Learn xiangqi

You know the moves. This page turns them into a game: a worked opening move by move, the ideas behind it, the mistakes that cost beginners material, and the notation you need to read anything else.

Updated 5 September 2026

A guided first game

This is the most common opening in xiangqi and the best one to start with. Red puts a cannon on the centre file and aims it at the enemy general; black answers by placing two horses where they screen the middle. Every move below is written in WXF notation, explained further down the page. Play it out on the board and read what each move is for.

Central cannon against screen horses

C2=5Red slides the right cannon along its own row to the centre file. It now looks straight up the middle: red’s own central soldier is the screen, and the first enemy piece beyond is black’s central soldier, with black’s general behind that. This is the central cannon, and it sets the agenda from move one.
H8+7Black brings the right horse forward and inward. From its new point it guards the central soldier that red is aiming at. One threat, one defender.
H2+3Red does the same on the other wing: the horse steps up and in, where it guards red’s own central soldier. Both sides now have a horse screening the middle. Notice that the horse is also unblocking the file it came from.
R9=8Black’s horse has vacated a file, so the chariot slides across onto it. A chariot wants a file with nothing of its own in the way, and this one is now half open.
R1=2Red does the same, and the two chariots now stare at each other down the same file with exactly one piece between them: black’s cannon. Neither chariot can capture through it. A cannon, on the other hand, could.
H2+3Black develops the second horse the same way, up and in. This is the screen horses formation: two horses side by side in front of the palace, mutually supporting, covering the centre against the cannon.
H8+7Red mirrors it. Both armies now have both horses out. Note the cost: red’s left cannon has a horse sitting on its row, which narrows what that cannon can reach sideways. Development always trades something.
P3+1Black pushes the soldier in front of the newly developed horse. This is not about the soldier. The horse’s forward leg was standing on the soldier’s point, and a horse whose leg is occupied cannot move that way at all. The push unhobbles it.
P3+1Red pushes the matching soldier for exactly the same reason, freeing the horse to swing forward on either side. The soldier reaches the near bank of the river but has not crossed, so it still moves only straight ahead.
R1=2Black brings the other chariot across onto the file its horse has left. Both black chariots are now on files where they can breathe.
R9=8Red does likewise. The chariot slides under its own cannon on that file, so the two support each other: whatever the cannon jumps onto, the chariot can recapture.
P7+1Black frees the other horse’s leg the same way. Both black horses can now move forward on either side; before this they were half-frozen.
R2+4Red advances the chariot to the near bank of the river, where it sweeps the whole rank sideways and watches everything that tries to cross. Development is finished and the middlegame begins.

Opening principles

Xiangqi openings are fast. The board is wide, the chariots are enormous, and a player who spends three moves on nothing is usually already worse. These are the ideas that matter in the first ten moves.

Consider the central cannon. A cannon on the middle file, with your own central soldier as its screen, threatens the enemy central soldier and, behind it, the enemy general. It is not the only good first move, but it is the clearest to learn, because it forces a reply.
Develop horses so they guard the centre. A horse brought forward and inward defends your own central soldier against the enemy cannon. Two of them, side by side, are the screen horses formation, and each covers points the other cannot. Horses on the edge do almost nothing.
Get your chariots onto files where nothing of yours is in the way. A chariot is worth roughly two horses, and a chariot stuck behind its own pieces is worth nothing at all. The fastest way to free one is to move the horse in front of it, which is why horse moves and chariot moves come in pairs.
Do not block your own cannon. A cannon needs one piece between it and its target, no more. Dropping your own horse or chariot onto the cannon’s line turns a live attack into a dead one.
Push the soldier in front of a developed horse. A horse’s forward leg sits on the point directly ahead of it. While your own soldier stands there, the horse cannot move forward at all. One soldier push doubles that horse’s scope.
Value an open file more than a soldier. Files clear of your own pieces are where the chariots live, and trading a soldier to open one is usually a good bargain.

Common beginner mistakes

Almost every game lost by a new player is lost to one of these five things.

Leaving the general’s file open: The two generals may never see each other down a clear file. Beginners shuffle the last piece off the middle file and find the move was illegal, or that the enemy general has been pinning their own pieces all along. Before moving anything on your general’s file, check what is behind it.
Advancing soldiers too early: A soldier can never go backward. A soldier pushed for no reason is a hole in your own position that will still be there in fifty moves. Push a soldier to free a horse, to open a file, or to gain the sideways step across the river. Do not push one because it is your turn.
Forgetting how the cannon works: The cannon needs exactly one screen to capture and no screen at all to move. Both halves catch people: pieces are hung to a cannon that looked harmless with a clear lane, and attacks quietly die when a second piece wanders onto the line. Count the pieces in between, every time.
Letting the elephants be pinned or blocked: A single enemy piece parked on the midpoint of an elephant’s diagonal kills the move. Elephants can never cross the river, so they are your permanent defence, and a defence that cannot move is not a defence. Watch the elephant eyes in front of your palace.
Treating stalemate as a draw: It is a loss. In a bad endgame, do not steer for a position where you have no moves and hope to escape with half a point. There is no half a point. Equally, in a winning endgame, remember that you do not need to mate: taking away every legal move is enough.

Reading WXF notation

Xiangqi games are recorded in a compact system usually called WXF notation. It is relative: each player numbers the files 1 to 9 from their own right-hand side, so red’s file 1 is black’s file 9. The same written move therefore describes the same manoeuvre whichever side plays it.

The files: Numbered 1 to 9 from each player’s own right. Red’s file 1 is black’s file 9 and the other way round. Every number in a move is a file number unless the piece moves straight along a file, in which case it is a count of points.
The piece letter: K for the general, A for advisor, E for elephant, H for horse, R for chariot, C for cannon, P for soldier. The letter comes first, then the file the piece is standing on.
= traverse: The piece moves sideways to another file without changing rank. The number after the sign is the destination file. C2=5 means: the cannon on file 2 slides across to file 5.
+ forward: The piece moves toward the enemy. For a chariot, cannon, general or soldier the number after the sign is how many points it travelled: R2+4 means the chariot on file 2 advances four points. For a horse, elephant or advisor, which never move straight, the number is the destination file instead: H2+3 means the horse on file 2 goes forward and ends on file 3.
- backward: The same, but away from the enemy. R2-1 pulls the chariot on file 2 back one point. Soldiers never take this sign, because they cannot retreat.
Tandem markers: When two pieces of the same type stand on the same file, the file number alone is ambiguous, so a front or rear marker replaces it: the front one and the rear one, written in Chinese as 前 and 後 and often transcribed with + and - before the letter. So a move of the rear of two chariots on one file is written -R, not R with a file number. With three or more soldiers stacked on a file, they are numbered from the front instead.
Worked example: C2=5: Cannon, standing on file 2, traverses to file 5. From red’s opening position that is the right-hand cannon sliding to the centre file: the central cannon.
Worked example: H2+3: Horse, standing on file 2, moves forward and finishes on file 3. From red’s opening position that is the right-hand horse stepping up and inward, where it guards the central soldier.
Worked example: P3+1: Soldier on file 3 advances one point. Soldiers only ever move one point at a time, so the number is always 1 when a soldier goes forward, and a sideways soldier move across the river is written with = instead.

Glossary

General (將 jiàng, 帥 shuài): The piece that must be defended. It moves one point orthogonally and never leaves its palace. Black’s is written 將 and red’s 帥, two characters for the same piece.
Advisor (士 shì, 仕 shì): The general’s bodyguard. One point diagonally, confined to the palace. Two per side, and losing both makes many endgames unholdable.
Elephant (象 xiàng, 相 xiàng): Moves exactly two points diagonally and may never cross the river. A purely defensive piece; the pair of them form the outer shell around the palace.
Horse (馬 mǎ): One point orthogonally then one diagonally outward, and blocked if the first point is occupied. Similar to a knight but stoppable, which changes everything about how it is used.
Chariot (車 jū): Any distance along a rank or file. The strongest piece in xiangqi by a clear margin, worth roughly two horses or two cannons.
Cannon (砲 pào, 炮 pào): Moves like a chariot but captures only by leaping exactly one piece. Strong early while the board is crowded, weaker as pieces come off and screens run out.
Soldier (卒 zú, 兵 bīng): One point forward, plus one point sideways once it has crossed the river. Never backward, never promoted. Five per side.
Palace (九宮 jiǔgōng): The three by three block of points with drawn diagonals at each end of the board. The general and advisors may never leave it.
River (河界 héjiè): The blank band across the middle. Elephants cannot cross it; soldiers gain a sideways step once they have. The two halves are traditionally inscribed 楚河漢界, the Chu river and the Han border.
Screen (砲架 pàojià): The single piece a cannon jumps over in order to capture. It may belong to either player, and there must be exactly one.
Hobbled horse (蹩馬腿 bié mǎ tuǐ): The rule that a horse is blocked when the orthogonal point it steps through first is occupied. Literally, tripping the horse’s leg.
Blocked elephant eye (塞象眼 sāi xiàng yǎn): The rule that an elephant is blocked when the midpoint of its two-point diagonal is occupied. A single piece parked on that point shuts the elephant down.
Flying general (白臉將 báiliǎnjiàng): The rule forbidding the two generals from facing each other down a file with nothing between them. Any move that would create that position is illegal.
Perpetual check (長將 chángjiàng): Checking the enemy general over and over to repeat the position rather than lose. Under federation rules the checking side must find something else to do or forfeits the game.
Perpetual chase (長捉 chángzhuō): Repeatedly threatening to capture the same piece, forcing it to run in circles, in order to repeat the position. Judged much like perpetual check under federation rules.
Central cannon (當頭炮 dāngtóupào): A cannon placed on the middle file, aiming at the enemy general through the central soldiers. The most common opening move in the game.
Screen horses (屏風馬 píngfēngmǎ): Both horses developed forward and inward, standing side by side in front of the palace like a folding screen. The main reply to the central cannon.

Sources

Everything on this page is written from scratch. These are the works it leans on, and what each one settles.

Asian Xiangqi Federation, tournament rules
Settles the terms used here for repetition: what counts as a perpetual check and a perpetual chase, and which side is penalised.