Your turn
Your colour applies from the next game.
Xiangqi is Chinese chess, played for centuries. Two players, Red and Black, take turns moving one piece. Red goes first. You win by checkmating the other general: attacking it so that it cannot get away.
The pieces stand on the lines' crossing points, not in the squares. The gap across the middle is the river, and the marked 3×3 boxes at each end are the palaces.
Each piece shows its Chinese character and a small letter, so you can tell them apart either way.
| 帥 將 | G | General. One point up, down or sideways, and never outside its own palace. |
| 仕 士 | A | Advisor. One point diagonally, also only inside the palace. |
| 相 象 | E | Elephant. Exactly two points diagonally. It cannot jump: a piece on the midpoint blocks it, and it may never cross the river. |
| 傌 馬 | H | Horse. One point straight, then one diagonally outwards. A piece beside it, on the straight step, blocks that move. |
| 俥 車 | R | Chariot. Any distance in a straight line, like a rook. The strongest piece. |
| 炮 砲 | C | Cannon. Moves like a chariot, but to capture it must jump exactly one piece (of either colour) and take the first piece beyond it. |
| 兵 卒 | S | Soldier. One point forward. Once it has crossed the river it may also step sideways. It never moves backwards. |
When a general is attacked it is in check and must be saved at once: move it, block the attack, or capture the attacker. You may never leave your own general in check. A player who is in check and cannot escape is checkmated and loses.
If you have no legal move at all, you lose, even when you are not in check. Unlike western chess, that is not a draw.
The two generals may never look straight at each other down a file with nothing in between. So a move that would leave them facing is not allowed, and a general that steps aside to open the file is putting itself in check.
Checking the other general over and over for ever is not allowed: a player who keeps checking through a repeated position loses. Any other repetition is a draw, and so is a long stretch with no captures.
Chasing a piece endlessly (rather than checking) counts as a draw here, where tournament rules would punish it.
Tap a piece, then one of its dots. The last move is marked. Undo and the other options are in the ⋯ menu.