The Double Chariot Checkmate

The double chariot checkmate is one of the most useful checkmate patterns in xiangqi. As its name suggests, the two chariots are required to perform this mate pattern. There is a famous saying in xiangqi: “When you don’t have two advisors, then your opponent’s chariots would become your nightmare.“. The double chariot mate looks to exploit the weakness of the opponent’s general when it is not protected by its own advisors. Sometimes we would even sacrifice our horse or cannon for an enemy advisor, so that we can perform the double chariot checkmate.

There are two typical formations in the double chariot mate:

1. Vertical Double Chariot Pattern

2. Horizontal Double Chariot Pattern

The double chariot mate is a coordinated checkmate pattern, which means that the two chairots are cooperating with each other to perform the mate. In general, one chariot would be responsible for controlling the throat rank, to restrict the movement of the opponent’s general, while the other chariot would attack the general and execute the mate. Let’s look at some concrete examples below:

In this example,  the black general is exposed outside, and the advisors could not protect him. Both of the red chariots are located on the vulnerable side of the general(The side where it is exposed). We can see that the I1 chariot is on black’s throat rank, preventing the general from moving to the second floor of the palace. Red can now move the G2 chariot to J2.

After this move, the J4 general is attacked by the J2 chariot. With the help of the I1 chariot, the general cannot escape to I4. Red wins.

Note that in the position below, the two red chariots are on the same file. This is usually not a good practice when you are performing a horizontal double chariot checkmate, as the I2 chariot is blocking the way of the H2 chariot and preventing it from delivering the checkmate.

In this case, the black general is not exposed outside. If we look at the position closely, the G6 and F6 chariot are on the same file. Rooks on the same file are extremely powerful as they can protect one another, and the most common use case of such formation is to perform a vertical double chariot mate.

Currently the J6 advisor is only protected by the general. The F6 chariot is said to be a battery for the G6 chariot, providing power for it to make the move to J6, capturing the advisor and giving a check at the same time. The black general cannot take it, as it is under the protection of the F6 chariot.

The general is forced to move up to I5. Now that the J6 chariot controls the J rank, and the H5 elephant is blocking the 3rd floor of the palace, red can play the move F6-I6. Again, the black general failed to capture the I6 chariot as it is supported by the J6 chariot. The black general has nowhere to go, and red wins.

In this last example, although red does not have the 2 chariots on the same file, the A6 general is rooting for the G6 chariot, supporting it to go for the move G6 to J6. It is common that we use other pieces like the general, the cannon or the horse to act as the battery for our chariot, to break through black’s defence by capturing his advisor with brute force.

Similar to the last example, black could not take the chariot, so the general could only escape to I5. With the J6 chariot guarding the first floor, the F2 chariot can move to I2, perfoming the double chariot mate.

In this Xiangqi tutorial, we talked about the double chariot checkmate pattern. The chariot is the most powerful piece in xiangqi, and it become even more formidable when the two of them are cooperating with each other. You can easily crush your opponent’s defence if you can master this technique

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

Practice makes perfect