Musen Lin
Nicolas Fortugno
Game 1
May 8, 2017
CHINESE CHESS REVIEW
The board game is an ancient game category. Many countries have their own “chess” game and they are all different from each other. Most of these games are very war-centered and real-time strategic.
Comparing with Western Chess, Chinese Chess is more complex. Every player starts with 13 pieces, including 5 soldiers, 2 cannons, 2 chariots, 2 horses, 2 elephants, 2 advisors, and a general. When a player’s general is captured, he/she is considered lost. The most important piece in Chinese Chess is the cannon. The cannon can only move by jumping, which means that in order to attack a piece, there must be a single piece in between these two. Therefore, cannons make the game very different from the Western Chess offensively. There is a river on the board that separates the two armies. The soldier can only move 1 distance before it goes across the river. But they cannot move backward, which is very brutal. The soldiers in Chinese chess reminds me of real-world wars. There is no going back for the soldiers. Every single offensive move has to be cautious and precise. Defensively, the general is limited in the bottom center square and it is confined to the nine points area. Since the general is the most important piece in the game, and it is confined in a small square, the advisors’ moves can be very important. Some people may say that horses in Chinese chess are like knights in western chess, but in fact, they cannot jump like the knight.
As a Chinese, I do not really enjoy playing Chinese Chess. It is not easy to learn and it is not easy to improve as well. The complex move variations in Chinese Chess make it super tactical just like another ancient Chinese game GO.
