Setup, River and Palace Boundaries
Set up all 32 pieces and distinguish the pieces’ river and palace restrictions.
Choose the rule you need to check
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.
Set up the pieces, define the view, and keep incomplete move tokens separate from legal positions.
Set up all 32 pieces and distinguish the pieces’ river and palace restrictions.
Decode relative notation without mistaking a token for a complete legal move.
Find the horse leg or elephant eye, and compare soldier directions before and after the river.
An elephant’s eye is the midpoint of its two-intersection diagonal move. Any piece on that midpoint blocks the route. An empty eye is only the first test: the elephant must stay on its own side, land on an available point and leave its general safe.
Before crossing the river, a soldier moves and captures one step forward. After crossing, it can also step sideways. It never moves backward or promotes. Check the moving side’s direction, the destination and general safety before accepting any proposal.
Practise the exact orthogonal leg on clearly labelled partial boards; general safety remains a separate full-position task.
Count cannon screens and reconstruct the after-board before accepting a capture or moving a blocker.
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.
Compare screens and destinations, then check a general exposure and an actual legal reply to cannon check.
Use complete boards and legal responses to distinguish check, checkmate and stalemate.
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.
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.
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