Chinese chess
Chinese Chess: Chinese Chess, known as "Xiangqi" (pronounced Shiang-Chi) or "Elephant Chess" in China, is an ancient game that is nearly 2000 years old. Chinese Chess is probably the most admired board game on earth, played by many in China, parts of Asia, and places where the Chinese have migrated and made their home. Played by two people, it stimulates the brain just as conventional chess does, except that it is played much faster. Moving the pieces is likely to be more adaptable and their positions more open. Chinese chess is said to be more calculated game than a deliberate one. The earliest forms of this game were well known in Persia not later than the 7th century. In the West its called shatranj and was played on a similar board like the one used in modern chess played, with identical arrangement of pieces, even though a few moves were more restricted.
Chess spread all the way across the Islamic world till it reached Europe in the Middle Ages
Download Free Chinese Chess Games Online: The Chinese Chess free download lets you play the game against a demanding A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) opponent on your PC. For beginners and masters alike, the Chinese Chess download software offers various challenge levels. Besides, the graphics are skillfully made, it has a good background midi score, and it can be played online at various game portals. The online Chinese chess is free for those who need to de-stress with a brain twister in an arcade style, fun game environment.
Chinese Chess Play: The Chinese chessboard has two sides: "northern territory" (characteristically with blue pieces) and "southern territory" (with red pieces), divided by a space in between called "the river". Every territory has a "king's palace", and the purpose is to take over the opponent's king, and shielding your own. Every side starts with 16 pieces. The southern territory makes the first move, and each side plays alternately. A player should make one move with one piece on each turn. If the piece finishes the move on a point used by another enemy piece, it is taken over and eliminated from the game. The game is won when a player cannot make a move to prevent the capture of his/her king. This point of the game is called a checkmate.
A stalemate occurs when any move by a player will result in checkmating his/her king, and is a win for the opponent. It is illegal to make any move that exposes your king to capture, which is called moving into check. Besides, it is prohibited to avoid defeat or try to force a draw by repeating the same sequence of moves repeatedly. In particular, continuous checking is not allowed, and the responsibility is on the attacker to vary his/her move. The Chinese chess warrior set includes the king, the mandarin, the elephant, the horse, the chariot, the cannon, and the soldier.
Café Chinese Chess: Cafe Chinese Chess is a promotional program which is written using Java, and has been created to make Chinese Chess available to players the world over. It provides many aids to enable enhancing the skill levels of players. For example, practicing with books available online, getting tips on endgame strategies, the availability of previous games of Chinese Chess in a graphic form on the desktop, to assess the moves by the player in his or her game.
You can customize its appearances and features according to your taste and requirement. Club Play Xiangqi is one such online site from where you can download the Cafe Chinese Chess.
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