Chinese chess

How Chinese chess is played

The rules

• The board. Nine lines across and ten lines up, and the pieces stand on the points where the lines cross. The river runs across the middle; every piece except the elephant crosses it as if the lines went straight through. At each end is a fort of three by three points, marked with diagonals.
• The pieces. Each player has sixteen: a general (G), two advisors (A), two elephants (E), two horses (H), two chariots (R), two cannons (C) and five soldiers (S). On the back line, from the edge in: chariot, horse, elephant, advisor, the general in the middle, then advisor, elephant, horse, chariot. The cannons stand on the third line in front of the horses, and the soldiers on the fourth line, on every other point. Red always moves first.
• Moving and capturing. One piece stands on each point. A piece captures by moving onto a point held by an enemy piece; capturing is never compulsory. No piece jumps over others except the cannon.
• General. One point straight forward, backward or sideways, and never out of the fort.
• Advisor. One point diagonally, inside the fort.
• Elephant. Exactly two points diagonally. The point in between must be empty, and the elephant never crosses the river.
• Horse. One point straight, then one point diagonally outwards. If a piece stands on the straight point, the horse cannot go that way.
• Chariot. Any distance along a line, like the rook in chess.
• Cannon. Along a line like the chariot, but it must always jump over exactly one piece, its own or the enemy's — the screen. It lands on any empty point beyond the screen, or takes the first piece beyond it. It never jumps two, and with nothing to jump over it cannot move.
• Soldier. One point forward. Once it has crossed the river it may also move one point sideways. It never moves backward or diagonally and is never promoted, so on the far back line it can only move sideways.
• The generals. The two generals may never face each other on the same file with nothing between them. Moving away the last piece between them would put your own general in check, and that is not allowed.
• Check and mate. Your general is in check when an enemy piece threatens it, or when the generals face each other. You must get out of check: take the attacker, move the general, or put a piece in between — and against a cannon you may also move the screen away. If nothing helps, it is checkmate, and you have lost.
• No move. If you cannot make any move without putting your general in check, you have lost as well, even when you are not in check.
• No endless repetition. A player may not keep bringing back the same position, for example by checking again and again.

In this version

• The cannon must always jump. Under modern tournament rules it moves like the chariot when it does not capture, and jumps only to capture; you can choose that in «New game».
• Repetition: a position you have already created twice yourself, you may not create a third time.
• The pieces show the Chinese characters; the button above the board switches to letters. The last move is written as piece, from, – or ×, to, and † for check.
• The machine counts material and a little position a few moves ahead. It is an opponent for beginners and decent amateurs, not a master.

New game