Choose the rule you need to check

Xiangqi Rules Practice: Piece Moves, Captures and General Safety

Start with the board, then choose the exact move or result you want to understand. Use the complete piece list and turn label before judging general safety.

Start with the board and notation

Set up the pieces, define the view, and keep incomplete move tokens separate from legal positions.

Check a piece’s route

Find the horse leg or elephant eye, and compare soldier directions before and after the river.

Check captures and general safety

Count cannon screens and reconstruct the after-board before accepting a capture or moving a blocker.

Facing Generals in Xiangqi: Check the File After Every Move

The two generals cannot face each other on the same file without an intervening piece. Check that file on the resulting board after a proposal. A piece of either colour can block it, and moving the last blocker away can make an otherwise correct move illegal.

Classify check and no-move positions

Use complete boards and legal responses to distinguish check, checkmate and stalemate.

Xiangqi Check, Checkmate and Stalemate: Three Complete Boards

Ask two questions: is the side-to-move general in check, and does that side have any legal move? Check with a legal response is ordinary check. Check with no response is checkmate. No check and no legal move is stalemate; both terminal cases lose under the cited World Xiangqi Rules.

Use each board at its stated scope

The horse worksheet supplies partial movement exercises and explicitly leaves general safety unresolved. The cannon and newer rule worksheets supply complete sparse positions with both generals, all occupied points and the side to move. Do not treat those two kinds of diagram as equivalent evidence.

The composed positions teach ordinary movement and general safety. They are separate from historical game scores, opening reachability, engine strength or an event’s repetition and timer rules. Try a proposal from the unchanged board before opening its explained answer.

Return to the full Xiangqi learning category or browse all board-game practice resources.