Chinese Chess: An Introduction to China's Ancient Game of Strategy

This is a beautifully bound book, well suited for beginners and intermediate players of Chinese chess.

The game of Chinese chess, or 'elephant chess' as it is known in Chinese, has been played for centuries. Since, naturally, most of the books heretofore published on this challenging game of strategy have been in the Chinese language, the present book by H. T. Lau renders a welcome service to another large group of game-lovers the world over. Explained with clear examples coupled with about 170 diagrams are the fundamental aspects of Chinese chess - the board, the mode of movement and values of the pieces, and the basic rules. The reader will note that there are interesting variations on the Western chess theme (although no prior knowledge of other forms of chess are necessary for an understanding of this book). Once the basics have been outlined, standard opening strategies are explicated, as are tactics for use once the game gets under way. Strategies used with various combinations of pieces commonly remaining toward the conclusion of the game are described in a chapter devoted to the end-game, which is perhaps the phase that the beginner should master first. This section shows how a player with seemingly few pieces left can win a game, and how a player in what looks like a losing situation can force a draw. Eightly mid- and end-game exercises designed to sharpen the player's skill are presented with answers at the end of the book. Finally, two appendixes are devoted to the elegantly constructed games found in two classic seventeenth-century works on Chinese chess. Here, then, is a book for both the novice and the chess fan who wants to add to his or her repertoire of fun.