The world's cutest chess master strikes!
The world's cutest chess master strikes!
๐จ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ช๐จ๐ณๅผ ๆฎฟๆ๐จ๐ณ๐ฉ๐ช๐จ๐ฆ (@ZDL@pxlfd.ca)
When he struggles to reach across the board to move his chariot, I lose the plot.
The world's cutest chess master strikes!
๐จ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ช๐จ๐ณๅผ ๆฎฟๆ๐จ๐ณ๐ฉ๐ช๐จ๐ฆ (@ZDL@pxlfd.ca)
When he struggles to reach across the board to move his chariot, I lose the plot.
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What is this game?
Xiangqi, a.k.a. Chinese Chess.
Are there many differences with western chess?
From what I see, the pieces move the same way, but the kid uses the pawns to eat pieces in front of them instead of diagonally. Is it the kid not knowing the rules, or does Xiangqi have different rules from the chess I know?
่ฑกๆฃ is in the family of Chess games, but it is a different game, yes, like Japan's Shogi. If you have any chess skills they'll translate well to this game, though. There's a Chess Variants page summary available that goes into better detail. In brief, though, the differences include:
Read the Chess Variants page for more detailed rules. It's actually quite a fun game once you get used to reading the characters on the pieces.
I appreciate the lengthy explanation!
I tried playing Shogi a few times but I could never quite wrap my head around the strategies - big board, lots of pieces, different promotion rules and, of course, the drop really made my head hurt! Probably my inability to differentiate the pieces at a glance didn't help, either.
This one sounds a lot more similar to the game I'm accustomed to. The river and palace rules sound interesting, and the low number of pieces keep it "simple" enough (as much as chess is simple, of course). I might want to look at it more closely in the future. My friend is a lot better at chess than me (1600 ELO vs 1000), I could use this game to spice things up and maybe even the field a bit :P
You can find sets that use pictures or shaped pieces instead of Chinese characters, which will make it a lot easier to keep track of the board state.
As an alternative, for training up, you can print up circular labels of the appropriate size with the Chinese characters and their English meanings and stick them on the bottom of the playing pieces. Just play with the pieces upside-down until you're used to the characters.
I'm with you on Shogi. I find that it's on the least-elegant side of the chess spectrum and I just never managed to internalize the rules. I've tried it a few times, but I return to Xiangqi as a good, fast-moving game (that I completely and utterly suck at โฆ but enjoy to pieces nonetheless).
BTW, the kid knows the game very well. He kicked the adult's ass. Almost casually. (There were only two short points where he paused to think when playing.)