About this xiangqi board
This host is a free 9×10 Chinese chess table that opens in a browser. It belongs to Ply Yard, a small studio of board games, but the playable work lives here: versus the computer, two people on one screen, or two browsers sharing a room. There is no account wall, no app store listing, and no installer.
What this page is for
If you landed from a search or a shared link and want to know who runs the board, which rules it follows, and which open projects it credits, this is that note. Piece moves and early-game habits sit on the strategy page.
A table that is already set
Many “play xiangqi online” pages still ask you to create a profile, download a client, or wait inside a multi-game lobby before the first soldier can move. This host does the opposite. Open xiangqi versus the computer, two players on one device, or a live room, and the same 9×10 grid is ready. The catalog at Ply Yard lists other boards in the yard; this host is only Chinese chess.
The board is meant for a spare ten minutes, a lesson across a café table, or a game with someone who already has a phone. It is not a rated ladder, a title-norm event, or a cloud archive of every game you have ever played. Closing the last tab ends the position.
Three ways to sit
All three modes use the same rules code: pieces on intersections, the 3×3 palace, the river that elephants cannot cross, cannon screens, horse legs, flying generals, and perpetual check treated as a loss for the side that keeps checking. The difference is who sits opposite you.
- Versus AI. Sit red or black, let either color open, and pick Easy through Master. Hint, Undo, Redo, and Replay stay on the page so you can test a line without starting over. Search runs in a background worker so the board does not freeze while the computer thinks.
- 2 Player. One phone, tablet, or computer becomes the set. Pass the device after each ply, or leave a laptop between two chairs. Flip turns the view for the person opposite. There is no second account and no room code.
- Online. Create a private room and send the link, or open a short public code that Find Match can list. Each browser shows its own army at the bottom. The server checks every move, so a late tap on the other phone cannot rewrite the shared position.
What the computer actually is
Versus-AI replies are chosen by XQWLight (XiangQi Wizard Light) by Morning Yellow / xqbase, used unmodified under GNU GPL-2.0. The search is a useful sparring partner, not a claim that you are playing a titled human. Easy still slips; Hard and Master take longer because they look further. Legal movement, check, mate, and perpetual check are decided by this host’s own rules engine, not by the search. The GPL text is served at /xq/xqwlight-LICENSE.txt.
Piece artwork
The red and black discs are the hnz SVG set from the open-source pychess-variants project on GitHub, used unmodified under GNU AGPL-3.0. The board grid, river labels, and palace marks are drawn by this page’s own interface code. Copies of the SVGs and the license note sit with the files at /xiangqi-pieces/. The same credit is on the terms.
What we do not run
This batch has no user accounts, no paid coins, and no ranked season. Board preferences such as difficulty and display choices can stay in this browser; that is not a cloud profile. Online rooms are temporary tables, not a permanent match archive. If you need the written policy rather than this introduction, read privacy and terms.
Who to write
Rule bugs, a page that cannot be used with a keyboard or a screen reader, and privacy questions go to contact@plyyard.com. The contact page says what to put in the subject so the mail is readable. This is not a coaching inbox.