An Ode to Xiangqi

One significant thing that happened to me over the six month break I took from this blog was my discovery and subsequent fascination with the game Xiangqi.

I’m not going to go into any long or otherwise winded explanation of how the game is played other than to point out:

1. It’s pronounced "shiang-chee"

2. Its a chess variant, but it predates chess by a few thousand years so the argument would better be made that chess is a xiangqi variant.

It you want to know more I suggest following this link.

Sometimes referred to as Chinese chess, the word Xiangqi literally translates to “Elephant Chess.” each side has two elephants.

Though the game is enormously popular in most of the asian world the reason it hasn’t become globally popular like chess did is largely because of the pieces:

Not only are the pieces labeled with Chinese characters, the two sides ALSO have different characters! Though getting used to this isn’t all that difficult it’s a real stumbling block for people wanting to try it out.

There are western style pieces available now:

I prefer the original Chinese characters but it’s good they’re trying to make it more accessible.

Note: For those dismayed by my use of seven flats, Ab minor is an easy key to fudge into flat-free A minor. Just mentally remove all the flats from the key signature and all the flats after the chord symbols. The handful of naturals in the score become sharps.