Chinese chess (Zhongguo Xiangqi) is conceptually similar to Western chess. There's a king who must be checkmated, a rook, a horse (knight), soldiers, and officials. The piece that gives Western chess players the most trouble when switching to Chinese chess — but also offers the most striking tactical possibilities — is the cannon (pao), which moves like a rook but captures by jumping over exactly one piece (similar to draughts/checkers). Chess is far more popular in China than in the West: it's common to see people playing on the street, there are dedicated chess programs on television, chess columns in magazines, and — as with international chess — active online chess communities and popular chess servers.
- The board is divided into squares, but pieces are placed on the intersections of the lines rather than inside the squares — so the board effectively has 9×10 "crossing points" rather than 64 squares.
- A river divides the board in two. Only the attacking pieces (soldiers, rook, horse and cannon) can cross it; the officials (shi, xiang) are purely defensive pieces confined to their own side.
- The king (general) may not leave a marked 3×3 palace area.
- The soldier moves and captures straight ahead only — once it crosses the river, it can also move sideways.
- The horse can be blocked by any piece, friend or foe, adjacent to it.
- There is no stalemate/draw in Chinese chess: if a player's king is not in check but has no legal moves except into check, that player loses rather than drawing.
In China, Western chess is referred to as "international chess" (Guoji Xiangqi), while Chinese chess is simply "Chinese chess" (Zhongguo Xiangqi). Japanese and Korean variants of chess exist as well.
Some of the world's strongest international chess players now come from China, which has produced several grandmasters — Chinese women's chess in particular ranks among the world's best, having produced a Women's World Chess Champion. Conversely, very few Western players have broken into the top ranks of Chinese chess.
