Xiangqi
Play Chinese Chess against the computer: cannons, horses, and the river.
How to play Xiangqi
You are Red and move first. Click a piece to see its legal moves, then click a highlighted point to move. The General stays inside its palace, Elephants can't cross the river, Horses can be blocked by a piece beside them, and Cannons capture only by jumping exactly one piece as a screen. Soldiers gain a sideways step once they cross the river. Deliver checkmate, or use the 2P button to pass-and-play with a friend.
Chess, but the pieces play by their own rules
Xiangqi will look familiar to a chess player and then quietly break every assumption. Pieces sit on the intersections of the lines, not inside the squares, and a river runs across the middle of the board that several pieces cannot cross. You are Red and move first; the goal is checkmate, same as chess, but getting there runs through a very different set of pieces.
The General is confined to a three-by-three palace and never leaves it. Elephants guard your own half and cannot cross the river at all. Horses move like knights but can be blocked: put a piece directly beside a horse and it loses the move in that direction, something no chess knight ever suffers. And then there is the Cannon, the piece that defines the whole game.
The cannon and the flying general
Cannons move like chariots along open lines, but they capture in a way nothing in chess does: to take a piece, a cannon must jump exactly one piece (any piece, yours or the enemy's) sitting between it and its target. That single jumped piece is called the screen. So a cannon threatens through a wall it could not otherwise pass, and defending often means simply adding or removing a screen. Learn to think in screens and the cannon becomes your sharpest attacker.
One more rule to respect: the two Generals may never face each other directly down an open file. If the pieces between them clear away, the exposed General can be taken on the spot, the so-called flying general. It is easy to blunder into and just as easy to wield as a winning threat, because in the endgame your own General quietly controls a whole file like a rook, pinning the enemy General out of it while your other pieces build the mating net.
An opening worth copying
The most played first move in xiangqi is the central cannon: swing a cannon to the middle file, where it eyes Black's central soldier through your own central soldier, which serves as the screen. One move develops a piece, stakes out the centre and creates a threat. The classic reply is the screen-horses defence, both Black horses stepping up so they cover the centre between them, and from there the real race begins: chariots out, fast. A chariot is worth roughly two horses, far and away the strongest piece on the board, and games between newer players are usually decided by whose chariots reached open files first. One habit carried over from chess counts double here: don't move the same piece three times in the opening while your chariots are still asleep in the corners.
- Develop your Horses and Cannons early; Cannons are strongest while the board is crowded with screens.
- Push a Soldier across the river when you can. Once over, it gains a sideways step and becomes far more useful than the plodding pawn it was.
- Keep your palace tidy; the Advisors and Elephants that shield the General are your only home guard, so do not strip them off carelessly.
Pick Easy while the rules settle in, then step up to Medium and Hard, or use the 2P button to play a friend across the same board.
Values, soldiers and endgames
A rough exchange table keeps your trades honest: chariot 9, cannon 4.5, horse 4, elephant and advisor about 2 each, soldier 1 before the river and 2 after. The numbers drift with the position, and the drift has a theme. Cannons love the crowded opening, when screens are everywhere, and fade as the board empties; horses are hobbled early and grow strong late, so a cannon-for-horse trade is really a bet on which era of the game you expect to reach. Soldiers never promote. Push one to the enemy back rank and it can only shuffle sideways for the rest of its life, so advance them with patience rather than greed. And a detail from formal Chinese rules worth absorbing even casually: perpetual check is illegal, so a side repeating checks forever must break off or lose. Attack with variety, not repetition.
Older than it looks
Xiangqi settled into essentially its modern form by the Song dynasty, roughly a thousand years ago, and by player count it stands among the most played board games on earth. The empty band across the middle of a traditional board usually carries an inscription naming the Chu River and the Han Border, the frontier from the war of 206 to 202 BC in which Liu Bang defeated Xiang Yu and founded the Han dynasty. Every match quietly restages that ancient standoff, which is a lot of history to carry for a game you can learn in ten minutes.
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Xiangqi: frequently asked questions
How does the cannon capture?
A cannon moves like a chariot over empty points, but to capture it must leap over exactly one intervening piece (any colour) and land on the enemy beyond it.
What is the flying-general rule?
The two Generals may never face each other directly down an open file with no piece between them. Any move that would create that is illegal.
Can I play against another person?
Yes. Tap the 2P button to switch to local pass-and-play; tap it again to return to playing the computer.
How is Xiangqi different from Western chess?
Pieces sit on the line intersections, a river divides the board, and the General is confined to a small palace. Several pieces move or capture in unfamiliar ways, most notably the Cannon, so familiar chess instincts only take you so far.
How does the Cannon capture?
It slides like a chariot along open lines, but to take a piece it must jump exactly one other piece (of either side) between itself and its target. That in-between piece is the screen, and without one the Cannon cannot capture at all.
What is the flying general rule?
The two Generals may not sit facing each other on the same open file with nothing between them. If that file clears, the General can be captured directly, so exposing yours is an instant loss and forcing it is a real threat.
Why did my Horse not move where I expected?
Horses can be blocked. A piece placed directly next to a Horse cancels its move in that direction, unlike a chess knight, which always jumps freely. Watch for pieces hemming your Horses in.
Which pieces are worth the most?
The chariot dominates at roughly the value of two horses, so activate yours early and think hard before trading one. Cannons run slightly ahead of horses while the board is crowded and behind them once it empties, advisors and elephants are purely defensive, and a soldier roughly doubles in value once it crosses the river.
Can I play against another person?
Yes. Use the 2P button to switch to pass-and-play on the same board. Against the computer you can choose Easy, Medium or Hard depending on how much of a fight you want.
Is Xiangqi free to play?
Yes. Xiangqi is completely free on Inkplay, with no download, no sign-up, and no in-game purchases. Open the page and play instantly on desktop or mobile.
Can I play Xiangqi unblocked?
Yes. Xiangqi runs entirely in your browser with no download, install, or plugins, so it loads instantly and keeps working even on school or work networks where bigger game sites get blocked.
More games to play
In the mood for more? Try Chess, Tic Tac Toe, Connect Four, Reversi, or browse all board games and the full games list on Inkplay. Xiangqi also appears in 2 Player Games, Strategy Games.