Chinese Chess

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A Brief Introduction of Chinese Chess

Chinese chess is a very popular intellectual game with the Chinese people.The basic rule is as follows:each player has 16 pieces of chess，one general:two mandarins，two elephants，two chariots，two horses，two cannons and five soldiers.The player moves the pieces according to game rules with the ultimate aim of capturing the enemy general.

The Origin of Chinese Chess

Xiangqi is evolved from an ancient Chinese game called liubo，which was invented some 3500 years ago.It is said that it was invented by King Zhou of the Zhou Dynasty.In early times，xiangqi was also called”xiangxi”，the Elephant Games.Thereare two possible reasons.First of all，the game pieces of general and soldiers inliubo were made of ivory and so called xiangqi，xiang meaning“elephant”.Secondly，Chinese were known to incorporate elephants in military battles.The legendary Huang Di of 4，000 years ago allegedly had a fleet of elephants in his army，and it is recorded that elephants were used in combats during the Han Dynasty.

Rules of Modern Chinese Chess

Today，Chinese chess has very standardized and specific rules of the game.The chess board is a grid of nine files and ten ranks with ninety intersections called points on which the chess pieces are placed.In the middle of the playing field there is a river.The X-shaped area is called”nine palace”.The chess pieces differ in color（black for one side，red for the other）.The setup of the chess pieces is likethis:general in his palace，while on each side of the general from near to far are placed mandarin，elephant，horse and chariot.Cannons are positioned in their special places in the middle of each territory，and soldiers on the front line near the river.Usually the game starts with a move by the red side first，black side second.

The object of the game is to capture the enemy general.The game is won as soon as one player can make no move that prevents capture of his general.This is checkmate.

Stalemate，where one player has no legal move but is not in check，is a win for the last player to move.