For many people not familiar with it, observing those circular pawns, the game is a mere variety of draughts or checkers. Of course, they are quite wrong; this is a real Chess game in which its complexity is comparable to the one of European Chess. Generally, pieces are in form of token with the name written on the upper face, with a Chinese sinogram. Both sides have different colors.
SHORT DESCRIPTION:
Xiangqi is played on the intersections of a board. Opposite sides are separated by a central “river”. Each camp has a “palace” which is constituted by an intersection at the center of South and North sides.
Armies are formed by 16 men each. Red plays at South and (generally) starts the game. Black (or Blue) plays at North. In Xiangqi, not all the pieces have the same name for both sides:
- The “royal” piece is a Governor (Shuai) for Red and a General (Jiang) for Black.
- The “pawn” is always a Soldier but two different synonyms are used to distinguish them. Red has Bing and Black has Zu.
- The Elephant (Xiang) – that gives its name to the game – is only for Red. Black has also a Xiang but it is written differently as it is a homonym which stands for Minister.
Cultural Identities Distinguished
Chess is popular around the world, while Chinese chess is mainly popular in China; almost half of its population knows the rules. I had began to play Chinese Chess myself as a pretty small child, and fell in love with it after a few games, I felt excited to move pieces to fight, for the game is the epitome of a real war; from this point of view, chess is the same with Chinese chess, however, the differences between them reflects the different culture between China and the western world.
In Chinese chess Game: 1.There is no queen on the board; this is because the contribution of women was not emphasized in ancient China.
2. The pawn, or soldier in Chinese Chess, can not be promoted: In ancient China, everyone’s destiny is pre-determined.
3. There are four cannons on the board: because at the time when Chinese chess was invented, cannons were also invented, so the powerful cannon was integrated on the board.
4. The king is fastened in a fort. You see, in ancient China, the emperor would never go to battle. Also, the emperor has 2 triggermen (shi in Chinese) and 2 prime ministers (similar to bishop in chess).The king is well-protected, however, sometimes, the lack of freedom killed the king. In the game, the limited movement usually leads to a more rapid defeat than the traditional, international version of chess. There are clear historical example of this especially during the Manchu invasion of Han controlled China. Interestingly enough, the King is housed in a fort of sorts, so the classic move, castling, is not possible in Chinese Chess.
5. There is a boundary called the Chu River (or also the Han boundary) on the board. The boundary can be traced to the time of the Han dynasty, when Liu Bang and Xiangyu shared central plains for over 2000 years ago.
~Jake Rinaldi