The War On Paper

How to Play Xiang Qi

 Table of Contents
Table of Contents 1

Before We Start 2

The Three Types of Xiang Qi Pieces 3

Setup of Xiang Qi 4

Introduction of King 5

Introduction of Protectors 6

Protectors: Advisor and Elephant 6

Quiz One: The King and His Protectors 7

Introduction of Attackers 8

Attackers: Introduction of Horse and Chariot 8

Attackers: Introduction of Canon and Pawn 9

Quiz Two: The Attackers 10

Quiz Answers 11

The Game Rule 12

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 Before We Start
What the Book About?

Chinese Chess or Xiang Qi, is an ancient game that is deeply embedded

in Chinese culture. Millions have played the game across Asia and the
World for several centuries.

It is fast paced, exciting, easy to learn, and intriguing. But for those not
familiar with the Chinese language, Xiang Qi may seem daunting or even
foreboding.

This book was created to promote the intriguing game of Chinese Chess
to those who are interested but are not familiar with the Chinese language.

The Origins of Xiang Qi

The original chess was invented in China, right around 200 B.C., by a military commander named Hán Xin (“Hahn Sheen”).
The game was designed to represent a particular battle, anticipated by Hán Xin’s troops as they waited out the winter
holding their ground. This first chess was called The game to capture Xiang Qi, Xiang Qi being the name of the commander
of the opposing army.

A few years after his victory in this battle, Hán Xin fell out of favor with the emperor, and his game became less popular, or
even forbidden, but was resurrected in the Tang Dynasty (7th through 10th centuries A.D.). At that time several new rules
came into effect...and variations of the game spread throughout the world.

In subsequent years, the name of the game was shortened to Xiang Qi, hence xiangqi. The Chinese characters, xiang
and qi, also mean “elephant game,” and this became the most common interpretation, losing the original reference to that
ancient battle.

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 The Three Types of Xiang Qi Pieces
On the Xiang Qi chessboard, there is a river between the two opponents named “River Chu and Han.” Xiang Qi is a battle
of wits between 2 opponents beside the river, each with 16 chess pieces.

We devide these 16 pieces of every side as two types of fighters based on their standing positions on the chessboard: King,
Protectors, and Attackers.

Each player has the following pieces which devided as three types of figthers:

King: Each player has one king. Red’s king is known as Shuai (Chinese pronounciation), while Black king is known as
Jiang (Chinese pronouciation). At here we only call them Red King and Black King.

Protectors Attackers
2 advisors 2 horses
2 elephants 2 cannons
2 chariots/rooks
5 pawns/soldiers

The Active area of Three Types of Fighters

King is the one who sits in his palace and can’t be killed,
otherwise the player lose the game.

Protectors are the ones who move,active, and kill on the

field of king’s land, in the other words they can’t cross the
River Chu and Han.

Attackers are the ones who move,active and kill on the whole
chess board (include king’s land, and enemy’s land), in the
other words they can cross the River Chu and Han, and go
anywhere on the board.

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 Setup of Xiang Qi
Xiang Qi is a battle of wits between 2 opponents( Black vs. Red) besides the river. The palace area is the active field for the King and
Advisors.The Elephants are only active in their kings’ lands; the Attackers move around the whole chessboard.

The Active Area of Chess Pieces The Positions of Chess Pieces

The green area represents the black king’s palace. 2 opponents( Black vs. Red)
The red area represents the red king’s palace. 16 pieces of each opponent.
Figure 1.0: Instroduction of chessboard. Figure 2.0: Names and positions of chess pieces

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 Introduction of King
King: To win Xiang Qi you need to capture your opponent’s king before your opponent.

Red King is also known as Shuai and the Black King is also known as Jiang.(See the
Figure 3.0 on the left side).

How does it Kill the Enemy?

Figure3.0: Red King and Black King When an enemy invades a King’s palace the King can move
vertically or horizontally to kill the invading piece. The King
The Movement of King may not leave the palace to kill another piece.

The King can only move within the nine points of his palace. Kings cannot face each other in the same file (see Figure
(see Figure 1.0 on page 4). 3.2). There must be at least one piece between the Black
King and the Red King. If there is not a piece between your
The King can only move one point either vertically or king and your opponents by the end of the turn then your
horizontally. (see Figure 3.1 below). king will be killed and lose the battle.

Figure 3.1: the movement of Red King Figure 3.2 Not Allowed
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 Introduction of Protectors
Protectors: Protectors are pieces who move on the
King’s land but cannot cross the river. Their mission is
to protect their King.

Protectors group members:

Advisors ( see Figure 4.0 on the left side).
Figure4.0: Red Advisor and Elephants (see Figure 5.0 on the right side). Figure 5.0: Red Elephant and
Black Advisor Black Elephant

The Movement of King The Movement of Elephants

Advisors can only move and active in his palce area (see Elephants can only move on their own king’s lands and
Figure 1.0 on page 4). cannot cross the river. (see Figure 1.0 on page 4).
They guard the King within the corners of the palace. The Elephants are critical for defense. They can only move
Advisors can only move one point diagonally. 2-steps diagonally in the same direction. (see Figure 5.1 be-
Please check the black arrow part for the Advisors’ move- low)
ment (see Figure 4.1 below). Please check the black arrow part for the Elephants’
movement (see Figure 5.1 below).

Figure 4.1 the movement of Advisors. Figure 5.1 the movement of Elephants.
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 Quiz One: The King and His Protectors
Q1. Please mark the kings’ starting place within the chessboard below (see Figure 6.0: Pratice chessboard).

Q2. Does the King could leave his palace? Yes or No. (Circle your answer)

Q3. Make circle on the Protectors on the picture below (see Figure 6.0).

Q4. Are the protectors allowed to cross the river? Yes or No. (Circle your answer)

Q5. Circle the first step of the black Advisors and Red Elephants, all possible positions. (Mark on the picture below).

After finishing the quiz,

please check the answers
Figure 6.0: Practice Chessboard on page 12.
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 Introduction of Attackers:Horses and Chariots
Attackers: Attackers are pieces who move across the entire chessboard(the king’s land, and the enemy’s land). Attackers
can cross the River Chu and Han. Their mission is to kill the opponent’s King.

Attackers group members:

Horses (see Figure 7.0 on the left side).

Chariots/Rooks (see Figure 8.0 on the right side).
Cannons (see Figure 9.0 on page 8).
Pawns/soldiers (see Figure 10.0 on page 8).
Figure7.0: Red Horse Figure8.0: Red Chariot
The Movement of Horses The Movement of Chariots
The horse moves one point horizontally or vertically, and The chariot can move as many points as it wishes
then one point diagonally. It cannot move in a direction where horizontally or vertically. It cannot jump over pieces in its
there is a piece blocking it along the path of movement (see path (see Figure 8.1 below).
Figure 7.1 below).

Figure 7.1 the movement of Horses. Figure 8.1 the movement of Chariots.
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 Introduction of Attackers: Canon and Pawn

Figure 9.0 Red Canon and Figure 10.0 Red Pawn and
Black Canon Balck Pawn

The Movement of Canons The Movement of Pawns

Cannons move exactly like the Chariots. To capture Pawns, also called Soldiers, can only move and attack
however, a cannon must jump over exactly one piece, by advancing one point forward.
friend or foe, along its line of movement. Once a pawn has crossed the river it may also move and
Please see the picture below for the movement and capture one point horizontally. A pawn may never move
attack action (see Figure 9.1 below). backward. No retreating (see Figure 10.1 below).

Figure 9.0: the movement of Horses. Figure 10.1: the movement of Pawns.

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 Quiz Two: The Attackers
Q1. Please make circles on four members of Attackers on the black side. Please circle on the Figure 11.0: Practice
chessboard.
Q2. Can the Attackers can cross the river? Yes or No.

Q3. Pleae trace the first movements of Red Horses, please do so on the picture below as well.

Q4. If the black canon( on the left side of black king) wants to attack a red pawn, what are possible positions that he
could move? Please circle 3-5 possible points on the chessboard below.

After finishing the quiz,

please check the answers
Figure 11.0: Practice Chessboard on page 12.

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 Quiz Answers
Answers for Quiz 1
Q1. Please see Figure 6.0: the introduction of chessboard
on page 4.

Q2. Black or Red.

Q3. Advisors and Elephants. Please see pictures on page 7.

Q4. Yes or No.

Q5. For the Protectors’ first possible movement, please

check the picture on the right:
Black Advisors: the pink dot.
Red Elephants: the green dot.

Answers for Quiz 2

Q1. Four members of Attackers: chariot, horse, canon, and

pawn. Please check the figures on page 9 and page 10.

Q2. Do the Attackers can cross the river? Yes.

Q3. Please circle the possible positions of first movements of

Red Horses, see Figure 12.0 on the right.
Red Horses: blue dot.

Q4. All the possible positions of black Canon on the left side
of Black King: Purple dot.

Figure 12.0: Practice Chessboard

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 The Game Rule
How to Win the Game? Let’s Set Up and Play

To win the game you must kill your opponent’s King before
your opponent kills your King. For example, if the red
attackers kill the Black King, then the game was won by the
Red player.

The Overall Moving Rule for Chess Pieces

Horses(傌/馬) go with route as “日,”

(saying: Ri; hence meaning sun)

Elephants (相 /象) follows route as the “田,”

(saying:Tian; hence meaning field),

Chariot( 車) move horizontally or vertically freely,

(saying:Ju; hence meaning field),

way way far east or west!

Cannon(炮) move horizontally or vertically freely,

like the Chariot,

and they kill by skipping one piece (friend or foe).

Nobody block the others’ way,

otherwise they will be killed!

Figure 13.0: The Setup Of Chess Pieces

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