Hi,
> (I posted a similar note in rec.games.chinese-chess but received no
> response.)
I usually have rec.games.chinese-chess in my list of newsgroups, but took
it out only a few days ago. I must have missed your post there. Apologies
to rec.games.go people for the off-topic post. I have followed up to
rec.games.chinese-chess as well, so any further replies should probably go
there.
I actually played a game last night at Go club with some guests from
Taiwan that I have staying, which is quite a coincidence.
> 1) (Can't help)
> 2) Can anyone provide me with a list of texts regarding Xiang Qi
> that are available in English?
I have all the xiangqi books in English that I've managed to find! There
are certainly not many. Here are the books that I own:
"Chinese Chess" by H.T. Lau (Tuttle)
"First Syllabus on Xiangqi - Chinese Chess 1" by David H. Li (Premier)
"Xiangqi Syllabus on Cannon - Chinese Chess 2" by David H. Li (Premier)
"Xiangqi Syllabus on Elephant - Chinese Chess 3" by David H. Li (Premier)
"Xiangqi Syllabus on Pawn - Chinese Chess 4" by David H. Li (Premier)
"Xiangqi Syllabus on Horse - Chinese Chess 5" by David H. Li (Premier)
The "Syllabus on Xiangqi" series is quite comprehensive and contains quite
a few game records, as well as in-depth discussions of strategy and
tactics. I haven't read them all cover-to-cover, though.
Books, equipment and software for xiangqi can be bought from
www.yutopian.com. They have quite a nice range, although they do tend to
list things that are permanently out of stock.
> 3) (Can't help.)
> 4) Where should I go to learn of the history and culture of the
> game? I imagine that there must be in Xiang Qi's history colorful
> characters, famous games/tournaments, renowned strategic successes and
> failures, etc., as there are in Western chess.
The only advice that I can give here is that you'll probably need to know
Chinese! From what I've gathered by talking to some Chinese friends of
mine, Xiangqi is something that nearly everyone knows how to play and is
regarded as a fun game; it doesn't seem to have the same feeling of
intellectual status and intimidation that chess in the West and weiqi in
China have -- everyone can play xiangqi but "you have to be very clever"
to play weiqi!. Of course, it's more popular with old people and, to an
extent, younger children.
As far as I am aware, there isn't quite such a culture of writing and
publishing books about xiangqi as there is for weiqi or chess. I imagine
that plenty of books exist, but I think there's a much smaller body of
literature than for weiqi.
H.J.R. Murray's "A History of Chess" has a brief section about xiangqi.
Whilst some of the scholarship in that book seems in retrospect to have
been slightly dubious, it's certainly an interesting reference. Oddly
enough, Murray decides that the "象" (xiang) in xiangqi refers to
"figure"
rather than "elephant", which goes against everything that I've heard from
other sources. He then decides that "xiangqi" means "figure chess",
referring to the fact that it was originally played with figures rather
than flat counters. He uses this as evidence that it was derived from the
Indian game. This isn't necessarily wrong, but it's not very well
supported either. Murray makes a few assumptions about the origin of the
game, and dismisses as "confused" some historical sources that contradict
his view. Good, Victorian scholarship. :o)
> 5) What are the best computer programs for Xiang Qi?
I've heard of, but not used, Qianhong ("Light Red" -- a pun on "Deep
Blue"). It's freeware (for windows) and seems to be an ongoing project.
Possibly the best known is XieXie: http://cc-xiexie.com/.
There are also
quite a few implementations for Palm/Windows Mobile. I have quite a good
implementation on my Windows Mobile phone that is just called "Chinese
Chess", and is published by ZingMagic.
> 6) What are the best web sites (in English) for Xiang Qi?
You can play online in realtime at www.clubxiangqi.com. I play there
(very) occasionally. I play most of my games on www.brainking.com.
> 7) Is Daniel H. Li, author of The Genealogy of Chess still alive?
> How may he be contacted.
I assume that you mean David H. Li. There's a wikipedia page about him
here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_H._Li.
He seems still to be
alive! I imagine that you can find contact details by searching in Google,
although he's retired.
I hope that this helps!
Joss
PS: On a slightly related note, if you're interested in Hong Kong cinema,
there's quite a fun martial arts film called "The Mystery of Chess Boxing"
that is based around xiangqi.
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