King Chasing Problem in Chinese Chess is NP-hard
Combinatorics
2026-04-03 v1 Computational Complexity
Abstract
We prove that king chasing problem in Chinese Chess is NP-hard when generalized to boards. `King chasing' is a frequently-used strategy in Chinese Chess, which means that the player has to continuously check the opponent in every move until finally checkmating the opponent's king. The problem is to determine which player has a winning strategy in generalized Chinese Chess, under the constraints of king chasing. Obviously, it is a sub-problem of generalized Chinese Chess problem. We prove that king chasing problem in Chinese Chess is NP-hard by reducing from the classic NP-complete problem 3-SAT.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2604.01935,
title = {King Chasing Problem in Chinese Chess is NP-hard},
author = {Chao Li and Zhujun Zhang and Chao Yang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.01935},
year = {2026}
}