Endgames
Being ahead is not the same as winning. Seven practical principles, from your general's file to guarding your defenders, for converting xiangqi endgames.
For Chess Players
Chess instincts cause predictable xiangqi mistakes: blocked horses, cannon screens, pinned pieces between the generals. The ten most common and their fixes.
For Chess Players
In xiangqi a player with no legal move loses; there is no stalemate draw. How this rule wins endgames that chess would call drawn, and how to avoid it.
Endgames
One soldier and a general can beat a bare general, unless the soldier has run to the last rank. Why that is, and the mistake that throws away easy wins.
Checkmate Patterns
A chariot next to the enemy general, a central cannon and your own general guarding the file combine into one of xiangqi's most elegant mates.
Endgames
Why horse and general beat a bare general, why a horse can never attack two neighbouring points at once, and when horse endings end in a draw.
Xiangqi Rules
Why the two generals in xiangqi may never face each other on an open file, which moves this makes illegal, and how strong players turn the rule into a weapon.
Checkmate Patterns
The rule that generals may never face each other turns your general into an attacker. The mates and no-move wins that use it, and how to defend against them.
For Chess Players
Forks, pins, skewers and discovered attacks all exist in xiangqi, but the horse leg, the cannon screen and the flying general reshape every one. A guide for che
Endgames
Chariot and general against a bare general is the first endgame to master. The three-step method: confine the general, take a file, then check or leave no move.
Endgames
In the endgame the cannon runs out of screens. Why cannon and general alone cannot beat a bare general, and how keeping one advisor changes everything.