How the General Moves and the Flying General Rule

The general move

The general steps one point along a rank or file. It cannot move diagonally and cannot move two points at once.

The palace limits it to nine points in total, which is why the general needs advisors and elephants around it.

• One point orthogonally.
• Confined to the palace.
• No diagonal moves.

The flying general rule

If both generals end up on the same file with no piece between them, the position is illegal. A player who creates it has made an illegal move and must choose another.

This rule matters constantly in practice: it forbids natural-looking general moves, and it is a common mating mechanism in endgames, because the enemy general can be frozen by the threat of facing yours.

• Same file, nothing in between: illegal.
• Applies whether deliberate or forced.
• A key endgame mating motif.

How games end

If a general is in check and has no legal way to escape, that is checkmate and the player loses. If a player is not in check but has no legal move at all, that is stalemate — which also loses in xiangqi, unlike international chess.

Perpetual checking by one side is illegal: that side must change its moves or lose. If neither side can make progress, the game is drawn.