Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!agate!ig!uwmcsd1!bbn!rochester!PT.CS.CMU.EDU!B.GP.CS.CMU.EDU!Ralf.Brown@B.GP.CS.CMU.EDU
From: Ralf.Brown@B.GP.CS.CMU.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Chinese Chess
Message-ID: <222eb822@ralf.home>
Date: 4 Mar 88 13:58:58 GMT
Sender: netnews@PT.CS.CMU.EDU
Lines: 44
In-Reply-To: <6566@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>


In article <6566@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>, bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu ([bob, mon]) writes:
}If only I knew how to play chinese chess.... :-(

It's been years since I made my own set based on the rules from a book (and 
one of the pieces in the posted game moves slightly differently than I 
remember), but these are the main points.  Anything I might have missed, you 
can just try out and experiment with.  Lack of documentation does seem rather 
suspicious though--anyone know whether this is a commercial game (I didn't see 
any copyrights in the executables)?

The board (I'm only going to show half, since it's symmetric):

        Rook Knight Elephant Mandarin King Mandarin Elephant Knight Rook
             Cannon                                          Cannon
        Pawn        Pawn              Pawn          Pawn            Pawn

The moves (note that the pieces are in general much less powerful than in the 
usual chess):

Rooks move as in regular chess
Knights move almost the same--one square Horiz or Vert, and then diagonal one 
   square, but the space after the first move may not be occupied.  Thus, it 
   is possible to block in a knight.
Elephants move *exactly* two spaces diagonally, and may not cross the center 
   of the board (the "river").  Thus, they are limited to a total of seven 
   board positions.
Mandarins may only move one space diagonally, within the 3x3 square with the X
Kings may only move one space H or V, also within the 3x3 square with the X
Cannons move like rooks, but may not take any pieces.  In addition, cannons 
   may take an enemy piece if it is on a H or V line and there is exactly one 
   other piece (from either side) between it and the cannon.
Pawns move forward one space only.  After crossing the river, they may also 
   move horizontally one space at a time.

Since so many of the pieces are limited in where they can go, it is entirely
possible to have a stalemate with as many as 10 pieces left on the board.

You enter moves to the game by specifying the start and end positions 
separated by a blank, i.e.  "a0 a2" moves your left rook forward two spaces.

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