Casual xiangqi

What this preset is

This is standard xiangqi. The board is nine files by ten ranks of intersections with a river across the middle and a three by three palace at each end. Each side has one general, two advisors, two elephants, two horses, two chariots, two cannons and five soldiers. Red moves first.

Everything about how the pieces move, and everything about how the game is won, matches the federation preset exactly. One rule is different, and it is the repetition rule. Read that section and you have the whole difference.

The pieces

General

One point orthogonally, never leaving the palace. The two generals may never face each other down a file with nothing between them; a move that would expose that is illegal.

Advisor

One point diagonally, never leaving the palace.

Elephant

Exactly two points diagonally, blocked if the midpoint is occupied, and never across the river.

Horse

One point orthogonally then one diagonally outward, blocked if that first orthogonal point is occupied by a piece of either colour.

Chariot

Any distance along a rank or file, through empty points, capturing the first enemy piece in its path.

Cannon

Moves like a chariot over empty points. Captures only by jumping exactly one intervening piece of either colour and taking the first enemy piece beyond it.

Soldier

One point forward. After crossing the river, also one point sideways. Never backward, never diagonally, never promoted.

Repetition: a plain threefold draw

If the same position appears on the board three times, with the same player to move each time, the game is a draw. That is the whole rule. It does not matter who caused the repetition, whether checks were involved, whether one player was chasing a piece, or whether the chased piece was defended. Three occurrences, and the game ends level.

This is a deliberate simplification of competitive xiangqi. The federation code asks a different question: when a position repeats, which player was forcing it, and were they entitled to? It then penalises the aggressor, so that perpetual check loses for the checker and a one-sided chase of an undefended piece loses for the chaser. Those rules exist for good reasons, and they make competitive xiangqi more decisive than it would otherwise be.

They also have a cost. Judging a chase means deciding what counts as a threat, whether the threatened piece was really undefended, and whether both sides or only one were doing the forcing. Those judgements are subtle. In over-the-board play they are the reason arbiters exist. For two people playing for enjoyment, a game that suddenly turns on a technical ruling neither player fully understands is a bad experience, and it usually arrives at the worst possible moment.

So this preset removes the judgement entirely. A repeated position is a draw, full stop. Nobody has to know the chase rules, nobody forfeits a game they thought they were saving, and a beginner can play a perpetual check to escape a lost position exactly as they would in western chess.

One thing is worth saying clearly, because it is a common assumption. This is not a softer game overall. Stalemate is still a loss, exactly as in the federation preset, and that is a far harsher rule than anything in western chess. The only thing made gentler here is the repetition judgement.

Winning

• Checkmate. The enemy general is attacked and no legal move ends the attack.
• Stalemate. The opponent has no legal move at all, whether or not the general is in check. This is a win for you.
• Resignation, or your opponent’s clock running out in a timed game.

There is no way to win by repetition in this preset. Perpetual check and perpetual chase are not penalised; they lead to a draw like any other repeated position.

Drawing

• By threefold repetition of the position, with the same player to move.
• By agreement between the two players.
• By insufficient attacking material, when neither side can force a mate with what remains.
• By the no-progress limit: 120 half-moves, sixty moves each, without a single capture.

Sources

Everything on this page is written from scratch. These are the works it leans on, and what each one settles.

• Asian Xiangqi Federation, tournament rules

  The competitive code this preset deliberately departs from. It is cited to make clear exactly which rule has been replaced here, and what a player would meet in tournament play instead.