Chinese Chess

Home * Games * Chines Chess

Introduction

Chinese chess (Xiang Qi) is one of the most popular board games worldwide, being played by approximately one billion people in China, Taiwan and wherever Chinese have settled. Having a long history, the modern form of Chinese chess was popular during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127AD-1279AD). The earliest record of a game and a book on the theory of the game was discovered from that time.

The first Chinese chess program seems to have been written in 1982. The first scientific paper on Computer Chinese chess was published in 1981. The earliest computer Chinese chess competition was the Acer cup, which was held in Taiwan every year from 1985 to 1990. The Computer Olympiad is another important tournament. As well as the computer vs. computer competition, since 1999 in Taiwan, a human vs. computer Chinese chess competition (H4C) has also been held. The latter competition allows the strength of computer programs to be compared to that of human players.

Chinese chess programming is important in AI area. The game tree complexity of Chinese Chess is about 3895 which is equal to 10150. Compared to other board games, it lies between that of chess and go. In fact, Taiwan Chinese Chess Association (TCCA) has qualified the Chinese chess programs, ELP and ShiGa, as 6-dan level. It is expected that the world's strongest program will beat the top human master around 2010.

Rules of the Game

Asian Rules: http://24.101.164.160/xq/rule/asia/asiarule.htm (dead link)

An Introduction to Chinese Chess by Peter Donnelly: http://home1.gte.net/res1bup4/chess_intro.htm (dead link)