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02-08-2008
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| Is that a file extension?  Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 12
| Chinese chess rules For those of you interested, and seeing as the new 1.30 beta is doing the rounds, I thought I would help those like me that have no idea what Chinese Chess is all about. I've made it into a txt file so you can just download and read on your T39. But I've included it here as well in it's txt format below. Hope it helps a few of you out  ---------------------------------------------------- Chinese Chess(Xiangqi) Guide ---Contents--- -RULES OF PLAY -THE PIECES -STRATEGIES -OTHER STUFF ---RULES OF PLAY--- -Basic movement- All pieces can either move horizontally/vertically, diagonally, or a combination of the two. No pieces can ever move through another piece except Cannon. -Capturing- You can capture and opponent's piece by moving one of your pieces into the position that is currently occupied by that opponent's piece. Note: Cannon has special way of capturing pieces. -Blocking- Sometimes a piece may not complete a certain move because another piece (either friend or foe) is blocking its way. -Checking- Checking occurs when the Genaral of one side is being threatened by the opposing side. -General Face-off Restriction- You cannot make a move that will result in what's called a General Face-off situation. This situation is true if you can draw a straight vertical line that intersects both sides' General and with no other pieces in-between the two Generals. ---THE PIECES--- -1-General- Description - This is the most important piece of the game. When you lose this piece, you lose the game. Movement - Move horizontally or vertically one unit at a time. Also, it can never move out of the palace. -2-Advisor- Description - This is a defensive unit. It provides close defensive support for the General . Movement - Move diagonally in any directions one unit at a time. Like the General, it can never leave the palace. -3-Elephant- Description - This is also a defensive unit. It provides defensive support for the General. Movement - Move diagonally in any directions two units at a time. It can never move into your opponent's zone. The Elephant can be blocked by a piece in-between its current position and its intended detination. -4-Horse- Description - This piece is similar to the Knight in Western Chess. Movement - Move horizontally or vertically in any directions by one unit, then immediately follow by a move diagonally one unit toward the direction away from its original position. If there is a piece immediately adjacent to the Horse, then it cannot move toward that direction. -5-Chariot- Description - This piece is similar to the Rook in Western Chess. Movement - Move horizontally or vertically in any directions by any number of units, provided that it doesn't move through another piece. -6-Cannon- Description - This is a unique piece that can be very interesting to play. Movement - Move horizontally or vertically in any directions by any number of units, provided that it doesn't move through another piece. Special Capturing Rule - To capture a piece, a Cannon must jump over one piece that is in-between itself and its intended target. The diagram in the upper right corner illustrates that a Cannon is jumping over a piece in order to capture another piece. -7-Pawn- Description - They are slow, but don't ignore them. Movement - Move forward one unit at a time. After a Pawn crossed over into enemy zone, it can also move left or right one unit at a time. It can never move backward. ---STRATEGIES--- -General hints- Xiangqi is a fast game for several reasons. First, the barrier of pawns is reduced dramatically. Second, the cannons jump to capture, making them a long-range threat early in the game. In addition, since the general is confined to only moving within the palace, it can be checkmated more easily unless it is protected by other pieces. Because of the size of the board and the relative low number of long-range pieces, it may take time to move one's army of pieces from place to place on the board, and there is a tendency for the battle to focus on a particular area of the board. Common strategies used in Western chess such as forking with horse and pinning with chariot (sometimes the cannon and general can also pin) are also applicable in xiangqi. Usually, the soldiers do not support each other unless the player has no better move. This is because from the initial position, it takes a minimum of 5 moves of a soldier to allow twin soldiers to protect each other. Defensively, a common configuration is to leave the general at his or her starting position, deploy one advisor and one elephant on the two points directly in front of the general, and to leave the other advisor and the other elephant in their starting positions, to the side of the general. In this setup, the paired-up advisors and elephants support each other, and the general is immune from attacks by cannons. However, with the loss of a single advisor or elephant, the general becomes vulnerable to cannons, and this setup may need to be abandoned. The defender may move advisors or elephants away from the general, or even sacrifice them intentionally, to ward off attack by a cannon. The two chariots are not normally lined up together as they are the most powerful piece and in doing so, a player risks the chances of losing at least one chariot to an inferior piece of the enemy. Depending on the situation, it may be advantageous to position a chariot at one of the corners of the enemy's side of the board, where it is very difficult to dislodge, and threatens the enemy general. It is common to use the cannons independently to control particular ranks and files. Using a cannon to control the middle file is often considered vital strategy, because it helps to lock certain pieces such as the advisors and elephants in certain positions to prevent a check. The two files adjacent to the middle rank are also considered important and knights and chariots can be used to push for mate here. -Openings- Since the left and right flank of the starting setup are symmetrical and therefore equivalent, it is customary to always make the first move from the right flank. Starting on the left flank is considered to be needlessly confusing. The most common opening is to move the cannon to the central column. The most common reply is to advance the horse on the same flank. This is usually followed by the most common second move, in which the first player moves a chariot forward one space (usually the right one). The most common reply is to move the right advisor diagonally. This is to prevent a series of events that leads to the first player quickly checkmating the second. Less common first moves include: -moving an elephant to the central column -advancing the soldier on the third or seventh file -moving a horse forward -moving either cannon behind the 2nd pawn from the left or right General advice for the opening includes rapid development of at least one chariot, because it is the most powerful piece and the only long-range piece besides the cannon. It may not be a bad move to develop one horse to the edge of the board, for example, to avoid being blocked by one of one's own pawns that cannot advance. Usually, at least one horse should be moved to the middle. Beginners often succumb to an early checkmate with two cannons. This checkmate may be executed in four moves from the beginning of the game. However, it is easily countered by the horse reply. A double cannon technique involves 2 cannons of the same side lining up with the enemy general with no other pieces in between. This results in a check as the rear cannon uses the front cannon as cannon platform. The opponent cannot get away by placing a piece in front of the general to block the rear cannon because the front cannon will use that newly-moved piece as cannon platform to capture the general. The solution is either to move the general up before the check or to nullify the 2nd cannon either by taking it out or placing a piece between the two cannons. That's it, hope you enjoy the game. ---OTHER STUFF--- This guide made for Teclast T39 fw 1.30 users by nomad. For more info and the original content visit: -http://www.cs.utk.edu/~chan/learn.html -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiangqi All copyright remains the property of the respective owners. ----------------------------------------------------
__________________ ---------------o000----'(_)'----000o--------------- I'm pink, therefore I'm ham. |
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