Star River
Play Xiangqi, Gomoku and Jieqi
Only for Mac
Free
Mac
Star River is a quiet board-game app for people learning to play — five classic games, one uncluttered board, and no Internet required.
THE GAMES
• Xiangqi — Chinese chess
• Mini Xiangqi — its compact 7×7 cousin, a friendly place to start
• Jieqi — the hidden-identity Xiangqi: pieces are dealt face-down and reveal what they are as they move
• Gomoku — five in a row
• Renju — Gomoku's tournament form, which balances the first player's advantage
PLAY AGAINST THE AI
Every game but Jieqi has an on-device AI with three levels — Fast, Standard, and Deep. Choose who moves first, or leave it to chance. When you're stuck, ask for a hint: the app suggests a move on your turn, only when you ask, and nothing about it is recorded. Take back moves as often as you like, resign, or play on.
PLAY BY YOURSELF
In Free Play you control both sides — walk through openings, test ideas, replay a game from a book, flip the board to see it from the other side. In Xiangqi, Custom Scene lets you compose any position on an empty board, choose who moves first, and play it out.
PLAY TOGETHER
• Nearby Play — two iPhones or iPads in the same room play one game over a direct local connection. No Internet and no accounts: one player invites, the other accepts, and the game begins. (iPhone and iPad)
• Online Play — play a friend at any distance over Game Center. Invite them directly or share a party code; only a friend you invite can join, and you are never matched with a stranger.
Both modes keep the courtesies of the board: request a take-back, offer a draw, resign. And no hints — a game between two people stays between them.
YOUR GAMES, KEPT
The active game saves itself; close the app and pick up where you left off. Finished games go to History, where you can replay them move by move or let them play through, pin the ones that matter, share them as game files, and import records a friend shares with you.
MADE FOR LEARNING
• Piece symbols: Chinese characters or icons
• Move notation: Chinese or WXF
• A built-in rules reference for Mini Xiangqi
• Sounds and haptics, each with its own switch
PRIVATE BY DESIGN
Star River is fully offline in everything but Online Play, and Online Play talks only to Game Center, Apple's own service. The app runs no servers, has no accounts of its own, and collects nothing.
OPEN SOURCE
Star River is free software under the GNU General Public License v3, engines and networks included. The complete source for every release:
https://github.com/chentianren0/MiniXiangqi
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
Prepare for the iOS 27 and macOS 27 Golden Gate.
The developer, 添任 陈, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- 添任 陈
- Size
- 45.8 MB
- Category
- Board
- Compatibility
Requires macOS 27.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
- Mac
Requires macOS 27.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
- Mac
- Languages
- English and Simplified Chinese
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- Copyright
- © 2026 Tianren
