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 Xiangqi for everybody
Updated 26 November 2000 |
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By Jouni Tolonen The Chinese notation
The Chinese notation presented here is based on the World Xiangqi Federation standard. Files are numbered from 1 to 9 starting from each player's right side. Red's 1st file is Black's 9th and vice versa. Ranks are not numbered. Each move has a four-character notation. The first character identifies the type of the moving piece: K,R,C,H,E,A or P. The second character is the starting file number of the piece. The third character identifies in which direction the piece is moving. It has three possible values: + if the piece moves upwards from player's viewpoint - if the piece moves downwards from player's viewpoint = if the piece moves sideways on the same rank (The WXF standard uses '.' instead of '='.) The meaning of the fourth character depends on the type of the move. When a piece moves away from the file it stands on, the character identifies the destination file of the piece. Examples are possible moves in the starting position. Note that each example is a valid move for either Red or Black!
When a piece moves along a file, the fourth character identifies how many points the piece moved.
Double pieces Whenever there are two pieces of the same type and colour on the same line, the second character of the notation (the file number) is replaced by a '+' for the front piece and by a '-' for the rear piece.
Red cannon can capture the Black chariot: C+=1. The rear cannon's move to the 1st file would be notated as C-=1. The rear cannon's move to the 2nd file would be recorded as C-=2 even though the front cannon hasn't got a corresponding move. The above rules are usually enough to record the moves of a Xiangqi game. It is possible to arrive at a position which cannot be handled by these rules. They involve twin double pawns, three,four or five pawns on the same file. The complete description of the notation system with the rules to handle these exceptions can be found here. You can download the textfile by right-clicking on the link and selecting save to machine.
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