(King of Chess: This is an old trade. The man is lining up several chessboards on the street, each set up with some designed chess movements. The challengers can freely play with me and may win or lose money depending on how the results go. I took this photo behind the standers-by, and was evetually spotted by the man)
I went to take some photos about chess after the post last Saturday on Chinese chess taken by Hugo.
Anciently China had four traditional arts: music, painting, calligraphy, and strategy games. The second syllable of Xiangqi, "qi" (literally, chess) is the Chinese word for strategy games. The first syllable, "xiang" is the word for elephant. This spelling is Mandarin, in Cantonese the game is called Jeuhng Keih.
Like Western chess, Chinese chess descends from the game of Chaturanga, from India. From India it spread throughout Asia and also to Medieval Euroupe. In China, the game reached its current form during the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD).
The Chinese chess board is made up of 10 horizontal lines (ranks) and 9 vertical lines (files). The pieces are placed on the lines rather than in the squares as in Western chess. The lines are broken by the blank space that runs horizontally through the middle of the board. The blank space is the river. At each end there is a square with intersecting diagonals. These are the palaces, one for red, and one for black. The other markings are for aids in placement of the pieces at the beginning of the game.
The Pieces are round disks made from plastic or wood. Usually the colors are red and black, and the pieces are identified by the Chinese character written on them, namely:
將 or 師 General (King) 士or 仕 Mandarin or Assistant (Queen) 象 or 相 Elephant (Bishop) 馬 Horse (Knight) 車 Chariot (Rook) 炮 Cannon 卒 or 兵 Soldier (Pawn)
("Hey, don't you take picutre!" shouted the man, "You may watch but no photo." So I left after taking this photo of him shouting at me)
There are two popular novels given the same title, "King Of Chess", which was made into a movie.
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