Fwiffo: the kings are different sizes and characters.

Fencer: well, they are common in Hong Kong, Taiwan, korea, singapore. But not in mainland China. However, traditional characters are almost exclusively used for chess sets, mostly for stylistic reasons

but from what I read, many people suggested text sets. Where did you get these?

Fencer: yes, basically correct. Two minor things, the kings, horses, chariots are simplified rather than traditional characters. Stylistically, it doesn't look as good and, as far as I know, no sets are produced with the simplified ones. But they are correct.

Also, at the top of the selection page, it says shogi rather than xiangqi.

ughaibu: it's not the one on zillions, is it?

jian: i suppose whatever fits your pieces the best?

jian: yes, we would need use our imagination for the river! most OTC 象棋 sets have paper boards anyway, easy to make. I don't understand what you mean by dimensions? 您是中国人吗&
#65311;

Caissus: the chessboards, of course, are different, but if you know the lines for the 士and the river, you can do it.

Fwiffo: good point about the cannon/horse. Without pieces to jump over, the cannon suffers and the horse is blocked less.

pauloaguia: definitely.

chessmec: nice game~!

Spirou: i have the max # of FS now, so I can't start another. Anyone interested in the meantime should use this link for openers:

http://www.freechineselessons.com/beginners.php

Pedro Martínez: it's hard to differentiate from one recording...if you're really interested in Chinese I can get you started.

Pedro Martínez: heheheheh! what a vivid picture..you can get the pronunciation here:

http://www.mandarintools.com/cgi-bin/wordlook.pl

enter 'Chinese chess' and then click on the xiang and qi hyperlinks.

the cannon is worth less because it has capture conditions that the rook doesn't have. Of course, it is much better than a chariot in some cases! I would say a soldier having crossed the river is worth more than an advisor or elephant because it isn't constrained into path movement.

Also, NO WAY a horse is worth the same as a cannon. You can take a horse with a cannon straight off from the starting position, but it is a very bad move to do so.

Pedro Martínez: it sounds like sheeang (but pronounced quickly as one syllable) chee

the "a" in sheeang sounds like the a in barber.

Also, the first character is said from high to low, the second from low to high`/

象棋 literally means elephant chess as opposed to Jungle, which is 兽斗棋 wild animals fighting chess.