You are on page 1of 1

legal move.

If the player to move has no legal move, the game is over; it is either a checkmate (a
loss for the player with no legal moves) if the king is under attack, or a stalemate if
the king is not.

King Movement and Capturing

The king is the most important piece on board. Once the king is captured by
opponent, the player will lose his game.

Kings are labeled with the Chinese character on the red side and on the black
side. The king moves and captures one point forward, backward, left side or right
side, but never diagonal within the palace. The kings are not allowed to move outside
of the palace. Therefore, total numbers of intersection points for each king to move
around on board are nine. For each move, a king can control up-to four intersection
points. When a king is under immediate attack by opponent's pieces, it is said to be
in check. A response to a check is a legal move if it results in a position where the
king is no longer under direct attack (that is, not in check).

A special rule for Xiangqi is both kings are prohibited to face each other in the same
file with no intervening pieces. The diagrams below show the details. The
indicate the possible movement of the king in next move.

Diagram 8 Diagram 9

Diagram 8- The kings are placed on palace's lower corner. There are two possible
19

You might also like