The Double Cannon Checkmate

The double cannon general is one of the most fundamental checkmate in xiangqi. In this mate pattern, we use our two cannons together, one acts as the mount and another acts as the attacking piece. Our opponent cannot block the check with his own pieces and result in a checkmate.

There are three typical patterns in the double cannon mate:

1. Central file double cannon

2. Rib file double cannon

3. Bottom rank double cannon

Let’s look at some concrete examples below:

In this example, red has a head-hunter cannon on E5. Double cannon is one of the most commonly checkmate patterns associated with the head-hunter cannon. Red can deliver the checkmate by moving the F9 cannon to F5. The F5 cannon is acting as the mount for the E5 cannon.

The power of the double cannon is that, black cannot use other pieces to block the check from the E5 cannon, since the blocking piece would become the mount of the front cannon, and expose his own general again. For example, black cannot move the elephant to H5 as red can still capture the general with the F5 cannon.

In this case, red does not have a head-hunter cannon in the mid-line, but he can try to perform a double cannon checkmat on the rib file. The E5 cannon is now controlling the I5 spot, red can first give a check by moving the F2 cannon to F4, forcing black to move the H4 advisor to I5.

Now that the I5 advisor is blocking the escape route of the black general. Red can then deliver a double cannon checkmate by moving the E5 cannon to E4. Black cannot find a way to save his general, red wins.

In this example, the G7 chariot is performing a double attack on red’s G1 cannon and H7 horse. However, the red pieces are at superb positions. The H7 horse is controlling the I5 spot, and the right side of black is not well defended. Red can seize this opportunity to deliver a checkmate.

Red can first move the G1 cannon to J1 to give a check. Black can only move up the J4 advisor.

After that, red can perform a double cannon at the bottom rank by moving the D2 cannon to J2. Red wins.

In this Xiangqi tutorial, we talked about the double cannon checkmate pattern. This is one of the most basic mate patterns in xiangqi. You can attack with your cannons in multiple ways if you can master the double cannon checkmate.

Below is an exercise about the double cannon checkmate . Try out the puzzle to see whether you can apply what you learn in this tutorial!

Practice makes perfect