Endgame
残局 · cán jú
The final phase, with few pieces left, where exact technique and known positions decide the result.
Xiangqi endgames are famously precise. With so few pieces the results are known rather than guessed, and whole books exist on positions like chariot against horse and advisors, or cannon and soldier against a defended palace.
The composed problems people solve for training, the classic 残局, come from this phase. Studying them improves ordinary games more than almost anything else, because they train exactly the counting that decides real endings.
The material combinations to learn first are the ones that decide real games: chariot against horse and advisors, cannon and soldier against a full palace, and two soldiers against defenders. Each has a known verdict, and knowing it tells you which trades to make an hour earlier.
In practice
March your General up the board in the endgame. It is a defender and a blocker, and leaving it at home is one of the commonest amateur errors.
Related terms
- Opening开局The first phase of the game, where both sides develop pieces, choose a structure and fight for the open files.
- Middlegame中局The phase after development, where plans, attacks and piece exchanges decide the character of the game.
- Soldier兵 / 卒The pawn of xiangqi: one step forward at a time, never backward, and able to move sideways as well once it has crossed the river.
- General将 / 帅The piece you must protect and the piece your opponent must trap, confined to the nine points of its own palace.