Janggi: Korea Janggi Association rules

What this preset is

This is janggi as the Korea Janggi Association publishes it, and it is the default game on this site. Older club practice varied on a handful of points — whether a pass was allowed, what to do when the generals faced each other, how many repeated checks were too many, how to end a game nobody could win. The association settled all of them, and those settlements are what this page spells out.

Nothing here converts a draw into a result. If a game reaches one of the endings listed at the foot of this page, it is drawn. The tournament preset is the one that changes that.

The board and the setup phase

The board is nine lines by ten and pieces stand on the ninety crossing points. There is no river. At each end is a palace, three points by three, with both diagonals drawn across it; those diagonals are usable lines, not decoration.

Each side has one general, two guards, two elephants, two horses, two chariots, two cannons and five soldiers. Chariots take the back corners and guards the back corners of the palace. The general stands on the centre point of his palace, one rank in front of the back rank. Soldiers occupy every second point of the fourth rank from each edge, and the cannons the third rank, one file in from each edge.

The four points between each chariot and each guard are not fixed. Before play, each side chooses how to fill its own horse and elephant points:

1. Both elephants inside, next to the guards — the base layout.
2. Both elephants outside, next to the chariots.
3. The elephant outside on the arranging player’s left wing only.
4. The elephant outside on the arranging player’s right wing only.

Han declares first, then Cho declares knowing Han’s choice, and Cho then makes the first move. The two sides may choose differently.

Moving and passing

General and guards

One point along a drawn line, diagonals included, never outside the palace.

Elephant

One point straight, then two more diagonally outward. Both points it passes over must be empty. Not restricted to its own half.

Horse

One point straight, then one diagonally outward, blocked if the straight point is occupied.

Chariot

Any distance along a clear rank or file, and along the palace diagonals while inside a palace.

Cannon

Moves and captures only by jumping exactly one piece of either colour, landing anywhere clear beyond it or taking the first piece beyond. It may never jump or capture a cannon. It may use the palace diagonals. With no screen it cannot move at all.

Soldier

One point forward or sideways, never backward, from its first move onwards. Inside the enemy palace it may also use that palace’s diagonals, forward only.

Cho moves first and the players alternate. Every piece captures by moving onto the enemy piece and taking its point.

A player who is not in check may pass instead of moving. Because of that, no position is stalemate: a side with nothing worth doing passes and the game continues.

Winning

• Checkmate: the general is attacked and no legal turn ends the attack. A pass is not an answer to a check.
• Resignation, or loss on time in a game with a clock.
• A third repetition of the same checking position, which loses for the player giving check. Perpetual check is a losing idea in janggi.

The general is never captured and there is no bare-general rule. The game stops at mate.

Every way a game is drawn

• Bikjang. If the generals face each other down an open file when a turn begins and the player to move leaves them facing, the game is drawn immediately.
• Insufficient material, when neither side can force a mate with what is left.
• The no-progress limit: 120 half-moves, counting the turns of both players, with no capture. Any capture resets the count.
• Repetition without check. Repeated checks lose for the checker instead.
• A double pass: both players passing in succession ends the game level.
• Agreement.