When you love chess, but want to try something different, yet very much in the same vein, then the answer might be to seek out a Xiangqi set.
Xiangqi, also called Chinese chess or Elephant chess, is in the same family of games as Western chess.
“The game represents a battle between two armies, with the object of capturing the enemy's general (king),” offers a quick explanation on Wikipedia. “Distinctive features of Xiangqi include the cannon (pao), which must jump to capture; a rule prohibiting the generals from facing each other directly; areas on the board called the river and palace, which restrict the movement of some pieces (but enhance that of others); and placement of the pieces on the intersections of the board lines, rather than within the squares.”
The game is an ancient one, “often thought to have spread to the far east from India, the game was already being played in the courts as early as the Warring States period (475-221BCE), according to theculturetrip.com.
That Xiangqi is still played today, speaks to how compelling a game it is.
But, for a more in-depth look at the game I contacted Jim Png the man behind www.xqinenglish.com.
As you might imagine much of the online material related to Xiangqi is in Chinese, which is a notable barrier to the game, so a site that focuses on the game in English is huge.
In emails back-and-forth it seemed logical to ask Jim how he himself began to play, and what is it about Xiangqi that has continued to hold his interest?
“Like Chess, it was a cultural and familial thing,” he replied. “Xiangqi is ubiquitous in parts of South East Asia. It is deeply embedded in the Chinese culture, where there are many sayings that have their roots in Xiangqi.
“It is a natural thing. It is played in schools, sometimes parents play with the children etcetera.”
In Jim’s case he said thinking back that it was his father who taught him to play.
“I played it very often when I was in secondary school in Singapore which would be the equivalent of junior high,” he said, adding it was the start of a long-term relationship with the game.
“I made friends with Xiangqi and it opened up a whole new world that kept me hooked. Playing sessions led to tournaments and one thing led to the next I suppose.
“It is the beauty of the game. I personally find it much more robust than International Chess. It is much more fluid and exciting with no Pawn formations to slow things down.”
Interestingly Xiangqi has remained almost Png’s only board game interest.
“I used to play a lot of games; Othello yes. I learned to play a little bit of Weiqi (aka Go) but found it too cumbersome to set up and it took too much time,” he said. “I played Mahjong too in the past, the different styles, Taiwanese, Hong Kong (Cantonese) etc.
“As for International Chess I dabbled a little bit with as I was the president of the chess club in secondary school and Junior College (junior high and senior high school I suppose would be the equivalent).
“I think I played a little bit of contract bridge back during school days. There are also various chess and Xiangqi variants that have caught my interest too.
“But my passion lies in Xiangqi.”
There are thousands of games out there, only a handful have national and international organizations, so why has Xiangqi been able to create and maintain such organizations?
“An interesting question,” observed Png.
“Personally, I think the main reason is that Xiangqi is a very unique and interesting hybrid of a competition/sport, Chinese culture and essential part of Chinese history.
“As mentioned above, Xiangqi is very old and deeply intertwined with the Chinese culture. If you have read some of the articles introducing Xiangqi that I have written, it can be considered to be a representation of the Chinese culture itself. Emperors and the common folk have all played it. There were even mansions built for emperors to play Xiangqi and Weiqi (Go) as I prefer to call it, during the Ming Dynasty.
“In ancient China, a gentleman was ‘required’ to be proficient in the Four Arts: music (represented by the zither), chess (initially Weiqi but later included Xiangqi, I think I wrote somewhere in a recent article), calligraphy (the many different styles) and art (represented mainly by Chinese paintings). Hence, Xiangqi is right up there.
“With the backing of the emperors and its immense popularity, it is not hard for it to reach its current status, though I personally believe that Xiangqi deserves a much bigger stage.
“Hence, from a cultural and historical standpoint, Xiangqi has the backing of the government in China and the Chinese community all over the world. Hence it remains active and vibrant.”
It is interesting that in China Xiangqi is seen as more than a game.
“One of the reasons that I think that Xiangqi has been able to be active is because Xiangqi became a sport, like track and field or basketball et cetera in China in 1956,” he explained.
“Professional Xiangqi players are treated like athletes like professional Weiqi, International Chess et cetera players. There are many many Xiangqi tournaments, perhaps a major tournament almost every month in China.
“The highest prize money is one million Yuan. Other major tournaments would allow the winner to pocket up to 70 thousand yuan. There are also group competitions, ranking tournaments, invitational tournaments et cetera. Prize money may not be as much as in Weiqi tournaments or sometimes even International Chess tournaments, but it is respectable by their living standards.”
Of course lots of us love board games, many even being super passionate about a particular one, but we don’t all start an expansive website to further play of the chosen game. So the question was why decide to start a website promoting Xiangqi in English?
“To cut a long story short, I was playing Xiangqi on a website called itsyourturn.com. I played against an American called Harvey Blume and I was doing my thing, but he was amazed at some of the tactical combinations that he never thought was possible,” related Png.
“We conversed and I realized that the West knew little or next to nothing about Xiangqi.
“Gradually I shared with him the little I knew and we had a conversation going on.”
That proved the seed of the idea.
“I had a little bit of time at that time and I was interested in learning about the Internet,” he continued. “It happened that there were wysiwig sites that made a computer illiterate like me be able to actually set up a website. That was about a decade ago.
“I am a determined person and I saw the good and felt the calling to promote Xiangqi. So I wrote to different people, asked around on how to set up a website, add the boards et cetera.
“It was very tough in the beginning but I guess I was so determined that people helped me and I made many different friends along the day. Somehow, I believe that it is my calling because whenever I ran into a wall, there was always help available.”
There is more of this story to tell, so check the next edition for Part 2.
