Chinese Chess, or Xiangqi 象棋 [1],
is a version of chess very popular in east Asia. The rules are analogues to international chess. The Chinese Chess set includes a board and 32 pieces for two players. The board has ten horizontal lines called ranks and nine vertical lines called files. In the middle of the board the central seven files are interrupted by a horizontal space called the “River”, which splits the board into two parts. Each side of the board has a “Palace” a 3x3 area in the central base. The seven kind of pieces are placed on the intersections and move and capture according to their individual ability and restriction along the lines including the “River banks”. The two sides are usually distinguished by color, being red or black [2] .
The object of the game is to checkmate or stalemate (is a win as well) the opponent King aka General. However, partly due to the freedom and power of the Rook over other pieces, and the limited freedom of the General, it is forbidden to repeat perpetually a direct thread (i.e. perpetual check 長將, perpetual thread of capture 長捉, a check and then a threat of mate 一將一殺, or a combination of these). This needs to be taken into account in the board representation.
Xiangqi board, with pieces in their starting positions [3]
Pieces on the red side bear different characters than their counterparts on the black side. They are the same pieces, but names on the Red side are subtly more noble than those on the Black side [4].
may not leave the palace
The two kings may not face
each other along the same file
with no intervening piece
仕, 士
Advisor
(Guard)
A
2
moves and captures
one diagonal step
may not leave the palace
相、象
Elephant
E
2
moves and captures
two diagonal points
may not jump over intervening
pieces,may not cross the river
傌, 馬
Horse
H
4
moves and captures
one orthogonal step
plus one diagonal step
blocked by orthogonal adjacent
pieces
俥, 車
Rook
(ChaRiot)
R
9
moves and captures
any distance orthogonally
may not jump over intervening
pieces
炮, 炮
Cannon
C
4½
moves any distance orthogonally - captures by jumping a
single piece, friend or foe, in-between the orthogonal path
of attack towards the captured piece
兵、卒
Pawn
(Soldier)
P
(S)
1
2
moves and captures one step forward -
once crossed the river, also one point sideways
Xiangqi Engines
To expand this list, create a new Chinese Chess aka Xiangqi engine page with the tag "Xiangqi".
Y.T. Zhang (1981). Application of Artificial Intelligence in Computer Chinese Chess. M.Sc. thesis, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University (Chinese)
Shun-Chin Hsu, D.H. Huang (1985). Design and Implementation of a Chinese Chess Knowledge Base. Proceedings of NCS, pp. 505-509. (Chinese)
Robert Nisonoff, M. Stephanie Ricks (1988). To Catch a King: East Meets West in the Game of Chess. PC Magazine, October 31, 1988, pp. 506 » EGA Chess, Xian
Shun-Chin Hsu, Kuo-Ming Tsao (1991). Design and Implementation of an Opening Game Knowledge-Base System for Computer Chinese Chess. Bulletin of the College of Engineering, N.T.U., No. 53, pp. 75-86. (in Chinese)
Chun Ye (1992). Experiments in Selective Search Extensions. MSc. thesis, Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta, pdf
is a version of chess very popular in east Asia. The rules are analogues to international chess. The Chinese Chess set includes a board and 32 pieces for two players. The board has ten horizontal lines called ranks and nine vertical lines called files. In the middle of the board the central seven files are interrupted by a horizontal space called the “River”, which splits the board into two parts. Each side of the board has a “Palace” a 3x3 area in the central base. The seven kind of pieces are placed on the intersections and move and capture according to their individual ability and restriction along the lines including the “River banks”. The two sides are usually distinguished by color, being red or black [2] .
The object of the game is to checkmate or stalemate (is a win as well) the opponent King aka General. However, partly due to the freedom and power of the Rook over other pieces, and the limited freedom of the General, it is forbidden to repeat perpetually a direct thread (i.e. perpetual check 長將, perpetual thread of capture 長捉, a check and then a threat of mate 一將一殺, or a combination of these). This needs to be taken into account in the board representation.
Table of Contents
Pieces
Pieces on the red side bear different characters than their counterparts on the black side. They are the same pieces, but names on the Red side are subtly more noble than those on the Black side [4].[5]
[6]
(General)
one orthogonal step
The two kings may not face
each other along the same file
with no intervening piece
(Guard)
one diagonal step
two diagonal points
pieces,may not cross the river
one orthogonal step
plus one diagonal step
pieces
(ChaRiot)
any distance orthogonally
pieces
single piece, friend or foe, in-between the orthogonal path
of attack towards the captured piece
(Soldier)
(S)
2
once crossed the river, also one point sideways
Xiangqi Engines
To expand this list, create a new Chinese Chess aka Xiangqi engine page with the tag "Xiangqi".Computer Olympiads
Photos
Mingyang Zhao (Gold), Ming-Cheng Cheng (Silver) and Jiao Wang (Bronze) [8]
Publications
1981 ...
1990 ...
2000 ...
- Jr-Chang Chen, Shun-Chin Hsu (2001). ELP wins Chinese Chess tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 24, No. 3 » 6th Computer Olympiad
- Haw-ren Fang, Tsan-sheng Hsu, Shun-Chin Hsu (2001). Construction of Chinese Chess Endgame Databases by Retrograde Analysis. CG 2000
2002- Ren Wu, Don Beal (2002). A memory efficient retrograde algorithm and its application to solve Chinese Chess endgames. More Games of No Chance edited by Richard J. Nowakowski
- Jr-Chang Chen, Shi-Jim Yen, Shun-Chin Hsu (2002). ELP wins Chinese Chess tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 25, No. 3 » 7th Computer Olympiad
- Haw-ren Fang, Tsan-sheng Hsu, Shun-Chin Hsu (2002). Indefinite Sequence of Moves in Chinese Chess Endgames. CG 2002
2003- Jr-Chang Chen, Shi-Jim Yen, Shun-Chin Hsu (2003). ZMBL wins Chinese Chess tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 26, No. 4 » 8th Computer Olympiad
20042005 ...
- Haw-ren Fang (2005). The Nature of Retrograde Analysis for Chinese Chess, Part I. ICGA Journal, Vol. 28, No. 2
- Haw-ren Fang (2005). Nature of Retrograde Analysis for Chinese Chess, Part II. ICGA Journal, Vol. 28, No. 3
- Jr-Chang Chen, Shi-Jim Yen, Shun-Chin Hsu (2005). XQMaster wins Chinese Chess tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 28, No. 3 » 10th Computer Olympiad
2006- Kuang-Che Wu, Shun-Chin Hsu, Tsan-sheng Hsu (2006). The Graph-History Interaction Problem in Chinese Chess. Advances in Computer Games 11
- Xinhe Xu (2006). Principle and Methodology of Computer Games of Chinese Chess. ISDA 2006
- Bo-Nian Chen, Pangfeng Liu, Shun-Chin Hsu, Tsan-sheng Hsu (2008). Abstracting Knowledge from Annotated Chinese-Chess Game Records. CG 2006
- Shi-Jim Yen, Shun-Chin Hsu (2006). NEUChess wins Chinese Chess tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 29, No. 2 » 11th Computer Olympiad
- Chun-Bin Hsu (2006). Pattern Recognition in Chinese Chess. Master thesis, National Chiao Tung University, pdf (Chinese)
2007- Changming Xu (2007). NEUChess wins Chinese Chess tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 30, No. 2 » 12th Computer Olympiad
- Chin Soon Ong, Hanyang Quek, Kay Chen Tan, Arthur Tay (2007). Discovering Chinese Chess Strategies through Coevolutionary Approaches. IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games, pdf
2008- Bo-Nian Chen, Pangfeng Liu, Shun-Chin Hsu, Tsan-sheng Hsu (2008). Knowledge Inferencing on Chinese Chess Endgames. CG 2008
- Jiao Wang, Xinhe Xu (2008). Intella wins Chinese Chess tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 31, No. 3 » 13th Computer Olympiad
20092010 ...
- Jiao Wang, Si-Zhong Li, Xin-He Xu (2010). A Minors Hash Table in Chinese-Chess Programs. ICGA Journal, Vol. 33, No. 1
- Bo-Nian Chen, Bing-Jie Shen, Tsan-sheng Hsu (2010). Chinese Dark Chess. ICGA Journal, Vol. 33, No. 2
- Bo-Nian Chen, Pangfeng Liu, Shun-Chin Hsu, Tsan-sheng Hsu (2010). Knowledge Abstraction in Chinese Chess Endgame Databases. CG 2010
2011- Jr-Hung Guo, Kuo-Lan Su, Sheng-Ven Shiau (2011). Path Searching Algorithms of Multiple Robot System Applying in Chinese Chess Game. Recent Advances in Mobile Robotics, Dr. Andon Topalov (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-307-909-7, pdf » Robots
2013- Wen-Jie Tseng, Jr-Chang Chen, I-Chen Wu, Ching-Hua Kuo, Bo-Han Lin (2013). A Supervised Learning Method for Chinese Chess Programs. JSAI2013, pdf
- Jr-Chang Chen, Shi-Jim Yen, Tsan-Cheng Su (2013). SHIGA Wins Chinese Chess Tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 36, No. 3 » 17th Computer Olympiad
- Bo-Nian Chen, Hung-Jui Chang, Shun-Chin Hsu, Jr-Chang Chen, Tsan-sheng Hsu (2013). Multilevel Inference in Chinese Chess Endgame Knowledge Bases. ICGA Journal, Vol. 36, No. 4 » Endgame Tablebases
20142015 ...
Forum Posts
1994
2000 ...
Re: Tony Marsland and Chinese Chess in Maastricht (slightly O.T.) by Pham Hong Nguyen, CCC, July 30, 2002
2010 ...
2015 ...
External Links
Chinese Chess
Computer Chinese Chess
WinBoard and XiangQi by Harm Geert Muller
References
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