The Palcorner Horse Checkmate

The palcorner horse checkmate is a useful attacking weapon of horses in Xiangqi. We can use the palcorner horse to force the opponent’s general to move away from its safest spot, and then attack the vulnerable general with our other pieces.

When a horse is placed to the positions(H4, H6 for red; C4, C6 for black) in the following diagram, it is called the palcorner horse. As you can see, the palcorner horse can attack the A5/J5 directly.

Unlike chariots and cannons, which can move in straight lines, horses have to move in a diagonal. How can we make an elbow horse? The labelled positions(G2,G4,G6,G8 for red horses; D2,D4,D6,D8 for black horses) below are the most common way spots that can form an elbow horse. If we can get to one of these spots, then we can perform an palcorner horse checkmate. (These spots can also lead to a elbow horse checkmate!)

How are we going to reach these spots? It is actually quite simple. After you place the horse in your riverbank, all you have to do is to move your horse horizontally twice, then it will reach one of these positions! Below is one of the examples:

There are two common patterns associated with the palcorner horse checkmate:

1. The elbow-file-attack pattern

2. The throat-rank-attack pattern

Let’s take a look at the following examples:

The elbow-file-attack pattern

In this example, red has a central cannon that is pinning the I5 advisor and H5 elephant. The red horse can make use of the pin to perform a palcorner horse check by moving the I2 horse to H4.

The black general can only escape to J4. Now that the black advisor is no longer pinned by the central cannon, the H4 seems to be in danger. However, red does not have to move away the palcorner horse. Instead, he could move the cannon to G4, using the palcorner horse as a mount to attack the black general. Black does not have time to capture the horse, and his general fails to escape. Red wins.

The throat-rank-attack pattern

In this position. Red wants to attack the black general with the elbow horse, but the D3 is guarding I3. Neverthless, the G2 horse has an excellent position, and he can perform the palcorner horse by moving to H4.

Then the E9 chariot can check the general by moving to I9. The palcorner horse is guarding J5, and the black H5 elephant is also blocking the general from moving to the third floor of the palace. Red wins.

In this Xiangqi tutorial, we talked about the palcorner horse checkmate pattern. We learned two of the most common checkmate patterns associated with the palcorner horse, and they can be a useful weapon for your horses.

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

Practice makes perfect