As in Western chess, the object of Chinese chess is to capture the opponent's king (also called general in Chinese chess), and each player starts with an army of 16 pieces (one side traditionally red, which moves first, and the other black) on opposite sides of a game board. While the game boards appear superficially similar—the Western board is 8×8, and the Chinese board is 8×8 with an extra horizontal void, known as a river, between the two halves—they represent quite different battlefields. Unlike Western chess, which is played on the 64 two-toned squares, Chinese chess is played on the intersection of the lines, known as points, that form the squares. This pattern was familiar to the Chinese from the game of go, which was well known before chess arrived from India. Thus, Chinese chess is actually played on a 9×10 board, or 90 points, rather than 64 squares. In addition, two special regions of nine points, known as the red palace and the black palace, are marked off by diagonal lines in the middle along each edge near the players. Each king, together with two accompanying mandarins (advisers, assistants, scholars, or guards), is restricted to its own palace.

Chinese chess pieces are usually in the form of flat disks, similar to those used in checkers, and are designated by names written on them in Chinese characters. In addition to a king and two mandarins, each player starts with two rooks (chariots), two knights (horses), two elephants (bishops, or ministers; these are restricted to their starting side of the board), two cannons, and five pawns (soldiers). The moves of Chinese chess pieces bear only a faint resemblance to those of the correspondingly named Western pieces.