Chinese Chess

How to play

Checkmate the other general, or leave the other side with no legal move.

Red goes first, then players take turns. Whoever starts the round plays Red, and sides swap each round.

1. Pieces sit where the lines cross, not inside the squares. Tap a piece to see where it can go, then tap a marked point. Moving onto an enemy piece captures it.
2. The pieces: 帥/將 general, 仕/士 advisor, 相/象 elephant, 傌/馬 horse, 俥/車 chariot, 炮/砲 cannon, 兵/卒 soldier.
3. General: one point straight, inside the palace, the box with the X at your end. Advisor: one point diagonally, inside the palace. Elephant: exactly two points diagonally, and it never crosses the river in the middle.
4. Horse: one point straight, then one diagonally. Chariot: any distance straight. A piece right next to a horse blocks it that way, and a piece in the middle of an elephant's diagonal blocks the elephant.
5. Cannon: moves like a chariot, but to capture it must jump over exactly one piece, from either side. Soldier: one point forward, and sideways too once it crosses the river. It never moves back.
6. Check means your general is under attack, and you must get out of it at once. The two generals may never face each other on the same up-and-down line with nothing between them. If you have no legal move, you lose, even if you aren't in check.
7. It's a draw if neither side has a piece left that can cross the river, the same position appears a third time, or both sides make sixty moves in a row without a capture.
8. On your turn, you can resign or offer a draw. Tap Offer draw, then make your move to send the offer. The other player can tap Accept draw or make a move to say no.
9. The game starts with a chess clock, 10 min +5 sec: ten minutes each for the whole game, plus five seconds after every move. Change it under Clock in the lobby. Whoever runs out of time loses. The robot is on the clock too.
10. Clock can also be No clock or Per move. With Per move, if your turn runs out of time, the game makes a sensible move for you.

Play with a friend

1. Open Recess and choose Chinese Chess.
2. Tap With a friend. Your table gets a code.
3. Send your friend the code or the link. They join from a browser or the app.

Questions

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