The board
The board has 9 files and 10 ranks. In the traditional presentation, pieces sit on the intersections of the lines rather than inside squares.
The palace is the 3 by 3 box on each player's back side. Generals and advisors must stay inside their own palace. The river divides the board in half. Elephants cannot cross it, and soldiers gain sideways movement after crossing it.
The pieces
A piece captures by landing on an enemy-occupied point, and no piece may move through an occupied point. The cannon's capturing jump is the only exception. The pieces are listed below in the traditional order.
General: moves one point horizontally or vertically and can never leave its own palace. The two generals may never face each other along an open file with nothing between them: a move that would expose that line is illegal. In effect, a general guards the file in front of it like a chariot.
Advisor: moves one point diagonally and, like the general, stays inside the palace. Both advisors share just five possible points. Their main job is to protect the general, but they can also become a liability by blocking its escape or serving as a cannon screen.
Elephant: moves exactly two points diagonally and cannot cross the river, so the two elephants share only seven possible points on their own half. It does not jump: a piece on the midpoint of the diagonal, the elephant's eye, blocks the move.
Horse: moves one point orthogonally and then one point diagonally outward, like a chess knight, but it does not jump. If the orthogonal point it steps through, the horse's leg, is occupied, the horse cannot move in that direction.
Chariot: moves any distance horizontally or vertically and cannot jump, exactly like a rook. It is the strongest piece on the board.
Cannon: moves like a chariot when it is not capturing. To capture, it jumps over exactly one piece, friend or foe, called the screen, and lands on an enemy piece beyond it.
Soldier: moves one point straight forward and never backward. After crossing the river it may also move one point sideways. It never promotes.
Check, checkmate, and endings
A general is in check when an enemy piece attacks it. Every move must leave your own general safe, so a player in check must move the general, capture the attacker, or block the attack. If no legal answer exists, it is checkmate and the checked player loses.
A player with no legal move also loses, even when the general is not in check. In Western chess that position is a stalemate draw; in xiangqi it is a win for the player who made the last move.
Tournament rules use detailed procedures for perpetual check, perpetual chase, and other repeated attacks. Mistboard uses two automatic draw rules: the same position three times, or 60 consecutive plies without a capture.
A famous game
To see the pieces work together, step through a famous trap from a manual printed in 1632. Red gives up a horse; when Black grabs it, Red's chariots and cannons pour through the gap and checkmate on the thirteenth move.
Play on Mistboard
Xiangqi is playable on Mistboard: find a casual or rated game against another player, take on the engine ladder, or challenge a friend. No account required. Signing in unlocks rated games.