Nine files, ten ranks, a river across the middle and a palace at each end. Learn those three and the pieces explain themselves.
Local table
A quiet game against the local AI. No lobby, no waiting.
Red opens. Moves will list here after the first piece lands.
Kept in this browser only. Clearing site data wipes it.
On this page
Rules people actually bump into on a park table — not a tournament binder. The board above already follows them. Tap a piece if you want the wood to argue back.
If you wanted a step-by-step first game, the how-to page walks the turn. This page is the short sheet: what wins, what is illegal, what this desk calls a draw.
When
You already know pieces exist and need the house laws. Settling an argument about facing generals. Checking whether stalemate is a hug here (it isn’t).
When not
Brand-new and still asking what the river is — start on how to play. Hunting western FIDE laws — wrong domain. Want every arbiter cycle — we keep a simpler park sheet.
Defaults
Ordinary Xiangqi piece moves. Checkmate and 困毙 (no legal move) lose. Draws on this desk: sixty quiet moves, or threefold repetition — perpetual check (长将) loses for the checker. 长捉 and similar chase bans are not fully judged.
Steps
Worked notes
Watch-outs
Shape
Each general and both advisors stay inside the three-by-three palace. Elephants never cross the river. Soldiers gain sideways steps after they cross. That isn’t flavor text — illegal landings simply don’t light up.
Draws
Sixty full moves with no capture end as a draw. The same position three times with the same side to move is a draw — unless one side’s moves in that cycle were all checks (长将), in which case that side loses. Full FAQ wording also sits on the home page.
Controls
Same live board as home. Difficulty still answers as the local AI. Undo and Hint behave like the park table — use them to learn, not to rewrite history forever.