What is Chinese Chess?
Chinese Chess is played by millions of people in China, other parts of Asia, and wherever Chinese have settled. In recent years it has started to become better known among non-Chinese. Westernized sets of boards and pieces sometimes show up in specialty games shops, and there have been several computer versions. For sheer fun, its hard to think of a two-player board game that matches Chinese chess. It exercises the brain in much the same way as Western (international) chess, but it is much faster moving. The movement of the pieces tends to be more fluid, the positions more open. It might be said that Chinese chess is more a tactical game than a strategic one. In a sense, it is all “middle game.” There is no careful buildup of pawn structures, the major pieces come into play immediately, and drawn-out endgames are rare. Although the openings have been classified, my sense (as a pure amateur) is that it is possible to become a good player without a lot of rote learning. Excellent page de
Chinese chess is a chess-like game which is especially popular in the Far East: China, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, etc. The strongest players and tournaments can be found in these countries. As would be expected, most of the materials published on Chinese chess are written in the languages of this region: most notably, Chinese and Vietnamese. As Asians continue to immigrate to Europe and North America, the level of Chinese chess skill on these continents can be expected to improve and more materials should become available in western languages, such as English, French, and German. Also, more westerners should be expected to become interested in the game and improve their level of expertise.
