What Is XieXie Master and What Can Its XiangQi Engine Features Do?

XieXie Master is a computer Chinese chess (XiangQi) engine and playing interface, described on its official site as the World Computer Chinese Chess Champion software. Version 3.0 ("谢谢大师") is a paid release, so it should not be assumed to be a free download. It is aimed at players who want a strong XiangQi opponent and analysis tool, and at users who want to run other engines inside one interface.

What the engine itself does

The core of XieXie Master is its evaluation and search engine, which calculates moves for Red and Black. Version 3.0 ships with a stronger evaluation and search core than earlier releases. In practice, that means the engine assesses positions more accurately and searches more effectively within the same thinking time.

Two engine-level changes matter most:

• Multicore search — the engine searches on multiple CPU cores in parallel, so it reaches deeper in the same amount of thinking time. The practical benefit is stronger play and faster analysis on multi-core machines; on a single-core system, this feature has little to add.
• Improved evaluation, shown move by move — the new Evaluation Bar graph plots both sides across the whole game, not just the current position.

The Evaluation Bar graph

This is the most distinctive 3.0 feature for anyone using the software to review games. Because both sides are plotted across the entire game, a slow positional drift or a sudden blunder becomes visible at a glance rather than requiring you to step through every move and read a score.

A concrete use case: after a game, load it and watch the graph. A long, gentle slope suggests one side gradually lost the initiative; a sharp spike or drop marks the move where the balance changed abruptly. You can then jump to that move and examine it with the engine.

External UCI/UCCI engine support

XieXie Master 3.0 can hand play for either side to an external engine:

• Protocols: UCCI for XiangQi engines, UCI for Western chess engines.
• Per-side assignment: Red and Black can each be played by a different external engine.
• Named profiles: each engine is stored as a profile with its own hash size, threads, time unit, ponder setting, and extra setoption commands.
• Switching: changing engines is a dropdown selection, not a reinstall.

This makes the software usable as a front end: you can pit two engines against each other, or keep your preferred engine configured once and switch to it whenever you want.

Interface and board

Version 3.0 includes a completely redrawn board, redrawn pieces, and a refreshed interface throughout. These are presentation changes; they do not alter engine strength, but they affect how comfortable long analysis sessions are.

Who it suits

The site presents XieXie Master as champion-level software and a paid product; it does not publish pricing on the page described here, so check the purchase page for current terms before buying.