S. Kusumoto's
MiniXiangqi
7x7 Chinese Chess
S.
Kusumoto's
MiniXiangqi
7x7 Chinese Chess
Xiangqi on a 7x7 board, without Elephants and Mandarins. The object is to
checkmate the opponent's General by attacking it so that it has no safe
positions to move to. It's also a win to stalemate your opponent so that he
can't move — this usually only happens when a player is reduced to a lone
king. A player may not force a repetition of moves. Generals cannot face
each other on a file with no intervening pieces. The 3x3 boxes at the top and
bottom of the board are the Generals' imperial palaces or fortresses. The
Generals may not leave their fortresses. Chariots are the most valuable pieces.
The Horse is less valuable than the Cannon in the opening, but becomes
stronger as the game progresses. The Cannons are effective positioned behind
friendly pawns. MiniXiangqi was introduced by
Endgames properties:
A lone General can be mated (remember that checkmate and stalemate both win,
and Generals cannot face each other a file with no intervening pieces) by
General and Soldier, General and Horse, or General and Chariot.
Soldier/Pawn (zu/tsut, bing/ping = foot soldier) Soldiers can move
forward left and right, immediately from the beginning (unlike in normal
Xiangqi).
Horse/Knight (ma = horse)
Horses move like a Knight in Chess,
except that they can't jump over other pieces. They step outward on a row or
column, then diagonally outward one step. If something is adjacent to a Horse
on a row or column, it can't move in that direction.
Chariot/Rook (ju/kui = chariot)
Chariots move like the Rook
in Western Chess, that is, any number of squares along a row or column. The
Chariots are initially positioned in the corners.
Cannon (pao = cannon)
Cannons move like Chariots/Rooks, by sliding
any number of squares along a row or column, but they can capture an enemy only
if there is another piece (of either side) in between. Thus to capture they
leap over the intervening piece and land on the enemy piece, like a cannonball.
One account of Xiangqi dates the introduction of the cannon at 839 A.D.
General/King (jiang/cheung = general, shuai/sui = general)
The General is confined to the fortress and can only move a step at a time
horizontally or vertically. It also has the special power to threaten an enemy
General across the board along an open column. For this reason, it is not
permitted to make a move that leaves the two Generals facing each other with
nothing in between. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's
General. The General is positioned in the middle.
Alternative
variants
MiniXiangqi can also be played with promotion. The
Soldier promotes, optionally, when moving up to the 6th or 7th rank.
MiniXiangqi can also be played with two Leopards each,
positioned at b1/b7, f1/f7, with the Cannons before them at the second rank.
The Leopard steps orthogonally 1 square or captures by jumping
diagonally two squares. Captures only diagonally. (A jumping Leopard
that can also move diagonally would win immediately by moving to e3, threatening
mate on two squares.)
References
Pritchard, D.B. (2007). The Classified
Encyclopedia of Chess Variants (editor:
Article in Eteroscacco 86/88, Aprile-dicembre 1999.
 You
can download my free MiniXiangqi program
here (updated
2011-04-12), but you must own the software
Zillions of Games to be able to
run it (I recommend the download version). Don't miss my other
chess variants. |
© M.
Winther, 2011 April
