or sideways one point along a rank. A pawn on the last rank has a final fate of moving only sideways. It can still help in checkmating or stalemating the king but cannot threaten a king that has moved up in the palace.
In the diagram the Red c5-pawn has one move, Pc6. The Red pawn at f8 has moves Pfxf9X, Pe8 and Pg8.
The Red pawn at e9 has moves Pd9, Pe10X and Pexf9X.
The Black pawn has legal moves Pd1 and Pf1.
The cannon is the most mysterious piece in Xiangqi, at least for a western chess player. When it doesn't capture anything it moves exactly like a chariot. A cannon can capture an enemy piece if there is exactly one piece - of any colour - between the captured piece and the cannon.
In the diagram the Red cannon at e1 can move to any point on the first rank - Ced1X being a checkmate! - and it also may capture a piece with Cxe10. The Red cannon d3 can move anywhere along the third rank except to e3 - that would put the Red king in check - and to all points on the d-file except d10, which is occupied by a piece.
The Black cannon has moves: Cf10, Cg10, Ch10, Ci10 and any move on the central file from e9 to e3, or Cxe1.
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