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CHINESE CHESS

Xiangqi against a computer opponent, with Tang poems beside the board.

Board & Card Game after game; the score adds up until you return to the home screen keyboard · mouse · touch xiangqi chinese chess board game single player computer opponent tang poems

Play Chinese chess (xiangqi) against a computer opponent, seen from your own side of the board. Pick Easy, Medium or Hard, each with its own opponent above the board, and choose Red or Black before every game; take back up to three moves a game. Poems from the Three Hundred Tang Poems appear beside the board while you play, and the tunes are played on synthesised Chinese instruments.

Free to play in your browser: no download, no account.

How to play

Capture the enemy general by putting it in check so that no move can save it. That is checkmate. A player with no legal move at all also loses. Red moves first, and you always sit at the bottom of the board.
Click one of your pieces, then click where it should go. Dots show where the piece may go and a ring marks a capture. Pieces stand on the points where the lines cross. Your general may never face the enemy general with nothing between them.
The general and the advisors never leave the palace, the box with the cross. Elephants move exactly two steps diagonally and cannot cross the river. A horse is blocked if the first step of its move is occupied. The chariot runs any distance along a line.
The cannon moves like a chariot but must jump over exactly one piece to capture. A soldier steps one point forward and, once across the river, may also step sideways. It never moves backward.
When your general is attacked, answer the check at once. If a position comes up a third time, the side that kept giving check loses. Other repeats, 60 moves each without a capture, or no piece able to cross the river are draws.
Pick Easy, Medium or Hard and Red or Black before each game. You may take back your last move three times a game. A win scores 100, 200 or 300 points by level, plus 10% for each win in a row, up to 50%.

Controls

Move: click a piece, then where it goes	Mouse click or tap
Take back your last move (three a game)	U
Sound on or off	M
Show the rules	H
Leave	Esc

What is in it

3 levels, each with its own opponent: Little Bao, Scholar Lin and Master Wei
Red or Black chosen before every game; three take-backs a game
The standard rules of all seven pieces, with check, checkmate, stalemate, perpetual check and draws
135 poems from the Three Hundred Tang Poems appear beside the board, ten seconds each
Synthesised zheng, xiao, dizi, erhu and qin: a tune for play, for a win, for a loss and for a draw
A session whose score adds up from game to game; each win in a row adds 10%, up to 50%