it sounds fascinating. I'd rather have all available from the start, as others would too, being seasoned chess players. The popularity of Gothic and Janus has made "combo" pieces a distinct part of the chess vernacular, so people are more familiar with them.

is anyone interested in dark xiangqi? The game is quite popular, but not quite the same as dark chess. It is probably the most widespread variant I have seen.

http://www.chessvariants.org/xiangvar.html

Thad: Yes, with perfect play, both pente and ninuki-renju have been solved as a win for the white player.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pente

this is how Keryo Pente came about. I'm not sure if that one's been solved though.

pente and 5 in line have been solved, but i still play em!

AbigailII: line4? really? do you have a link for the proof?

Fencer: maybe a strategic alliance is in order?

that's a shame, that site was so popular, but I do get the same message.

i'd try that!

I'm still up for Siamese (bughouse to some, but the name Siamese is far more esthetic and accurate) and tandem testing if need be. I'm surprised no one has pined for Alice Chess lately.

PS 20 euros is still too much for any variant considering the sheer volume of alternatives out there.

mikezilla! sorry it took so long to read your post. Yes, you are right, the Chinese characters both reflect the transmission of the game and the fact that Hangul wasn't created until the 1500s by King Sejong to stop the Sinofication of Korea. Before that, all Koreans wrote Korean using Chinese characters. As for the details of games and variants, I really didn't get into it at that level, just playing fellow university students who were fairly ignorant about all except the basic forms, like me, and should've been studying instead. Again, like me. I have yet to see a non-octagonal changgi set too.

hi Mike, I play only xiangqi but am in the process of learning changgi. I know the basics but am unsure of all the rules because I'm being taught in Korean in Korea and my Korean is a work in progress too. Let me ask about that rule...!! In xiangqi, the kings can't even oppose each other in the first place. I am good at xiangqi though, I learned it when I went to university in China and can beat the avg Chinese guy off the street. I can't say which is better, bc i'm such a novice at changgi. Interesting to note that even though Koreans COULD write changgi pieces in hangul (written Korean), they leave it in the original Chinese...that should be a lesson to us as well to keep the universality of the game. In Korea, i have yet to see any octagonal pieces!

i am totally in favor of the original pieces for shogi and xiangqi and changgi. Xiangqi and changgi are the same 2 characters, the Koreans just pronounce Chinese characters differently than the Chinese do. If you need a legend graphic, maybe that would do the trick for those who find the characters unintelligible. THink about it, if you do enjoy this game on brainking and ever have the opportunity to play in real life, wouldn't it be a shame that you couldn't, because even if you knew the rules you wouldn't recognize the REAL pieces?? Korean and Chinese chess use the same pieces, so if we get one on BK, we will definitely get the other, very easy promgramming feat.