Is Chinese Chess a Brain Game?

You have seen two people bent over a checkered board with discs bearing Chinese characters sliding silently, but you've actually witnessed a battle more intense than it looks. Chinese chess, also known as xiangqi, is often classified along with crosswords, Sudoku and logic puzzles as a “brain game.” That's just a small part of the story though. Playing and coaching Xiangqi for more than 40 years, I can only tell you that it is not just a pastime but a very official sport, a proven aid to neurological development, a living intangible cultural treasure. It is a profound exploration based on practice, research and the official rules governing Chinese chess today, all done to answer a question that could be answered with just one word: "Is Chinese chess a brain game?

This is a Hidden Cognitive Load of Every Move.

The mental processes engaged in one game of Xiangqi are very similar to the definition of a 'sophisticated brain game. Each of the movements requires the recruitment of working memory, logical sequencing, probabilistic reasoning and inhibitory control. It isn't just about responding to an opponent's threat, it's about creating a 4, 5, 10 level branching tree of variations while filtering out all that irrelevant noise. The number of legal continuations found in a typical middlegame position is too large for the human mind to be able to list them all in its conscious mind, so pattern recognition is the mind's shorthand, learned through thousands of hours of deliberate practice. By memorising and recalling tens of thousands of specific combinations of pieces, called “game patterns” or “formational templates”, seasoned masters are able to “condense” the analysis of these game patterns into almost instant judgements. This is the type of mental process that is correlated with the improved fluid intelligence and better frontoparietal connectivity found by neuroscientists. By definition, a brain game is one that requires the player to engage in difficult mental effort – and a serious game of Xiangqi by that definition is a brain game.

The game of Puzzles is a mind sport "outside" of puzzles.

However, the phrase “brain game” is usually used to describe a personal game or perhaps a game that is played informally, with no governing body. The connotation is torn apart by Xiangqi. It is officially recognized as a sport by the General Administration of Sport of China and is a medal sport of World Mind Sports Games and is governed by the International Mind Sports Association together with chess, Go, draughts and bridge. China also features a league system, the Chinese Xiangqi League, which has professional teams, salary caps, transfer windows, and professional team ratings are determined by an Elo ranking system, all managed by the Chinese Xiangqi Association. The highest ranking players are called Grand Masters, and are achieved after achieving a normative performance in a strictly-controlled tournament with classical time limits of more than two hours per game. This institutional structure is no veneer, it impacts the practice, teaching and assessment of the game. If a game involves anti-doping rules, official arbiters and televised quick playoffs to settle a “tie,” then it's no longer a casual puzzle game and it's in the high stakes intellectual competition arena. Both from the rule-making and the play-making perspective, Xiangqi is a modern version of a mind sport with the full force of a modern mind sport.

Cognitive Gains across the lifespan that can be measured.

If you want to know about measurable cognitive gains and improvements, you may be interested in the evidence, which is still developing but is far from limited to just “keeping the mind sharp”. Structured Xiangqi instruction was given to primary school students in a longitudinal study in Shanghai, and the results were statistically significant in terms of the development of mathematical reasoning and spatial working memory compared with the control group with other normal extracurricular activities. Mechanisms have not been completely separated but the most common explanation is that the combination of multi-step calculations and spatial evaluation required in the game activates similar neural pathways to those activated by numerical cognition. For elderly people, frequent play of Xiangqi is associated with a later onset of MCI, similar to the results of the larger-scale board game studies that were published in journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine and other medical journals. But, from what I have seen (somewhat anecdotal) in my own students, there is a practical dimension as well: the more they play, the more they seem to become tolerant of frustration. Each game of Xiangqi is an accumulation of calculated risks that can be disastrous if misjudged, and players learn to take setbacks, adjust to the game and look for counterplay to avoid giving themselves a mental loss. It's a form of emotional control that is difficult to impart in a classroom setting and is developed on the board, trial by trial.

A Cultural Treasure that Lives, Not Just a Game

One aspect which distinguishes Xiangqi from a typical brain game is its strong linkage to culture. Chinese chess was listed on the National Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2008 by the State Council of China, and thus it is recognized not only for its entertainment value but also for its philosophical significance, folklore and social ritual. The board itself contains the ancient military thought: the Chu River and Han Border are the two camps, the Chu and Han kingdoms from the ancient times, and the Imperial Palace constricts the movement of the General and Advisors, which embody the hierarchical strategy of ancient military texts such as The Art of War. Any urban park in Chengdu, Kuala Lumpur, or even in Chinatown of San Francisco, and you'll notice the tables filled with people who are not talking to each other, but are listening to a common language. This is a social technology, connecting generations and creating micro-communities. The days of a thousand-year-old legacy of a brain training app on your cell phone are over, and neither a face-to-face ritual that makes strangers weekly opponents and then friends nor a thousand-year-old legacy of a brain training app on your cell phone.

How Xiangqi is Different than a Regular Brain Puzzle.

The table below provides a recap of the differences we've discussed, and a comparison of the traditional brain puzzle and the way that Xiangqi works in a competitive and cultural environment. Here the intention was not to denigrate puzzles, but to show why it is incorrect to make the Xiangqi a mere puzzle.

Here are some practical tips for newcomers: Make sure to engage in deliberate practice and community.

If you are just starting out playing Xiangqi, don't make it a passive game to be solved at your own pace. From my perspective, making post-game analysis a learning tool is one of the most useful things to know when coaching novices. At the end of every game, rewind to the crucial points and check and see exactly where you went wrong in your evaluation compared with the best line. Tactical errors are now a thing of the past with the introduction of lightweight AI analysis features, as found in modern digital platforms such as The China Xiangqi Association's website or third-party applications. If you practice one slow game a day, you will develop mental schemas much more efficiently than 10 fast games a day; see research in mind sports on deliberate practice. Also, if the opportunity arises, attend a physical club or an online forum where stronger players are able to talk through their approach to their game. Where the well-experienced player tells you that sacrificing a Cannon to open the file is “positionally won”, you are imbibing a lexicon of structured reasoning that can't be taught from any one puzzle book.

After all of this, it's time for a Brain Game — and so much more!

Looking back at our first question, it is not complicated, but rather complex. Yes, Xiangqi is a brain game, but just as a masterwork of engineering is a collection of screws. It fulfils all the requirements of a high-quality cognitive training game, challenging the mind with calculations and memory, as well as requiring a degree of adaptive decision-making: it is also a codified sport with professional facilities and is a living cultural heritage, uniting millions of people across continents. For the English-speaking world, the chance isn't just to import a cozy “Chinese puzzle” but to immerse in a complete intellectual game that can be played on a board similar to the size of a newspaper page. Whether you're looking for a boost in cognitive function, the exhilaration of competitive play, or a connection to culture, there's no better way to achieve these goals than through Xiangqi.