Hootle Xiangqi: Chinese Chess

Hootle Xiangqi teaches xiangqi, Chinese chess, from the very first move to the famous checkmates, and then gives you robots to beat. It is gentle enough for a child of six and thorough enough for a grown-up starting from zero.

XIANGQI SCHOOL
Ten chapters, 113 short lessons and more than 250 puzzles and games, taught by Hootle the owl and the robots of the ladder. Each lesson shows one idea on a real board, lets you try it, and reads every line aloud.
1. The board and the pieces: the river, the palace, and how every piece moves
2. Capturing and defending: what pieces are worth, the cannon's screen, the blocked horse
3. Check and checkmate, and the xiangqi rule that a general with no move loses
4. Rules and notation: the facing generals, perpetual check, draws, and reading "C2=5"
5. Starting the game: the central cannon, screen horses, traps to avoid
6. Tactics: forks, pins, discovered checks, double check and the sacrifice
7. Famous checkmates: double chariots, horse and cannon, double cannons, the iron bolt and more
8. Endgames: winning with a chariot, a soldier, a horse or a cannon
9. Making a plan: open lines, horses across the river, attacking a weak palace
10. Grand review, ending with games against the strongest robots
Chapters open one after another, so you always know what to learn next.

PICTURES OR CHARACTERS
Every piece is a wooden disc. A beginner can see a clay picture on it: a general, an elephant, a horse, a cannon. When you are ready, switch to the Chinese characters of a real set, and one lesson teaches how to read them.

TEN ROBOTS TO BEAT
Climb a ladder of ten robot players, from Baby Chick, who is just learning, through Clever Fox, Professor Owl and Fire Dragon, up to Mega Brain. Play Red or Black. Every robot plays a little stronger than the one before, so each win feels earned.

SAFE FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
- Free to try: the first two chapters and three robots. One purchase unlocks everything else, for good. No ads, no subscription, no accounts
- No analytics and no tracking; nothing about you or your child leaves the device
- Works without the internet (except to fetch the narrator's voice the first time)
- Lessons read aloud, and that can be turned off
- In English, Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai, starting in the device's own language
- Friendly clay pictures and gentle music

Hootle Xiangqi comes from the makers of Hootle, a set of learning games for children.

Privacy policy: https://xiangqi.hootle.app/privacy