CHINESE CHESS MASTER USER'S MANUAL


Table of Contents

Introduction     

Chinese Chess, or Xiangqi, is one of the oldest and most popular board games in the world. Both Chinese Chess and International Chess are believed to have evolved from the original Indian chess game called Chanturanga.

Chinese Chess uses pieces similar to those of International Chess. However, the variations in the pieces, their movements, and the board layout make Xiangqi an exciting and challenging alternative to its cousin.


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New in this version

- Support new play mode: Human with Human via wifi network.

- Full undo-redo function with unlimited moves.

- Option to shake phone to Flip board on Human-Human mode

- Option to show legal moves

- Option to show last move

- Support Hint moves

- Fix bug on conflicting with playing music.

- New languages supported:  Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian...


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Chinese Chess Board & Pieces      

This section describes the Chinese Chess board and pieces.

The Chinese Chess playing board is 8x9 squares, but pieces occupy the line intersections, or "points", not the centers of the squares. This makes the playing board 9x10 points, which is considerably larger than a normal chess board.

The board features two opposing palaces and a river that separates them. These landmarks affect the movement of certain pieces.

  • General

    The general is like the king in chess; when he dies, the game is over. His moves are limited to single horizontal and vertical steps within the palace. Under normal checking rules, it is illegal for the two generals to face each other without any other pieces in between them. (I.e. they can attack each other when they have a clear line of sight between them. Such an attack is called a "flying general." This is only possible in Qianhong when playing with "suicide moves" enabled.).

  • Advisor

    The general's advisors (or guards) move diagonally within the palace, one step at a time. The two advisors can defend each other to form a strong defense around the general.

  • Elephant

    The elephant moves diagonally two steps at a time. It cannot cross the river, nor can it move past a piece that blocks its first step. Two elephants can protect each other for a strong defense.

  • Horse

    he horse is nearly identical to the knight in chess. It moves one step along a line, then one step diagonally. The exception is that it cannot move if a piece is blocking its first step.

  • Chariot

    The chariot is identical to the rook in chess. It moves multiple steps at a time either horizontally or vertically. It is considered the strongest piece in Chinese Chess

  • Cannon

    The cannon moves like the chariot with one exception: it can only attack by jumping over another piece (of either color). Its long range makes it strong, but the fact that it needs to jump another piece to attack can be a weakness at times. Moving a cannon to the center line is a common opening move

  • Soldier

    The soldier, or pawn, only moves one step at a time. It can only move forward before crossing the river. Once it has crossed the river, it can also move side to side, but not backward. It does not attack diagonally like its western chess counterpart.


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    Start a New Game         

    To create a brand new game, Select Menu >> New Game., then select scales of difficulty (Expert, Master, Hard, Normal, Easy) and different kinds of opponents (man or computer).


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    Play via Wifi        

    To play with your friends via wifi, Select Menu > New Game, then choose Human-Human (Wifi) mode, press Play button and then wait for your friends join.

     

    If between you and your friends don't have an unfinished game, a brand new game is created. The first player of the game is person who go to wifi mode earlier.

     

    If between you and your friends have an unfinished game, Chinese Chess Master will ask you or your friend to continue play the game. (Chinese Chess Master ask only one person who is server).


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    Posture        

    This is an useful function when you want to play an arranged chess game. To play an postured game, you must take chess pieces and create posture after selecting this function.

    Note: You can save postured game use Save funtions.


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    Save/Load Game       

    Save: To store the game you are playing, click Menu >> Save, then choose a filename and click Save. To withdraw the act, click Menu.

    Load: To load a game which has been saved before and to solve with the game you are playing.


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    Undo & Redo

    Since version 2.0, undo & redo functions allow user undo or redo unlimited moves.


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    Hint

    Hint function will provide you a good move if you request.


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    History  

    To see the history of steps, click the button on Toolbar.You will see a list of steps. The history list uses standard symbols and rules of Chinese Chess, for instances, [attack= (dot)] [back= / (backslash)]

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    Settings  

    To select skins or turn sound on/off, Go to Menu >> Setting.


    Since version 2.0: Chinese Chess Master allows you enable some assist functions on Settings View including:

       + Shake phone to Flip board.

       + Show last move.

       + Show legal moves.
       + Choose your languages.
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