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    Chinese Chess: An Introduction to China's Ancient Game of Strategy
    Chinese Chess: An Introduction to China's Ancient Game of Strategy
    Chinese Chess: An Introduction to China's Ancient Game of Strategy
    Ebook477 pages1 hour

    Chinese Chess: An Introduction to China's Ancient Game of Strategy

    By H.T. Lau

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Learn the ancient and fascinating game of Chinese Chess with this expert guide.

    Chinese chess, or "elephant chess," has intrigued the powerful and the quizzical for centuries. Although its rules are similar to the well-known Western game, subtle and fascinating variations must be mastered in order to understand the strategies it requires. A great way to learn Chinese Chess, this book is simple enough for Chess beginners but contains a wealth of information and tips that experienced players will find useful as well.

    In Chinese Chess, author H.T. Lau explains the game's fundamentals--the rules, the board, and the basics with dozens of insightful diagrams. With the aid of 170 diagrams, Chinese Chess walks players through the board, the movement and values of the pieces, basic rules for capturing and defeating an opponent, techniques and game-winning tactics. Once he's covered the basics, Lau introduces advanced tactics, methods for escaping difficult positions, and cunning strategies for winning.

    This book includes eighty mid- and end-game exercises designed to sharpen playing skills and strategy and concludes with two appendices devoted to the elegantly constructed games found in The Secret Inside the Orange and The Plum-Blossom Meter, two classic seventeenth-century works on Chinese chess.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTuttle Publishing
    Release dateDec 20, 2011
    ISBN9781462903481
    Chinese Chess: An Introduction to China's Ancient Game of Strategy

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    Reviews for Chinese Chess

    3.5/5

    14 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A good book on the subject. I am going through the problems in it. Unfortunately, some solutions seem to contain errors.
    • 2/5
      I don't know what it is, but it's NOT an introduction.lots of exercises and sample diagrams... without any real explanations.Few guidelines ... without clear examples.A very disappointing book.

    Book preview

    Chinese Chess - H.T. Lau

    Dear Reader: In order to view all colored text and non-English text accurately, please ensure that the PUBLISHER DEFAULTS SETTING on your reading device is switched to ON. This will allow you to view all non-English characters and colored text in this book. —Tuttle Publishing

    CHINESE CHESS

    These diagrams will help you to make your own chessboard and pieces.

    TO

    my parents, sisters, my wife Helen

    and our children Matthew, Lawrence and Tabia

    Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd., with editorial offices at 364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, VT 05759 U.S.A. and 61 Tai Seng Avenue, #02-12, Singapore 534167.

    Copyright © 1985 by Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc.

    All rights reserved.

    No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

    LCC Card No. 84-052394

    ISBN 978-1-4629-0348-1 (ebook)

    First Tuttle edition, 1985

    First Tuttle paperback edition, 1990

    Printed in Singapore

    Distributed by:

    North America, Latin America & Europe

    Tuttle Publishing

    364 Innovation Drive

    North Clarendon, VT 05759-9436 U.S.A.

    Tel: 1 (802) 773-8930; Fax: 1 (802) 773-6993

    Email:info@tuttlepublishing.com

    www.tuttlepublishing.com

    Japan

    Tuttle Publishing

    Yaekari Bldg., 3F, 5-4-12 Osaki, Shinagawa-ku

    Tokyo 141-0032 Tel: (81) 3 5437-0171; Fax: (81) 3 5437-0755

    Email: tuttle-sales@gol.com

    Asia Pacific

    Berkeley Books Pte. Ltd.

    61 Tai Seng Avenue, #02-12, Singapore 534167

    Tel: (65) 6280-1330; Fax: (65) 6280-6290

    Email:inquiries@periplus.com.sg

    www.periplus.com

    14 13 12 11 10 16 15 14 13 12

    TUTTLE PUBLISHING® is a registered trademark of Tuttle Publishing, a division of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

    • TABLE OF CONTENTS •

    • INTRODUCTION •

    The game of Chinese chess, known as elephant chess in Chinese, is played by Chinese the world over. Despite its wide popularity, however, it is very difficult to review the history and development of the game because of the lack of systematic literature. There is some evidence that it was imported from India in the second half of the first century A.D. At that time the board, pieces, and movement of the pieces were different from those of today. It was reported that in A.D. 839 the prime minister of the Tang dynasty (618-907) added two extra pieces called cannon to the game. By the end of the eleventh century, the game had evolved into the form which exists today.

    Most of the writings on Chinese chess from early times have not been well preserved. Often for a book of, say, twelve volumes, only three of them are found, and many pages in those three volumes might be missing. Furthermore, the dates of the works and names of authors are often not known. Apparently, the earliest publication that still exists in its complete form today is one that dates from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). It is a book with a collection of seventy short end-games and solutions published in 1522. A ten-volume book that is said to be the second oldest in the literature appeared in 1570.

    The first eight volumes record 550 different end-games with solutions; the last two list some complete games.

    A milestone was laid in 1632 when a book by Jin-zhen Zhu called The Secret Inside the Orange, the last book on Chinese chess to come out during the Ming dynasty, was published. It is said that the title of the book was derived from a legend:

    There was once an orange field in which an enormous orange was grown. When the orange was peeled, it was found that inside two old men were sitting facing each other, playing chess.

    The book represents a summary of the remarkable accomplishments in the game before and throughout the Ming dynasty. The first two parts of the book record complete games, while the last two are a collection of 133 end-games. The examples of the complete games are a most valuable reference for beginners. Remarkable offensive strategies are demonstrated, each one using the most clear-cut possible steps to realize the defeat of the opponent. The moves are extremely elegant and easy to understand. The complete games are presented in Appendix 1 of the present work.

    About sixty years after the appearance of The Secret Inside the Orange, at the end of the seventeenth century, a book of complete games called The Plum-BlossomMeter was written by Zai-yue Wang. The exact date of the work is not known. The original copy was hand-written and not printed, probably due to the financial condition of the author; the first printed edition appeared in 1917. The book presents a wide variety of systematically classified and carefully elaborated strategies, which should be studied by anyone who is serious about learning the game. The entire sets of moves from The Plum-Blossom Meter are listed in Appendix 2.

    Although very few books on the subject of Chinese chess have appeared since the publication of the two books mentioned above, the game itself still retains a widespread popularity in Chinese communities around the world. Since most of what has been written on the subject has been in the Chinese language, however, the author hopes that the publication of this book will encourage an interest in Chinese chess among Western readers as well.

    As a final note, the author would like to express his gratitude to Vaclav Chvatal, who has given continuous encouragement during the preparation of the book.

    PART • 1 • THE BASICS

    1 • THE BOARD AND THE PIECES

    The chessboard has nine vertical lines and ten horizontal lines (Fig. 1). The two outer vertical lines run unbroken from top to bottom, while the remaining seven vertical lines are broken in the middle, forming a river separating the northern territory from the southern territory. For our purposes, the vertical lines are numbered from 1 to 9, right to left with respect to the side of the board on which the player is sitting. The king's palace on each side is comprised of the four squares containing the diagonals.

    The pieces for each side are distinguished by different colors, often red and blue (in some sets, red and black), the red pieces belonging to the southern territory and the blue pieces to the northern. Initially, each side has sixteen pieces, as shown on the following chart:

    Note that the pieces and on the red side are identical in strength and moving ability to the pieces and respectively, on the blue side.

    The initial arrangement of pieces on the chessboard is shown in Figure 2. It should be noted that the pieces are placed on the intersections of the lines, not inside the squares. (In this book, except in Figure 2, pieces on both sides are shown right-side up with respect to the reader, for convenience in following the diagrams.)

    Each piece can capture any piece of the opponent's, the object of the game being to capture the opponent's

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