How to Play Janggi (Korean Chess)

The board and the palace

The board has nine vertical lines (files) and ten horizontal lines (ranks). Pieces sit on the intersections, not inside the squares. Unlike xiangqi, a janggi board has no river: every file runs the full length of the board.

In front of each player is the palace (궁성), a 3 × 3 area of nine points marked with an X of diagonal lines. Diagonals exist only inside the two palaces. The general and its two advisors never leave their palace, and any piece standing on a palace point may use those diagonal lines to move along them.

The player with the green (or blue) pieces is Cho (초, 楚) and moves first. The player with the red pieces is Han (한, 漢). Because moving first is an advantage, Han receives 1.5 bonus points in the point count explained below.

The pieces

Each side has sixteen pieces of seven kinds. The general of each side is written with a different character (楚 for Cho, 漢 for Han), and the soldiers differ too (卒 for Cho, 兵 for Han). Pieces are traditionally octagonal, with the chariot larger than the soldiers.

Starting position and the four setups

Soldiers stand on the fourth rank on files 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9. Cannons stand on the third rank on files 2 and 8. The general starts in the centre of the palace, with the two advisors on the palace corners of the back rank. The chariots are on the corners of the back rank.

The horses and elephants are the only pieces whose starting squares are up to you. Before the game each player chooses one of four arrangements, named by reading the four pieces between the chariots and the advisors from left to right as that player sees them: 마상마상 (horse–elephant, horse–elephant), 상마상마, 마상상마 (horses outside) and 상마마상 (horses inside). Janggi Club offers all four, and draws each option as the pieces you will see from your own side. Traditionally Han chooses first and Cho answers, then Cho makes the first move.

How each piece moves

• General (king): one step along any line inside its palace, including the palace diagonals. It never leaves the palace.
• Advisor: exactly like the general, one step along a palace line, and it also never leaves the palace.
• Chariot: any distance along a straight line, like a rook. Inside a palace it may also slide along the diagonals.
• Horse: one step straight, then one step diagonally outward. If the straight step is blocked by any piece the horse cannot move that way (it does not jump).
• Elephant: one step straight, then two steps diagonally outward. Both intermediate points must be empty. The elephant may cross the whole board; there is no river to stop it.
• Cannon: moves and captures along straight lines, but only by jumping over exactly one piece (the screen). A cannon can never jump over another cannon and can never capture a cannon. Inside a palace it may also jump along the diagonals, with the centre point as the screen.
• Soldier: one step forward or one step sideways, never backward. Inside the enemy palace a soldier may also step forward along a palace diagonal.

Capturing is by replacement: a piece moves onto the point of an enemy piece and removes it. Any piece may capture the general, which is why leaving your general attacked (in check) is illegal.

Check, checkmate and passing

If your general is attacked you are in check (장군, jang-gun) and must get out of it on your move: move the general, block the line, or capture the attacker. You may never make a move that leaves your own general in check.

Checkmate (외통, oetong) — check with no way out — ends the game. If the checked player cannot move at all, the checking player wins.

A player who is not in check may pass instead of moving (한수쉼, han-su-swim). Because passing is always available, a player with no safe move is never stalemated in janggi; if a side has no legal move and is not in check, the game is a draw. Passing matters most in the endgame, where being forced to move can be fatal in chess but not here.

Perpetual check is forbidden: a player who gives check on three consecutive moves and repeats the position loses. Any other threefold repetition ends the game and is decided on points.

Bikjang: when the generals face each other

In xiangqi the two generals may never face each other on an open file. In janggi they may, and doing so is a claim: the player who makes the generals face each other along a clear line offers a bikjang (빅장). If the opponent does not break the line with the next move, the game ends immediately and is decided by counting points. A player who is behind on points therefore has to break the line; a player who is ahead can use bikjang to force the count.

Counting points

When a game is decided on points rather than by checkmate, each side adds up the pieces still on the board: chariot 13, cannon 7, horse 5, elephant 3, advisor 3, soldier 2. The general counts nothing. Han adds 1.5 for having moved second, so the count can never be equal when the material is the same. In Janggi Club the running score is shown next to the move counter during every game.

Points decide the game after a bikjang the opponent accepts, and after a threefold repetition that was not perpetual check.

Five tips for your first games

• Get your chariots out early. At 13 points each they are worth more than any other piece, and open files appear quickly on a board with no river.
• Watch every cannon line. A cannon needs exactly one screen; the moment you put a piece between it and your general you may have set up the enemy jump yourself.
• Advance soldiers in pairs. Side by side they protect each other; a lone soldier is easy prey for a horse.
• Do not empty your palace. Advisors and the general use the diagonals to defend each other, and a palace with an open corner is where chariot-and-cannon mates happen.
• Count points before you simplify. If you are ahead, trading pieces and forcing bikjang is a clean way to win. If you are behind, keep the position complicated.

Practise in Janggi Club

Janggi Club plays every rule on this page exactly, from palace diagonals and cannon screens to passing, bikjang and the point count. Start with the three-minute tutorial, play the AI from level 1 (a random mover) up to level 8, solve the daily mate-in-one or mate-in-two puzzle, and use the review after each game to see your mistakes and better moves. The web version is free, has no ads and needs no account.

Questions