Philosophical Game Analysis

三才棋 Energy Image of this Game

Every move by both sides as a diffuse field of color — no board. Color is a flowing medium: large, polygonal washes spread and overlap like ink and vermillion on damp paper. Color follows the degree of freedom of the moving piece: red (li, order) through to ink-black (wu wei, freedom).

– moves

Rendering controls

Red Black Fill color fields Fade over time Mark captures Show touches Show energy lines

Opens a standalone window with the full slider set side by side.

Xiangqi San Cai — Rules

Never played Xiangqi? Beginner's guide

What's this all about?

Xiangqi (Chinese chess) is the East Asian sibling of Western chess. Two "armies" — Red and Black — face off on a board. You play Red. Instead of a king, each side defends a General. Once the General is trapped with no way out, the game ends — that's checkmate. Xiangqi San Cai adds a second, quieter path to victory: infiltration with the Giác Thân (more on that shortly).

The board: lines, not squares

The biggest difference from Western chess: pieces sit not in squares but on the intersections of lines — like in Go. Two features shape the board:

The river in the middle splits the board in two. Some pieces may never cross it; others actually gain mobility once they do.
The palace is a small 3×3 area right behind each side's back row. The General and Advisor may never leave it.

Xiangqi San Cai adds a second, horizontal plane: Ren 人 (the plane of Human, below, where the game begins) and Tian 天 (the plane of Heaven, above). Some pieces can move between the two, others can't.

The pieces — what they mean and how they move

Every piece carries its own "degree of freedom": how tightly it's bound to order and place, or how freely it may move.

General 帥/將 — moves only 1 point straight, and only within its own palace. The most important piece, but the least mobile.
Advisor 仕/士 — 1 point diagonally, also only in the palace. Guards the General from close by.
Elephant 相/象 — jumps exactly 2 points diagonally (like a small "X"). Never crosses the river — a pure defender of its own half. If the point in between is occupied, the jump is blocked.
Horse 傌/馬 — moves like the knight in Western chess (1 square straight + 1 diagonal outward). Important: a piece standing directly next to the Horse (on the way there) blocks the jump in that direction — known as "the horse's leg is blocked".
Chariot 俥/車 — moves any distance in a straight line, like the rook in chess. The strongest "ordinary" piece.
Cannon 炮/砲 — moves like the Chariot, but to capture it must jump over exactly one other piece (a "screen"). Without a screen it can only move, not capture.
Soldier 兵/卒 — at first moves only 1 point forward. After crossing the river it may also move sideways — it gains freedom over time, but can never move backward.
Giác Thân — the new piece in Xiangqi San Cai (more on this now).

The Giác Thân — the heart of Xiangqi San Cai

The Giác Thân moves 1 point in any of six directions — including up/down between Ren and Tian. It cannot capture and cannot be captured either: if touched by an enemy piece, it's frozen for a few moves instead and loses time from its reserve (starting at a 3:00-minute equivalent). Once that reserve runs out, the next touch removes it from the game for good.

Its goal: slip into the enemy palace unnoticed and stay there for two of its own consecutive moves, untouched. Pull that off and you win by infiltration — without ever having threatened the General at all.

How a game unfolds

At the start, choose one of the five marked lines (green) as your Giác Thân's starting position.
Then tap one of your pieces — its possible destinations light up green.
Tapping a highlighted square makes the move. If an enemy piece is there, it's captured (except for the Giác Thân — see above).
Red and Black alternate turns until checkmate, infiltration, or stalemate decides the game.

A few tips for getting started

The General can never leave the palace — so it doesn't need "escape routes", but it does need cover from the Advisor and Elephants.
Watch out for undefended pieces — Chariots and Cannons in particular are valuable.
The Giác Thân is vulnerable early on: a single wrong advance can quickly get it frozen. Watch where the enemy Giác Thân stands before sending out your own.
The second plane (Tian) isn't a risk-free hiding spot — the Giác Thân can still be discovered there.

The rest of these rules (below, in detail) spell out every rule once more precisely — a reference to come back to once you've got the basics down.

Goal of the game

You win in one of two ways:

Checkmate — as in classical chess/Xiangqi: the enemy General can no longer escape attack.
Infiltration — your Giác Thân reaches the enemy palace and stays there for two of its own moves without being touched.

The board

Play takes place on two stacked planes: Ren (below, where the game begins) and Tian (above). Some pieces can move between the planes, others can't — noted for each piece below.

Your pieces

General — 1 step, always stays in the palace and on Ren.
Advisor — 1 diagonal step in the palace; stays on its starting plane.
Elephant — jumps 2 squares diagonally, never crosses the river; stays on its starting plane.
Horse — classic L-move; can combine the L-move with a plane switch.
Chariot — any distance in a straight line, including between planes.
Cannon — moves like the Chariot, captures only by jumping over exactly one piece.
Soldier — moves forward; gains more freedom over time (sideways after crossing the river, then plane-switching too).
Giác Thân — your infiltration specialist: 1 step in any of its 6 directions (4 horizontal, plus up/down between the planes), cannot capture, only briefly frozen instead of captured when touched.

Repetition and the Di plane

A threefold repetition does not end the game in a draw. Play continues on the Di plane 地 (Earth) — a single board, played like classical Xiangqi, with the pieces that were captured on Ren and Tian, set up on their classical starting squares, without the General. Each piece keeps its colour; no piece on Di has a degree of freedom beyond its classical move. Giác Thân is excluded from Di.

On Di, the Advisor may step 1 square in any direction, without the palace limit, and the Advisor and the Elephant may cross the river. A piece that reaches the enemy palace may also make one extra step in any direction inside that palace. A piece that stays in the enemy palace for two of its own consecutive moves wins the game.

Getting started

At the start of the game, choose one of the five marked lines for your Giác Thân.
Then click one of your pieces — possible destinations light up green.
Click a green-highlighted square to make the move.

Official Rulebook — full illustrated edition

Download the complete rulebook with movement diagrams, in English, German, Chinese or Vietnamese.

English (PDF) Deutsch (PDF) Chinese (PDF) Tiếng Việt (PDF)

Video Introduction

Watch on YouTube

Game Info