FUN XIANGQI GUIDES
How to Move the Soldier in Xiangqi (兵 / 卒)
By The Fun Xiangqi Team · Published · 3 min read
Video walkthrough coming soon
Steps
Find your soldiers
Each side has five soldiers: 兵 for Red, 卒 for Black. They start on the fourth line from your edge, on every other point.
Move one point forward
Before it crosses the river, a soldier can only step one point straight forward, toward your opponent's side.
Cross the river to move sideways
Once a soldier is on your opponent's half, it may also step one point left or right, instead of forward.
Never move backward
A soldier never retreats. There's no promotion either: on your opponent's back line it can only move sideways.
Capture the way it moves
A soldier captures by stepping onto an enemy piece — forward, or sideways once it has crossed the river.
Before and after the river
The soldier has the simplest move in xiangqi, with one twist: it changes when the soldier crosses the river.
c d e f g
7 . . o . .
6 . o S o .
---- river ----
5 . . o . .
4 . . S . .
Both soldiers here are Red, moving up the board. S on e4 hasn't crossed yet, so it has one move: forward to e5 (o). S on e6 is on the far side of the river, so it can go forward to e7 or sideways to d6 or f6. It can never go back to e5.
A soldier gets one move per turn — forward or sideways, never both.
The end of the road
Unlike a chess pawn, a xiangqi soldier never promotes. When it reaches your opponent's back line, it stays a soldier and can only step sideways along that line. That sounds weak, but a soldier deep in enemy territory still attacks the points next to it.
Why soldiers matter
Rough values put a soldier at 1 point before the river and about 2 once it has crossed — sources differ. The rise in value comes from the sideways move: a crossed soldier covers more points.
A few tips:
- Cross together. One lonely soldier over the river is easy to pick off. Two side by side protect each other.
- Don't rush every soldier. Soldiers can't come back, so a soldier pushed too far can leave a gap behind it.
- Mind the middle soldier. It stands on the generals' file. Once it crosses the river and steps sideways, it leaves that file — and the generals may never face each other with nothing between them.
Quick questions
Can a soldier move sideways before the river? No. Until it crosses, it only moves forward.
Does a soldier promote at the last line? No. There's no promotion in xiangqi. It just keeps moving sideways along that line.
Is the Red soldier called something different? In English both are soldiers. In Vietnamese both are usually tốt, and the red one is sometimes called binh.
That completes the seven pieces. Want a refresher? Revisit how to move the cannon or what the palace and river are. Then put it all together: follow how to play against the classic engine — levels 1 to 4 are free — or start from the Fun Xiangqi home page.