FUN XIANGQI GUIDES
How to Set Up a Xiangqi Board
By The Fun Xiangqi Team · Published · 4 min read
Video walkthrough coming soon
Steps
Turn the board so the river runs across
Lay the board between you and your opponent so the river — the open band across the middle — runs left to right. Your palace, the 3×3 box of points with an X through it, sits in the middle of the edge nearest you.
Put the general in the middle of your back line
Your back line is the line nearest you. The general (帥 for Red, 將 for Black) goes on its middle point, at the back of the palace.
Place an advisor on each side of the general
The two advisors (仕 / 士) take the points directly left and right of the general — the two back corners of the palace.
Fill the back line out to the corners
Working outward from each advisor, place an elephant (相 / 象), then a horse (傌 / 馬), then a chariot (俥 / 車) in the corner. Your back line now reads chariot, horse, elephant, advisor, general, advisor, elephant, horse, chariot.
Set the cannons in front of the horses
Count two lines forward from your back line. Put the two cannons (炮 / 砲) on that line, each one straight in front of a horse.
Line up five soldiers, then mirror for Black
On the next line forward, place the five soldiers (兵 / 卒) on every other point: both edges, the middle, and the point halfway between each edge and the middle. Your opponent sets up the same way on their side, and Red moves first.
Before you start
A xiangqi set has 32 pieces, 16 for each side: one general, two advisors, two elephants, two horses, two chariots, two cannons and five soldiers. Red and Black have the same army; only the characters on some pieces differ.
| Piece | Red | Black |
|---|---|---|
| General | 帥 | 將 |
| Advisor | 仕 | 士 |
| Elephant | 相 | 象 |
| Horse | 傌 | 馬 |
| Chariot | 俥 | 車 |
| Cannon | 炮 | 砲 |
| Soldier | 兵 | 卒 |
Many sets use 馬 and 車 for both colours, so don't worry if yours looks slightly different. The one thing to get right before you place anything: pieces stand on the points where the lines cross, not inside the squares. The board is 9 lines wide and 10 lines deep, which gives 90 points in total.
The finished position
Here is the whole board once both sides are set up. Black is at the top in capital letters, Red at the bottom in small letters.
a b c d e f g h i
10 R H E A G A E H R
9 . . . . . . . . .
8 . C . . . . . C .
7 S . S . S . S . S
6 . . . . . . . . .
-------- river --------
5 . . . . . . . . .
4 s . s . s . s . s
3 . c . . . . . c .
2 . . . . . . . . .
1 r h e a g a e h r
a b c d e f g h i
G = general, A = advisor, E = elephant, H = horse, R = chariot, C = cannon, S = soldier. Notice the pattern: each side is a left-right mirror of itself, and the two armies mirror each other across the river. If your board doesn't look symmetrical, something is in the wrong place.
Common setup mistakes
- Pieces inside the squares. It feels natural if you know chess, but xiangqi is played on the intersections. A piece in a square is always wrong.
- Cannons on the wrong line. The cannons go on the third line from your edge, straight in front of the horses — not directly in front of the general, and not on the soldiers' line.
- A soldier on every point. There are five soldiers, not nine. They stand on every other point, with a gap between each pair.
- General off-centre. The general always starts on the middle point of your back line. Put it even one point off and the rest of the row shifts with it.
- Board turned the wrong way. The river should run across between the players, and each palace should sit on its owner's side.
You only have to learn this once — and if you play on your phone, the app does it for you. In Fun Xiangqi every new game starts with the pieces already in place, and you can switch the Chinese characters to simple symbols at any time, even mid-game.
Quick questions
Who moves first? Red always makes the first move. Black replies, and the players then alternate one move each.
Do the left and right pieces differ? No. The two horses, two chariots and so on are identical, so it doesn't matter which one goes on which side.
Does setup change for different game types? No. Every standard game starts from this exact position, whether you're playing a friend or an engine.
Next, learn what the palace and river are — the two zones that limit four kinds of piece — then meet the pieces one by one, starting with how to move the general. Ready to put the pieces to work? Follow how to play against the classic engine for your first game — levels 1 to 4 are free. Or head back to the Fun Xiangqi home page to download the app.