For example, the Xiangqi Chariot moves identically to the chess Rook, while the Xiangqi Horse has a similar L-shaped movement as the chess Knight. Some pieces in Chinese Chess have similarities to chess pieces in how they move or their strategic purposes. Are there any similarities between Xiangqi pieces and Chess pieces? The graphics on both sides' pieces are identical, avoiding any language barrier. If you are unfamiliar with the Chinese language, it is recommended to use the graphical pieces on when starting to learn Xiangqi. The characters essentially mean the same thing though. So the ancient Chinese made the characters different on each side for easy identification. This is because, in ancient times, not everyone could afford colored ink to differentiate the red and black pieces. One unique characteristic of standard Xiangqi pieces is that the Chinese characters on each side's pieces are different. The king must not castle into check.Why there are more than one Chinese name for a Xiangqi piece?

The king, or any square the king moves through, is threatened by an enemy piece.

Either the king or rook have moved during the game.

There are any pieces (friend or enemy) between the squares the king moves to.

This is when a king moves two spaces towards a rook, and the rook moves to the square on the other side of the king. No numerical value can be put on it.Ī king may perform a special move known as 'castling'. It is limited as an active piece, but always is vulnerable to attack. The king can move to one of the eight squares around it. King - The king starts next to the queen. Thus the two queens exactly face each other at the start. The queen is placed next to the king on a square of its own colour. Queen - The queen combines the moves of a bishop and a rook. Rooks start at the far left and far right squares in the row closest to each player, next to the knights. Rook - A rook can move any number of squares: left or right on the ranks, and up & down on the files. As shown on the right, Shogi may be played on a checkered board with pieces that use pictures instead of Kanji. Knights are placed at the second and seventh squares on the rows closest to each player, between the rooks and the bishops. Traditional Shogi pieces have the piece names written on them in Kanji (Japanese writing using Chinese characters), and because pieces may change sides, the side a piece belongs to is determined by orientation, not by color. King, Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight and Pawn in all translations for mobile devices such as smartphones and. It 'jumps over' the pieces on its way to its new square, and does not capture them, but the knight will capture an enemy piece if it lands on one. Names of Chess Pieces in International Languages. The knight is said to move in the shape of an L. Then the knight ends its move by going one square to the side. When a knight moves, first it goes two squares in one of the four ways a rook can move.

Knight - The knight is special because it is the only piece than can jump over other pieces. At the start, a bishop is placed on the third from the left and third from the right of the row of pieces closest to each player. Because of this, a bishop will be on the same colored squares for the whole game. A pawn is worth 1 point.īishop - A bishop can move any number of squares diagonally, meaning, if you pretend the bishop is in the middle of a big X, it can move to any square along the lines of the X.

This is called ' en passant' ( French for 'in passing'). If a pawn moves two squares on its first move, it may be taken (on the opponent's next move only) by an enemy pawn as if it had only moved one square. If a pawn reaches the end of the board, it is removed and replaced by any other piece the player chooses, except a king or pawn. This is the only time a pawn can move to a square that is not straight in front of it. A pawn can capture an enemy piece which is on the diagonal square to the left or right of the square in front of it. If an enemy piece is straight in front of a pawn, the pawn cannot capture that piece. However, a pawn that has not moved at all during the game can move up by two squares. In most cases, a pawn can only move one square up. All of Black's pawns start on the seventh rank. All of White's pawns start on the second rank. A pawn is placed on each square in front of a player's pieces in the beginning of a game. Pawn - A pawn can only move ahead to the opponents side of the board. Staunton chess pieces on chess board with chess clock. The bottom-right square of the board for each player must be a light-square, Chess is a wonderful game that challenges the mind. The way that the pieces move are defined by both tradition and by FIDE, the international chess federation. In the board game chess, the players each start with 16 Chess pieces. Original Staunton chess pieces, left to right: pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen, and king.

Chess pieces names and pictures