Lesson 2: Read Moves and Develop Your Pieces
First: what counts as winning?
Checkmate wins: the opposing general is attacked with no legal escape. Having no legal move also loses in xiangqi even without check (stalemate), unlike chess.
Capturing a rook or cannon, or giving one check, does not itself win. Check whether the opponent can move the general, block or capture the attacker.
Guided practice teaches the assigned moves. Decide whether the final position is mate by checking legal replies, not by the completion of a progress bar.
The old introduction has been merged into Lesson 1. Learn notation, development, clear chariot routes and the purpose of an opening sequence.
Complete Lesson 1 first. This site's coordinates run a–i from left to right and 1–10 from near to far, seen from Red, and flipping the board does not change them. Traditional notation instead counts files from the moving player's right: Red's file one is i, file two is h, and file five is e. So file a is not Red's file one.
Read 炮二平五 piece by piece: cannon, starting on file two, moving sideways, to file five. In the starting position that is h3→e3, not b3→e3; the cannon on b3 is on Red's file eight. Likewise 馬二进三 is h1→g3 and 車一平二 is i1→h1.
"Advance" and "retreat" are from the moving player's point of view, not up and down on the screen. For pieces that move straight, the last number is the distance; for horses, elephants and advisors, it is the destination file. Follow the exercises with coordinates for now; you do not need to memorise all the notation at once.
Development means bringing chariots, horses and cannons out from their crowded starting points to places where they can act and support each other. Check whether a horse's leg is blocked and whether a chariot has an open line; getting closer to the enemy is not the goal in itself. Advisors and elephants guard the general and need not all move early.
For example, the red chariot on i1 cannot move to h1 at the start because its own horse stands there. Jump the horse from h1 to g3 first; on Red's next turn the chariot can use h1. Black moves in between — Red never gets two moves in a row.
Demo moves
h1 → g3 / h10 → g8 / i1 → h1
Turn one: Red h3→e3 puts a cannon on the centre file — the "central cannon"; Black h10→g8 brings out a horse. A central cannon is not check and certainly not a win: count how many pieces stand between the cannon and any target.
Turn two: Red h1→g3 clears the chariot's path; Black b10→c8 brings out the other horse — two horses like this are called "Screen Horses". Turn three: Red i1→h1 moves the chariot into the open file; Black a10→a9 lifts a chariot one point. This is a teaching line; your opponent may play differently.
Choose Try the moves and play all six moves. After each one, say which point or route just opened and whose turn is next. At the end, compare how freely each side's big pieces can move. Explaining the purpose of each move matters more than knowing the opening's name.
Demo moves
h3 → e3 / h10 → g8 / h1 → g3 / b10 → c8 / i1 → h1 / a10 → a9
First: "What does my opponent's last move threaten?" — my cannon, a check, or nothing yet? Second: "Is the point I'm moving to safe?" Look along enemy chariot lines, horse legs and cannon screens. Third: "When this piece leaves, does something it was protecting become unprotected?"
Say it aloud for i1→h1: h1 must be empty, the sideways path clear, and your general still safe afterwards. Legal here does not mean you can copy it in every position. The next lesson looks at whether a capture can be taken back.