FUN XIANGQI GUIDES
What Is the Palace and River in Xiangqi?
By The Fun Xiangqi Team · Published · 4 min read
Video walkthrough coming soon
Steps
Find the river
The river is the open band across the middle of the board, between the fifth and sixth lines. It splits the board into two halves of five lines each — one half per player.
Know which pieces the river affects
Elephants can never cross it, so they stay on their own half. Soldiers gain a sideways step once they have crossed. The chariot, horse and cannon move across it as if it weren't there.
Find your palace
Your palace is the 3×3 block of nine points with an X drawn through it, in the middle of the edge nearest you — not in a corner. Your opponent has a matching palace on their side.
Know who lives in the palace
Your general and two advisors never leave it. The general steps one point along the lines; the advisors step one point along the X diagonals, which only they use.
Watch the open file between the generals
The two generals may never face each other on the same file with nothing in between. Any move that would leave them facing like that is illegal.
Two zones that change the rules
A xiangqi board looks like a grid of plain lines, but two areas on it change how certain pieces move. The river runs across the middle and splits the board into two halves. The two palaces — one for each side — are small boxes marked with an X. Three piece types — the chariot, horse and cannon — ignore both. The other four are the general, the advisors, the elephants and the soldiers, and knowing where their limits are is half of learning how they move.
In Vietnamese, the palace is called cung or cửu cung — "cửu" means nine, for its nine points — and the river is sông, also written hà.
Where they sit
Here is an empty board with both palaces marked. Red plays from the bottom, Black from the top.
a b c d e f g h i
10 . . . P P P . . .
9 . . . P P P . . .
8 . . . P P P . . .
7 . . . . . . . . .
6 . . . . . . . . .
-------- river --------
5 . . . . . . . . .
4 . . . . . . . . .
3 . . . P P P . . .
2 . . . P P P . . .
1 . . . P P P . . .
a b c d e f g h i
P = a palace point. Each palace covers the middle three files and the three lines nearest its owner. Its two diagonals cross at the centre point: in Red's palace they run from d1 to f3 and from f1 to d3, crossing at e2.
The river sits between lines 5 and 6. It has no points of its own — a piece crossing it simply moves from one line to the next.
Common mix-ups
- Putting the palace in a corner. It is always in the middle of the back edge, never at the side.
- Letting every piece use the diagonals. Only the advisors move along the palace diagonals. A chariot, horse or cannon passing through the palace moves exactly as it does anywhere else.
- Treating the river as a wall. Only elephants are stopped by it. Chariots, horses, cannons and soldiers all cross it, and the general and advisors never get near it because they can't leave the palace.
- Forgetting the generals can't face each other. Any move that leaves them facing each other on an open file is illegal — so an open file between the two palaces matters even when no other piece is looking at it.
Quick questions
Can the general cross the river? No. The general never leaves its palace, so it never gets close to the river.
Which palace points can an advisor stand on? Only five: the four corners of the palace and the centre point, where the diagonals cross.
Why can't elephants cross? It's simply a rule of the game — all seven points an elephant can reach are on its own half, so it stays home and guards the general's side.
The palace and river are easiest to understand once you've seen the pieces on the board. Start with how to set up a xiangqi board, then see how the four limited pieces move: the general, advisor, elephant and soldier. When you're ready, play your first game on the Fun Xiangqi home page — it's free.