Xiangqi openings explained: the Central Cannon, its answers, and the quieter first moves

Xiangqi openings are named after one move. If Red’s first move puts a cannon on the central file, it is a Central Cannon game, and the opening is then named after Black’s answer. If Red plays anything else, the opening is named after that move. These are the ten names worth learning first.

How to read the moves

The moves here are in WXF notation, named after the World Xiangqi Federation. It is a letter-and-number form of the traditional Chinese notation, and one of the two notations Xiangqiful offers.

• The letter is the piece: K general, A advisor, E elephant, H horse, R chariot, C cannon, P soldier.
• The first number is the column the piece starts on, counted 1 to 9 from the moving player’s own right. The two players count from opposite sides, so Red’s column 2 is Black’s column 8.
• The sign is the direction: + forward, - backward, = sideways.
• The last number is the distance for a chariot, cannon, soldier or general moving forward or back. For a sideways move, and for every horse, elephant and advisor move, it is the destination column.
• Two identical pieces on one column are told apart by + (front) and - (rear) in place of the column number.

So C2=5 is a cannon moving sideways from column 2 to column 5, and H8+7 is a horse moving forward from column 8 to column 7. Chinese notation follows the same pattern with characters: C2=5 is 炮二平五 and Black’s H8+7 is 马8进7, with Chinese numerals for Red and Arabic numerals for Black (Wikipedia’s xiangqi article describes both).

The ten openings at a glance

Why the Central Cannon comes first

After 1. C2=5, the cannon on e2 already has a screen: Red’s own soldier on e3. It can jump that soldier and take the black soldier on e6, so the move develops a piece and makes a threat at once. Wikipedia calls it the most common opening in the game. Black has to deal with the threat to e6 before anything else.

The Screen Horses deal with it most directly. After 1… H8+7 the horse on g7 guards e6, and after the second horse reaches c7 both of them do. If the cannon takes the soldier now, a horse takes the cannon, and Red has given a cannon for a soldier. Xiangqiful’s lesson on piece values uses exactly this capture as its example of a bad trade.

The other three answers fight back instead. In the Same Direction Cannons and the Opposite Cannons, Black puts a cannon on the central file too, and the difference is which wing it left behind. In the Reversed Palace Horses, Black develops one horse, puts a cannon into the advisor’s corner, and then brings the second horse out around it. The cannon’s square matters: in this move order it goes to d7, because on f7 it would block the leg the g7 horse uses to defend e6.

The main line, move by move

The Central Cannon against the Screen Horses:

1. C2=5 H8+7 2. H2+3 R9=8 3. R1=2 H2+3 4. R2+4 P7+1 5. P5+1 E3+5 6. H8+7 A4+5

• 2. H2+3 backs the cannon up with a horse. The cannon cannot do the work alone.
• 2… R9=8 and 3. R1=2 bring a chariot onto the file each side’s horse has just cleared. This is the most important habit in xiangqi openings. Leaving the chariots at home is called the Delayed Chariot (缓开车): a real system when it is chosen on purpose, and the classic beginner’s mistake when it is not.
• 3… H2+3 completes the screen. Two horses now defend e6.
• 4. R2+4 is the Riverbank Chariot. It stops on Red’s own bank of the river, just short of crossing, where it is hard to chase away and eyes Black’s horse on the g-file.
• 4… P7+1 pushes the soldier in front of the g7 horse, which frees the horse’s forward moves.
• 5. P5+1 advances the central soldier to e4. It still screens the cannon, and it claims space in the centre.
• 6. H8+7 A4+5 completes development. Both sides are fully developed and nothing has been forced.

You will reach this position again and again, and from here the game turns on who opens a file first.

Which openings to learn first

Learn one opening for Red and one answer to the Central Cannon for Black, and learn what to do in them rather than how many moves deep they go. The Central Cannon and the Screen Horses are the natural pair because you will meet them most. Whichever you choose, the chariots decide the opening: get them out early, onto open files. Wikipedia mentions an old saying against moving a chariot in the first three moves and notes that modern play often ignores it. The main line above has both chariots moving by move three.

How Xiangqiful teaches openings

Xiangqiful teaches openings in two places.

The Openings lesson track has ten lessons. “Opening Principles” comes first, then the Central Cannon, the Screen Horses, the Same-Direction and Opposite Cannons, the Reversed Palace Horses, the Elephant Opening, the Immortal Points the Way and the Cross-Palace Cannon. It ends with “Choosing a Repertoire”, which makes the same case as the section above. Every line is played from the standard start and was machine-checked as legal. All 80 lessons in the app are free.

Opening Lab has ten opening families with five lines each, from the first moves into the early middlegame. Most families are played as Red. The Screen Horses and Reversed Palace Horses, where the defence is the subject, are played as Black. The opponent’s replies are played for you. A wrong move does not end the line: the app says so, draws the wanted move on the board and lets you try again from the same move. Move orders that reach the same position are accepted. Some lines show the opponent’s other main reply, and one shows what the cannon on f7 costs in the Reversed Palace Horses. Every line was replayed for legality and checked by the engine. The Central Cannon family is free; the other nine families are Premium.

Moves can be shown in WXF or Chinese notation, and switching relabels the games you have already played. After each game, Pikafish reviews every move on your device, and Game Review names an early slip as an opening inaccuracy. If you are still learning how the pieces move, start with the xiangqi rules for chess players. Shogi players will notice a similar first decision in Static Rook against Ranging Rook.

Xiangqiful is free, with Premium at $1.99 a month or $9.99 a year (each with a one-week free trial) or $19.99 once. To play these openings against people, see the guide to xiangqi apps for iPhone.