Xiangqi: the cannon that needs a screen to shoot
Chinese chess looks close enough to the western game to be misleading. The pieces sit on intersections rather than squares, there is a river across the middle of the board, and the generals live inside 3×3 palaces they can never leave. But the piece that will actually cost you the first three games is the cannon.
Why the cannon changes everything
A cannon moves like a rook but captures only by jumping over exactly one intervening piece — a "screen". No screen, no capture. One screen, and it strikes the piece behind it from any distance.
Read that rule again and its consequences become strange. A piece of your own can be the thing that makes you vulnerable. Removing a defender may create a threat rather than remove one. Blocking a line does not necessarily stop a cannon; sometimes it loads it.
Nothing in western chess behaves this way, which is why the cannon is where most newcomers lose material without understanding what happened.
The river divides the rules, not just the board
The river is not decoration, it is a rule boundary. Elephants cannot cross it at all, which means each side keeps two permanently defensive pieces. Soldiers, on the other hand, gain the right to move sideways once they cross — a pawn that reaches the far bank becomes genuinely useful rather than a slow promotion candidate.
And the horse can be blocked. It moves like a knight but an adjacent piece stops it, so unlike in chess, a horse is not immune to being fenced in.
Practical advice for a first game
- Track cannon lines the way you track rook files in chess, and count the pieces on them. Two pieces between means no threat; one means a threat.
- Watch out for the general-facing rule: the two generals may not stare at each other down an open file with nothing between them. It looks like a curiosity and it decides endgames.
- Chariots (rooks) are still the strongest pieces. Open lines for them early — the same instinct as in western chess.
- Do not trade lightly to "simplify". With cannons on the board, an emptier position is a more dangerous one, because screens disappear and lines open.
- Use Undo to explore: rolling back both moves is the fastest way to learn what a cannon can actually reach.
Pieces are G general, A advisor, E elephant, H horse, R chariot, C cannon, S soldier. Vs Computer and Two Players modes are both available; the goal is checkmate on the opposing general.