Xiang Qi Notation

This explanation draws heavily on MindZine’s website (*), with some modifications which were made to match the notation used in David Li’s books.

Files are numbered from 1 to 9 starting from each player's right side. Red's 1st file is Black's 9th and vice versa.

Each move has a four-character notation.

The first character identifies the type of the moving piece: Chariot/Rook (R), Horse (H), Elephant (E), Advisor (A), King (K), Cannon (C) or Pawn (P).

The second character is the starting file number of the piece.

The third character identifies in which direction the piece is moving. It has three possible values:
+ if the piece moves upwards from player's viewpoint
- if the piece moves downwards from player's viewpoint
= if the piece moves sideways on the same rank

The meaning of the fourth character depends on the type of the move.

When a piece moves away from the file it stands on, the character identifies the destination file of the piece. Examples are possible moves in the starting position:
H2+3 horse on the 2nd file moves forwards to the 3rd file
E7+5 elephant on the 7th file moves forwards to the 5th file
A6+5 advisor on the 6th file moves forwards to the 5th file
C2=3 cannon on the 2nd file moves sideways to the 3rd file

When a piece moves along a file, the fourth character identifies how many points the piece moved. Examples:
C2+7 cannon on the second file moves forward 7 points
P7+1 pawn on the 7th file moves forwards one point
C2-1 cannon on the 2nd file moves backwards one point
K5+1 king on the 5th file moves forward one point

Doubled pieces - Whenever there are two pieces of the same type and color on the same line, the second character of the notation (the file number) is replaced by F for the front piece and by B for the back/rear piece. Some sources reverse the first and second characters in this case, so they write ‘FC+7’ rather than ‘CF+7’.

Ambiguous Positions - Note that it is possible to arrive at a position which cannot be handled by these rules without some ambiguity as to what move is meant, but these are generally very complex and unusual situations. My advice is to just improvise (e.g., by indicating the starting point and the ending point) on the very few occasions when this might occur rather than attempting to learn the full-blown notation capable of covering all cases.

(*) Copyright © 1999-2000 by Mind Sports Organisation Worldwide Ltd.