Xiangqi Academy teaches you Chinese chess, then lets you play it.
THE ACADEMY: 127 GUIDED LESSONS
One hundred and twenty-seven lessons, starting from how a single piece moves and ending with technique that decides real games: the cannon that needs a screen to capture, the horse whose leg can be blocked, the elephant that cannot cross the river, and the mating patterns every player has to recognise. Each lesson sets up a position and asks you for the move, so you learn by playing rather than by reading. Some are two-move combinations where the engine answers your first move, and the endgame lessons hand you a won position and ask you to actually win it against the engine.
PUZZLES EVERY DAY
- A daily puzzle, the same for everyone, worked out on your device from the date.
- Past puzzles: the last 30 days, kept for practice.
- Speed Mates: as many mates in one as you can find in three minutes, with three lives. Your best run has its own leaderboard.
LEARN FROM YOUR OWN GAMES
When a xiangqi, chess or caro game ends, Review game lets the engine go through every move, mark the mistakes and blunders, and show the move it would have played, with a graph of who was better.
FOUR BOARD GAMES
- Xiangqi (Chinese chess): the full 9x10 board with river and palace, and all seven piece types.
- Co Up (flipped xiangqi): the same board, but every piece starts face down and shuffled. You find out what you own by moving it. Same rules, completely different game.
- Chess: castling, en passant and promotion to all four pieces.
- Caro (five in a row): the pen-and-paper classic, on a full grid.
PLAY HOW YOU LIKE
- Five AI levels for each game, all running on your device, so it works with no connection at all.
- Two players on one device: pass the phone, or sit face to face and turn the far side's pieces towards your opponent. No accounts needed.
- Undo, a full move list, draw offers against the AI, and legal-move hints you can switch off when you no longer want them.
NO SIGN-UP AND NO ONLINE MATCHES
There are no accounts and no online opponents: you play the AI on your device, or the person sitting next to you. The only things you create that leave your device are your two leaderboard entries: a display name and a country flag you choose yourself, plus how many of the lessons you have finished and your best Speed Mates score. You can delete them from Settings at any time. The app also serves ads and reports anonymous crash and gameplay data - the Privacy Policy lists exactly what.
Free, supported by ads. There are no in-app purchases of any kind.
Interface fully translated into 15 languages. The 127 Academy lessons are written in English and Vietnamese.
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