This paper mainly introduces a Chinese chess robot system in Cartesian coordinate. The overall structure of the robot is gantry type, and can carry all pieces to everywhere on chessboard. Using lead screw and rail structure in mechanical design, each axis is driven by servo motor. A four-dimensional force sensor is installed between pneumatic gripper and the end of arm. And also this paper has done some research on compliance control used on the robot. Compliance control strategy is applied in Chinese chess robot's movement that achieves coordination of each motion axis and precise positioning of each piece. Using VC software platform in PC, created a chess interface to facilitate human-machine communication.