GENWiki

Premier IT Outsourcing and Support Services within the UK

User Tools

Site Tools


archive:fun:cchess.rul
                          Chinese Chess
                           "Xiang Qi"

Background:

    Xiang Qi or Chinese chess is "one of the three major versions of
    chess." The other two are Western chess and Shogi. The movement and
    number of attacking pieces is more limited than Western chess making
    it perhaps harder or easier.

Setup:

    The pieces in Chinese chess are placed and played on the lines instead
    of the squares as in Western chess.
   J     T--H--E--A--G--A--E--H--T
         |  |  |  | \|/ |  |  |  |
   I     -------------------------
         |  |  |  | /|\ |  |  |  |
   H     ---C-----------------C---
         |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
   G     S-----S-----S-----S-----S
         |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
   F     -------------------------
         |         River         |
   E     -------------------------
         |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
   D     s-----s-----s-----s-----s
         |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
   C     ---c-----------------c---
         |  |  |  | \|/ |  |  |  |
   B     -------------------------
         |  |  |  | /|\ |  |  |  |
   A     t--h--e--a--g--a--e--h--t
         1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
    The square defined by A4, C4, C6, and A6 is as the "General's square"
    Similarly, J4  H4, H6, and J6 also define another General's square.
    Assume that the uppercase is "Team two" and the lowercase is "Team one"

Pieces:

    The pieces are represented on the above board are as follows:
         S = Soldier   (P)        C = Cannon
         T = Tank      (R)        H = Horse (N)
         E = Elephant  (B)        A = Adviser
                G = General or King (K)
    These initials come from the literal translation of the Chinese
    character into English (Except for tank). The letters in parentheses
    represent the Western equivalent of the piece; thus, pieces and their
    movement may be more easily remembered.

Movement:

   Tank     : Moves and attacks just like a rook. This piece can cross the
               river. The actual translation is car or the ancient
               equivalent of one.
   Elephant : Moves and attacks like a bishop except that it can only and
               must move across two squares at a time. It cannot cross the
               river. Therefore, the elephants on team one will only be
               able to occupy A3, E3, A7, C1, C5, C9, and E7.
   Soldier  : This piece can only move forward when it is on the side of
               its own color. After it crosses the river, though, it can
               also move left and right. The soldier can never move
               backwards.
   Horse    : This piece moves like a knight in Western chess except it
               can be blocked. For example:
                  1-----------2           ------8------
                  |  |  |  |  |           |  |  |  |  |
                  ---C--H------           ---7---------
                  |  |  |  |  |           |  River    |
                  3-----------4           ---------H---
                  |  |  |  |  |           |  |  |  |  |
                  ---5-----6---           -------------
               A horse must move one space down a line and then diagonally
               across a square. Therefore, the above horse can reach the
               numbers 2, 4, 5, and 6. The numbers 1 and 3 are blocked by
               the cannon. The horse cannot move over a piece and
               consequently, cannot reach 1 and 3. This piece can cross the
               river which also counts as one space and is shown above.
               If the horse was to cross the river, it would land at 7 or
               8.
   Cannon   : This piece moves like a rook but attacks differently.
               instead of "running into a piece" as the rook does, the
               cannon jumps over one piece and captures the one
               behind it. For example:
  1. –t—–h—–C—

| | | | | | |

  1. ——————
               The cannon can jump over the horse and take the opponent's
               tank. The cannon, though, cannot take the horse unless there
               is something between it and the horse. The cannon can cross
               the river.
   Advisor  : This piece is limited to moving one space only on the
               diagonals in the General's square. Therefore,
               o-----o
               | \|/ |
               ---o---   <-- General's square
               | /|\ |
               o-----o
               the o's mark the possible positions of the advisor. This
               piece cannot leave the square.
   General  : Like the Advisor, the general can only stay within the
               General's square. Instead of moving on the diagonals,
               the general moves only orthagonally. In other words, it can
               move like the Western king minus diagonals.

Rules:

    Exactly like Western chess. Players take turns moving their pieces
    with the intent of capturing the opponent's general.
    If a "loop" occurs in the game, the attacking piece must end the loop
    after the loop has occurred three times in a row. If both sides do not
    have any attacking pieces ( tank, horse, cannon, soldier) or it is
    utterly impossible to break the loop, then a stalemate occurs.
    A stalemate is very uncommon.
    "Check" is said whenever the general is in check.
    Finally, the two generals cannot face each other. In other words, there
    cannot be a clear line between the two generals. A move that makes
    them face each other is illegal.

If anyone has any questions or would like to play a game, send some E-mail to Kevin Wang [73047,1651].

/data/webs/external/dokuwiki/data/pages/archive/fun/cchess.rul.txt · Last modified: 2000/02/24 21:25 by 127.0.0.1

Donate Powered by PHP Valid HTML5 Valid CSS Driven by DokuWiki