64 squares, 90 points # Chess and xiangqi (Chinese chess): one army on two boards, compared piece by piece Rook, knight, bishop, queen, king: xiangqi calls them chariot, horse, elephant, advisor and general, and sets them out in the same order from the corner. Choose a piece and watch it move on three boards at once: shatranj, the chess of a thousand years ago; chess today; and xiangqi. Europe's bishop and queen once moved almost exactly as the xiangqi elephant and advisor do now. The back rows, corner to corner: shatranj (the game medieval Europe received from the Arabic world), chess and xiangqi. Xiangqi has one more column and a second counsellor. ## How does each piece move in chess and in xiangqi? Among the walrus-ivory chessmen found on the Isle of Lewis, carved between 1150 and 1200, sit bishops in mitres, each holding a crozier. On the board they could not do what a bishop does today. Their move was a jump of exactly two squares along a diagonal. It was the move of the piece they had replaced, which the Arabic world called al-fīl , the elephant. Xiangqi, the chess played across China and Vietnam, has an elephant in the same place in the line. It still moves exactly two points along a diagonal. The boards below show one piece at a time. Start with the elephant, then try the counsellor. A bishop from the Lewis chessmen, 1150–1200, photographed at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, in 2010. In its day this piece moved two squares diagonally and jumped. Photo: Nachosan, [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lewis_chessmen_12.JPG), CC BY-SA 3.0. ### The chariot: rook, 車 Shatranj, about 1000 rukh on a1: 14 moves Chess today rook on a1: 14 moves Xiangqi today 車 jū, chariot on a1: 17 moves The one piece on which all three boards agree. It runs any distance along a row or a column until something stands in its way, and it captures the first enemy it meets. From a corner of an empty board it has 14 moves in shatranj and in chess and 17 in xiangqi. The move is the same; the xiangqi board is one line wider and two lines longer. ### The horse: knight, 馬 Shatranj, about 1000 faras, horse on b1: 3 moves Chess today knight on b1: 3 moves Xiangqi today 馬 mǎ, horse on b1: 3 moves One step straight, then one step diagonally outward: the same eight targets in all three games. The chess knight and the shatranj horse jump. The xiangqi horse walks. If a piece stands on the point right next to it, in the direction it sets off, both moves that begin that way are closed. Chinese players call this 蹩马腿, hobbling the horse's leg. Put a piece in its way and compare the three boards. ### The elephant: bishop, 象 Shatranj, about 1000 fil, elephant on c1: 2 moves Chess today bishop on c1: 7 moves Xiangqi today 相 / 象 xiàng, elephant on c1: 2 moves In shatranj the elephant leapt exactly two squares along a diagonal, over whatever stood between. That was all it could do. Starting from its home square it could reach only 8 squares of the 64 in an entire game, and the four elephants on the board moved on four separate sets of squares, so no elephant could ever capture another. The xiangqi elephant makes the same step: exactly two points along a diagonal. Two things differ. It cannot leap: a piece on the point in between stops it, which players call 塞象眼, blocking the elephant's eye. And it never crosses the river, so it can reach only 7 points. The chess bishop slides as far as the diagonal is open and can stand on 32 squares. That move is recorded in Europe from the late 15th century. ### The counsellor: queen, 士 Shatranj, about 1000 firzan, counsellor on d1: 2 moves Chess today queen on d1: 21 moves Xiangqi today 仕 / 士 shì, advisor on d1: 1 move The piece beside the king was a counsellor before it was a queen. In shatranj the firzan moved one square diagonally and nothing more. The xiangqi advisor moves the same single diagonal step, and only inside the palace, the 3 × 3 box around the general: 5 points in all. The chess queen moves any distance in eight directions: up to 27 moves from one square, where the firzan had at most 4. The oldest recorded game played with this queen is in a Valencian poem, Scachs d'amor , usually dated to about 1475. ### The king: 將 , 帥 Shatranj, about 1000 shah, king on e1: 5 moves Chess today king on e1: 5 moves Xiangqi today 帥 shuài / 將 jiàng, general on e1: 3 moves In shatranj and in chess the king steps one square in any direction. Chess later added castling. The xiangqi general steps one point along the lines, never diagonally, and never leaves the palace: 9 points. The two generals may not face each other along an open column, so a general can pin a piece from the far side of the board. ### The foot soldier: pawn, 兵 Shatranj, about 1000 baidaq, foot soldier on e2: 1 move Chess today pawn on e2: 2 moves Xiangqi today 兵 bīng / 卒 zú, soldier on e4: 1 move One step forward in all three games, and never back. The shatranj and chess pawns capture one square diagonally forward. The xiangqi soldier captures the way it moves, straight ahead. Once it has crossed the river it may also step sideways: move it across and see. Chess added the double first step. A shatranj pawn that reached the last row became a firzan; a chess pawn becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight; the xiangqi soldier never changes. ### The cannon, 炮 : only in xiangqi No such piece. Nothing in shatranj needed another piece to jump over. Shatranj, about 1000 No such piece. Chess has nothing that captures by jumping over a screen. Chess today Xiangqi today 炮 / 砲 pào, cannon on b3: 17 moves The cannon moves like the chariot. To capture, it must jump over exactly one piece of either colour, the screen, and it takes the first piece beyond the screen if that piece is an enemy. Put a piece in its way and it gains a target. A cannon with this rule is described in the 11th century, in a seven-player variant attributed to the historian Sima Guang (1019–1086). When it joined the two-player game is not known. Tap any square or point to move the piece there. With the keyboard: select a board, then use the arrow keys. ## What is the bishop called in other languages? Europe received the pieces with Arabic names. Its languages kept, borrowed or replaced those names in different ways. Some follow the look of the carved piece, some its move, and the reasons are sometimes disputed. The bishop is an elephant in Russian, a runner in German, a fool in French and Romanian, a shooter in Czech, a camel in Hindi. The lists below group 31 languages by what the word means to its speakers today; where it means nothing but the piece, the list says so. Chinese went the other way. Its names for the pieces of Western chess are 车 , 马 , 象 , 兵 : chariot, horse, elephant, soldier, the same words xiangqi uses. ### The bishop A runner or messenger 8 German Läufer Dutch loper Swedish löpare Danish løber Norwegian løper Polish goniec Hungarian futó Finnish lähetti An elephant 7 Russian слон slon Ukrainian слон slon Turkish fil Arabic فيل fīl Persian فیل fil Bengali গজ gôj Chinese 象 xiàng A bishop 3 English bishop Portuguese bispo Icelandic biskup A shooter or hunter 3 Czech střelec Slovak strelec Serbian and Croatian lovac Alfil, the old elephant name kept 2 Spanish alfil Catalan alfil A camel 2 Hindi ऊँट ū̃ṭ Mongolian тэмээ temee A fool 2 French fou Romanian nebun An officer 2 Bulgarian офицер ofitser Greek αξιωματικός axiomatikós A standard-bearer 1 Italian alfiere A spear 1 Estonian oda Medieval French called the piece alfin or aufin , from Arabic al-fīl , the elephant. Fol , later fou , replaced it; the piece is called fol in the Roman de la Rose , about 1275–1280. Etymologists disagree on how the change happened. Spanish and Catalan alfil keep the Arabic word and mean nothing else today. Italian alfiere means standard-bearer today. English bishop is recorded as a chess name from 1562. ### The queen A lady 13 Romanian damă French dame Spanish dama Portuguese dama Italian donna Catalan dama German Dame Dutch dame Swedish dam Czech dáma Slovak dáma Bulgarian дама dama Serbian and Croatian dama A queen 7 English queen Danish dronning Norwegian dronning Icelandic drottning Finnish kuningatar Greek βασίλισσα vasílissa Chinese 后 hòu A vizier or minister 5 Turkish vezir Arabic وزير wazīr Persian وزیر vazir Hindi वज़ीर vazīr Bengali মন্ত্রী montri A commander 2 Polish hetman Hungarian vezér Ferz, the old counsellor name kept 2 Russian ферзь ferz' Ukrainian ферзь ferz' A flag 1 Estonian lipp Russian ferz' comes through Turkish from the Persian name of the counsellor; in Russian today it means only the chess piece. The lady and the queen are European. ### The rook A tower or fortress 18 Romanian turn French tour Spanish torre Portuguese torre Italian torre Catalan torre German Turm Dutch toren Swedish torn Danish tårn Norwegian tårn Polish wieża Czech věž Slovak veža Hungarian bástya Finnish torni Greek πύργος pýrgos Turkish kale Rukh, the old name kept 4 English rook Icelandic hrókur Arabic رخ rukhkh Persian رخ rokh A chariot or cart 3 Chinese 车 jū Mongolian тэрэг tereg Estonian vanker A boat 2 Russian ладья ladya Bengali নৌকা nouka A cannon 2 Bulgarian топ top Serbian and Croatian top A word used only for the piece 1 Ukrainian тура tura An elephant 1 Hindi हाथी hāthī English rook is the Persian rukh . The piece is usually traced to the Indian chariot, Sanskrit ratha , but what rukh itself meant is disputed. In Hindi the corner piece is the elephant and the bishop is a camel. ### The knight A horse 19 Romanian cal Spanish caballo Portuguese cavalo Italian cavallo Catalan cavall Dutch paard Russian конь kon' Ukrainian кінь kin' Bulgarian кон kon Greek ίππος íppos Turkish at Arabic حصان ḥiṣān Persian اسب asb Hindi घोड़ा ghoṛā Bengali ঘোড়া ghoṛa Mongolian морь mor' Chinese 马 mǎ Estonian ratsu Finnish ratsu A jumper 6 German Springer Swedish springare Danish springer Norwegian springer Polish skoczek Serbian and Croatian skakač A rider 6 English knight French cavalier Icelandic riddari Czech jezdec Slovak jazdec Hungarian huszár The king is a king or a shah nearly everywhere, and the pawn is a foot soldier in most languages and a farmer in German and the Scandinavian languages. A shatranj set attributed to Nishapur, Iran, 12th century, one of the earliest nearly complete sets to survive. The elephants have two tusk-like points; the chariots are rectangular with a wedge cut in the top. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chess_Set_MET_DP170393.jpg), CC0. ## What does xiangqi have that chess does not? A river across the middle, a palace at each end, and a piece that shoots over others. Chess has castling, the pawn's double step and a pawn that can become a queen. Each rule below exists on one board only. Xiangqi today ### The cannon needs a screen It slides like a chariot but captures only across exactly one piece, friend or enemy, and only an enemy piece. Here it can take the horse beyond its own soldier and nothing else. Xiangqi today ### A horse can be hobbled The cannon stands on the point in front of the horse, so the two forward moves are closed. A chess knight in the same spot would jump. Xiangqi today ### The generals may not see each other With nothing between them on an open column the two generals would face each other, which is forbidden. The chariot here may move only along the column. Xiangqi today ### A river and two palaces The general and the advisors stay inside the palace. The elephants stay on their own side of the river. Together the defenders can stand on the 15 tinted points: 9 in the palace and 7 for the elephants, one of them shared. Chess today ### Castling Each player may castle once in a game: the king moves two squares towards a rook and the rook crosses to its other side. Neither piece may have moved before, the squares between them must be empty, and the king may not castle out of, through or into check. Shatranj and xiangqi have no such move. Chess today ### The double step and en passant A chess pawn may advance two squares on its first move. An enemy pawn beside it may then capture it as if it had advanced only one, but only on the very next move. Both rules exist only in chess. Chess today ### Promotion A chess pawn on the last row becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight. In shatranj it became a firzan, which moved only one square diagonally. A xiangqi soldier is never promoted. Shatranj, about 1000 ### The bare king In shatranj, losing every piece except the king normally meant defeat, even without checkmate. If the bare king could at once capture the opponent's last piece, the game was drawn. Chess and xiangqi have no such rule. How a game ends Shatranj Chess Xiangqi Checkmate wins wins wins A player has no legal move and is not in check (stalemate) that player loses draw that player loses A king left with no other piece normally loses no such rule no such rule ## The same move on three boards: where is it legal? Ten moves, each tried in shatranj, in chess and in xiangqi. Decide for each board, then check. 1/10 The elephant moves two steps diagonally, and a piece of its own side stands on the square in between. Shatranj, about 1000 : Legal. The elephant leaps over the piece in between. Chess today : Not legal. A piece stands in the way, and the bishop cannot jump. Xiangqi today : Not legal. The piece in between blocks the elephant's eye. 2/10 The elephant moves far along an open diagonal: five steps on the 8 × 8 boards, four in xiangqi. Shatranj, about 1000 : Not legal. The elephant moves exactly two squares, never more. Chess today : Legal. The piece moves this way. Xiangqi today : Not legal. The elephant moves exactly two points, never more. 3/10 The elephant moves two steps diagonally across the middle of the board. Nothing is in the way. Shatranj, about 1000 : Legal. The piece moves this way. Chess today : Legal. The piece moves this way. Xiangqi today : Not legal. The elephant may not cross the river. 4/10 The counsellor moves one step diagonally. Shatranj, about 1000 : Legal. The piece moves this way. Chess today : Legal. The piece moves this way. Xiangqi today : Legal. The piece moves this way. 5/10 The counsellor moves three steps straight ahead. Shatranj, about 1000 : Not legal. The firzan moves one square, and only diagonally. Chess today : Legal. The piece moves this way. Xiangqi today : Not legal. The advisor moves one point, and only diagonally. 6/10 The horse moves two steps forward and one to the side, and a piece of its own side stands directly in front of it. Shatranj, about 1000 : Legal. The piece moves this way. Chess today : Legal. The piece moves this way. Xiangqi today : Not legal. The piece in front hobbles the horse. 7/10 The chariot moves four steps along an open column. Shatranj, about 1000 : Legal. The piece moves this way. Chess today : Legal. The piece moves this way. Xiangqi today : Legal. The piece moves this way. 8/10 The king moves one step diagonally. Shatranj, about 1000 : Legal. The piece moves this way. Chess today : Legal. The piece moves this way. Xiangqi today : Not legal. The general moves only along the lines. 9/10 The foot soldier advances two steps from its starting place. Shatranj, about 1000 : Not legal. The pawn moves one square straight ahead. Chess today : Legal. The piece moves this way. Xiangqi today : Not legal. The soldier moves one point at a time. 10/10 A foot soldier in the far half of the board moves one step sideways. Shatranj, about 1000 : Not legal. The pawn moves one square straight ahead. Chess today : Not legal. A pawn never moves sideways. Xiangqi today : Legal. The piece moves this way. ## Which is older, chess or xiangqi? The two games are generally regarded as related. The armies match too closely, in name and in order, for most historians to think otherwise. How they are related is a harder question, and the surviving evidence does not settle it. The best-documented path runs from India to Persia and on to the Arabic world and Europe. That part is not in serious dispute. What is missing is a document that shows how, when and in which direction an early form of the game passed between India and China. ### From India to China H. J. R. Murray (1913) held that the game was invented in India and that xiangqi derives from it, adapted to Chinese terms and older Chinese games. This remains the prevailing account. ### From Chinese divination Joseph Needham (1962) argued that a Chinese astronomical and divinatory "image game" supplied the ancestor, which became a war game in India in the 7th century. ### A meeting of two traditions Jean-Louis Cazaux (2001) proposed a hybrid: an eastern game contributed features to the Indian and Persian one. He presents it as a hypothesis. ### A Chinese invention David H. Li (1998) credited the general Han Xin, about 203 BCE. Critics, among them Peter Banaschak, point out that no early source supports the story. The dated evidence, in order. None of it shows a direction of travel between India and China. 569 China identification disputed ### Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou writes the Xiangjing The dynastic history records that the emperor composed a book on a game called 象戏 xiangxi and explained it to his court. The book is lost. Surviving descriptions speak of the sun, the moon and the stars, and scholars disagree on whether this game has anything to do with today's xiangqi. 7th century India text ### Bāṇa's Harṣacarita mentions chaturanga A Sanskrit court biography from northern India puns on an eight-by-eight board and the four-part army, caturaṅga : elephants, horses, chariots, foot soldiers. It is the strongest early Indian reference. It gives no rules. Between the 6th and 9th centuries Persia and the Arabic world text ### The Persian Explanation of Chess A Middle Persian text tells how an Indian king sent the game to the Persian court as a riddle. It names the pieces and plainly describes chess. The story is set in the 6th century; the text as it survives was put together later, and scholars date it anywhere from the late Sasanian period to the 9th century. Early 9th century China text ### The night battle of Cen Shun In a tale by Niu Sengru (779–847), set in the year 762, a man watches two miniature armies fight by rule at night. Their adviser recites the order of battle: the horse flies aslant and stops at the third step, the commander ranges across in the four directions, the wagon drives straight in and does not turn back, the armoured soldiers keep their order. Later a game board with metal pieces is dug out of an old tomb under the room, and the tale says the verse described how the pieces of xiangxi move. It is the earliest Chinese description usually read as a game of this family. 9th and 10th centuries Persia and the Arabic world text ### Arabic books of shatranj Players at the Abbasid court in Baghdad, among them al-ʿAdlī (about 850) and aṣ-Ṣūlī (died 946), write treatises with openings and problems. Later manuscripts that copy them are the source for the shatranj moves shown on this page. About 1000 Europe text ### The Einsiedeln verses A Latin poem kept at a Swiss monastery describes the game and its pieces. Dated to the late 10th or the 11th century, it is among the earliest European texts on chess and already mentions a board in two colours as a useful novelty. 1019–1086 China text ### A cannon in Sima Guang's game A seven-player variant attributed to the historian Sima Guang gives each side a cannon that captures across one piece. A preface by Chao Buzhi, dated 1079, describes another form played on eleven lines. Several related games existed side by side. 960–1127 China object ### Xiangqi sets in Northern Song tombs The earliest excavated xiangqi sets that can be securely identified date from this period. A porcelain set of 32 pieces from a Song tomb at Luoyang was excavated in 1997. 1150–1200 Europe object ### The Lewis chessmen Walrus-ivory pieces found on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, dated 1150–1200 by the British Museum. Their bishops are among the earliest surviving chess bishops shown as churchmen. On the board they still moved as elephants. 1283 Europe text ### Alfonso X's Book of Games A Castilian manuscript made for King Alfonso X describes the pieces and their moves, and 103 chess problems, most of them taken from Arabic sources. The elephant is still alfil and still jumps. 13th century China text ### Xiangqi in an encyclopedia The Shilin guangji , a household encyclopedia compiled in the 13th century, includes xiangqi play in a form a player today would recognise. About 1475 to 1497 Europe text ### The new queen and bishop The Valencian poem Scachs d'amor , usually dated about 1475, contains the oldest recorded game with the long-range queen and bishop. Luis Ramírez de Lucena's printed book, Salamanca, about 1496–1497, teaches both the old game and the new. Late 16th century Europe text ### Xiangqi sets reach Europe According to the historian H. J. R. Murray, Jesuit missionaries brought the first accounts of the Chinese game, and actual sets, to Europe. 1632 China text ### The Secret in the Tangerine 橘中秘 , a manual of openings and endgames, is printed. It is still studied. A xiangqi set in the Luoyang Museum, described as Song dynasty (960–1279). Photo: Gary Lee Todd, [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Song_Dynasty_Chinese_chess_set.JPG), CC BY-SA 4.0. Two players in the Book of Games made for Alfonso X of Castile, 1283. Photo: Real Biblioteca del Monasterio de El Escorial, [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Two_men_playing_chess_-_Libro_de_los_juegos.jpg), public domain. A problem from Lucena's book, Salamanca, about 1496–1497, printed two decades after the first recorded game with the new queen. Photo: Luis Ramírez de Lucena, c. 1496–1497, [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lucena1497_better_version.jpg), public domain. What can be said today: xiangqi took its own form in China, with the river, the palaces and the cannon, and is clearly recognisable by the Song period. In Europe the long-range queen and bishop are recorded from the late 15th century, and other rules of chess went on changing after that. Before those dates the two lines grow faint, and they have not been traced to a single dated starting point. Xiangqi on a Beijing pavement, 2007. Photo: Vaido Otsar, [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:People_playing_Xiangqi.jpg), CC BY-SA 4.0. ## More on this site [Marco Polo went to China. Who made the journey the other way?](https://mariuscomper.uk/exploratori-chinezi/en/) Seven travellers from China, 399–1433, on a map that follows them. [The Cinderella you know is a rarity.](https://mariuscomper.uk/cenusareasa/en/) Another story shared by China and Europe, in 134 versions collected in 1893. [Tea, thé, чай, 茶: who says it like you?](https://mariuscomper.uk/harta-cuvintelor/en/) One word across 107 languages. [The tsar's envoy to the Emperor of China was a Moldavian.](https://mariuscomper.uk/milescu-in-china/en/) Nicolae Milescu's road to Beijing, 1675–1678. [The will to gamble.](https://mariuscomper.uk/vointa-de-pacanele/en/) Games of chance through history, at their real odds. Share ## Sources The moves on every board are produced by one set of rules, checked against published counts of legal move sequences from the starting position: 20, 400, 8,902 and 197,281 at depths of one to four half-moves in chess, and 44, 1,920 and 79,666 at depths of one to three in xiangqi. The numbers of squares a piece can reach are counted from those rules. H. J. R. Murray, [ A History of Chess ](https://archive.org/details/AHistoryOfChess), Oxford, 1913: the moves and endings of shatranj (Part I, ch. XIII), chess in China (ch. VII), the medieval European names of the pieces (Part II), the Alfonso manuscript and Lucena. Niu Sengru, Xuanguai lu , the tale of Cen Shun, as preserved in [ Taiping guangji , chapter 369](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/太平廣記/卷第369). Chao Buzhi, [preface of 1079](https://www.shidianguji.com/book/SBCK213/chapter/SBCK213_673); Sima Guang's seven-player game in the [ Gujin tushu jicheng ](https://zh.wikisource.org/zh/欽定古今圖書集成/博物彙編/藝術典/第798卷). World Xiangqi Federation, [introduction to xiangqi](https://www.wxf-xiangqi.org/images/xiangqi-intro/xiangqi-introduction-for-wxf.pdf): the moves, the river, the palace, the facing generals, stalemate. Chess Programming Wiki, [Perft results](https://www.chessprogramming.org/Perft_Results) and [Chinese chess perft results](https://www.chessprogramming.org/Chinese_Chess_Perft_Results). Michael Mark, "The Beginnings of Chess", in I. Finkel (ed.), Ancient Board Games in Perspective , British Museum Press, 2007: the early Indian and Persian references. Antonio Panaino, ["Wizārišn ī čatrang"](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/wizarisn-catrang-nihisn-ardaxir/), Encyclopaedia Iranica , 2017. Peter Banaschak, ["Facts on the Origin of Chinese Chess"](https://history.chess.free.fr/papers/Banaschak%201997.pdf), 1997: the 569 Xiangjing and the tale of Cen Shun. Joseph Needham, "Thoughts on the Origin of Chess", 1962; Jean-Louis Cazaux, "Is Chess a Hybrid Game?", 2001; David H. Li, The Genealogy of Chess , 1998. Govert Westerveld on Scachs d'amor ; Biblioteca Nacional de España, [record of Lucena's book](https://www.bne.es/es/colecciones/incunables/incunables-espanoles/repeticion-amores-arte-ajedrez). British Museum, [the Lewis chessmen](https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/queens-gambit-how-lewis-chessmen-won-world-over). Names of the pieces: Trésor de la langue française and Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (fou); Oxford English Dictionary (rook, bishop); Vasmer's etymological dictionary (слон, ферзь, ладья); Grimm's dictionary (Läufer); FIDE Laws of Chess in Chinese, 2023. Chess piece drawings by Colin M. L. Burnett, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. The two shatranj pieces without a modern counterpart are drawn for this page after the abstract sets of the period. Xiangqi characters set in Noto Serif SC, SIL Open Font License.