Xiangqi (Chinese Chess)
Xiangqi is the Chinese version of chess. It branched from the tree of chess history quite a long time ago, so it's one of the odder variations of chess around. It retains some very old ideas that have been discarded from Western chess a long time ago, and has developed some rather curious Chinese features of its own.
The basic idea is the same: you try to catch your opponent's king. In xiangqi kings are somewhat in trouble to start with: they have to remain in their 3x3 castles and cannot leave them. They have guards in the palace, but those guards often end up being quite some trouble...
The game has some other curious restrictions. There's a river in the middle of the board and the bishops (or the elephants) cannot cross the river. Actually, the bishops can only move in steps of exactly two squares. The knights move like in regular chess, except their orthogonal move isn't a jump, but can be blocked.
The cannon is the most interesting piece in xiangqi. It moves like a rook, but captures in a curious way. Cannon can capture like a rook, over any distance, but it must have a support: to capture something, cannon must jump over another piece that stands between the cannon and the target. Makes for some tricky moves!
If you like Western chess, xiangqi is a strange cousin worth trying. If you don't like Western chess, try xiangqi anyway - you might find you like it better than the Western chess. Xiangqi is a very dynamic game, you need to push on and attack hard. The end games can be a tad stale and drawn out and the game has a strong tendency for draws amongst experienced players, but for beginners, it's exciting and fun.
Xiangqi sets come in many flavours. Most have round wooden pieces, marked with Chinese characters (the characters aren't that hard to learn, by the way). The cheapest sets have really flimsy see-through paper boards - pretty awful, but for the cheap price, it does the job. If you just want to have a copy of xiangqi you can try, that's not a bad option. I have one of those and I don't need to have a better board, since I play the game very rarely.
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US $33.99 | 1h 6m |
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Folding Beechwood Veneer Chinese Chess Xiangqi Set | |
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US $26.40 | 1h 38m |
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US $7.95 | 2h 36m |
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US $38.95 | 20h 24m |
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Chinese Chess xiangqi Set Wooden Board Game China wood xiang qi 32 Pcs Chessman | |
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US $18.99 | 1d 10h 18m |
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0 Bid | US $.99 | 4d 1h 58m |
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Chinese Chess Elephant Xiangqi Inlaid Table Top Set | |
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US $54.20 | 4d 2h 29m |
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US $31.50 | 4d 11h 34m |
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US $67.50 | 4d 11h 35m |
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US $42.30 | 4d 11h 53m |
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US $14.00 | 5d 13h 3m |
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US $42.20 | 8d 10h 23m |
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US $25.95 | 9d 2h 46m |
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US $21.99 | 10d 3h 52m |
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US $24.00 | 11d 15h 38m |
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US $20.46 | 12d 3h 48m |
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US $157.50 | 19d 13h 13m |
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US $39.85 | 20d 6h 42m |
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US $39.60 | 20d 9h 21m |
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US $9.99 | 20d 13h 21m |
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US $67.50 | 21d 15h 16m |
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US $49.50 | 21d 15h 16m |
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US $26.95 | 21d 15h 16m |
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US $33.30 | 21d 15h 16m |
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US $49.50 | 21d 15h 16m |
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US $76.50 | 21d 15h 16m |
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