Terms of Use

These terms apply when you use the xiangqi host at xiangqi.plyyard.com, including the computer opponent, the one-screen two-player board, and online rooms. If you do not agree, close the tab.

Last updated August 2026.

What you are using

The board is a free practice table in a browser. It implements Chinese chess on a 9×10 grid with palace, river, cannon, horse-leg, and flying-general rules as this host encodes them. It is not a federation event, not a rated tournament, and not a promise that every rare edge case matches a particular printed rulebook. Computer moves are search results, not official adjudications.

Ply Yard may change, pause, or remove a mode or the whole host. A room you opened yesterday may not still be there today.

How you may use it

Play for yourself, teach someone beside you, and link honestly to a page on this host. Do not attack the site, flood rooms or Find Match, scrape in a way that knocks the host over, or wrap the board in another product that pretends to be Ply Yard or this xiangqi table.

Seat names and in-room messages are system presets for the people at that table, not free typing. Do not use rooms to harass or flood. The host may close a room or a connection when that happens.

Online rooms

A private invite is a capability: anyone who has the link can try to sit. Treat it like a door key and send it only to the person you mean to play. A public five-character code can be listed for strangers. Find Match is a waiting seat, not a guarantee that a partner will arrive.

The server checks legal moves on this host. That does not make the table a court. If two people disagree about a house rule that this page does not implement, finish the game or leave; we do not referee by email.

Open artwork

Xiangqi piece artwork (the hnz set) comes from the open-source pychess-variants project by gbtami and contributors, used unmodified under GNU AGPL-3.0. Local copies and the license note are kept with the files under /xiangqi-pieces/. The board grid is drawn in this site’s interface code, not taken from that project’s board bitmap.

Open AI search

Versus-AI search is XQWLight by Morning Yellow / xqbase, included unmodified under GNU GPL-2.0. A copy of that license is at /xq/xqwlight-LICENSE.txt. Legal movement, check, mate, and perpetual check are this site’s own engine. A computer move is not warranted as the best move.

Names and marks

“Xiangqi” and “Chinese chess” on this host mean the traditional 9×10 game with the river and palace. They are not a claim to any particular association’s logo or event. More boards may join the yard later. They will have their own hosts.

No warranty

The site is provided as is. We do not promise uninterrupted access, a perfect rules engine in every unusual position, or that an online room will stay up for a long correspondence game. Use the board knowing a tab, a network drop, or a closed room can end the position.

Privacy and contact

What the browser and the rooms store is described in the privacy policy. Questions about these terms: contact@plyyard.com. More on how to write: contact.