Xiangqi

Author: iceninejkw

My hobby is Chinese culture and I’ve learned Chinese at least to the point where I can read newspapers and novels and handle most conversations (but not understand televised news reports or most TV programs which are fast, and packed with compressed grammar and words). I’ve also learned Chinese chess but was not interested in it too much until I found a couple of postal sites like brainking that featured it. The western symbols are a great innovation at brainking. At a park here in Shanghai or on a real time Chinese chess site, I get slaughtered quickly. I’m a big patzer and the kibitzers have a good laugh, “Foreigners can’t learn Chinese chess!” But in postal chess you can take your time and let the unfamiliar patterns soak in. What you can see in one minute in Euro Chess (let’s not say “International Chess” or “Chess” anymore) may not occur to you until after 10 or 20 minutes of contemplation in Asian chess. So now I’m taking down some Asian players. Their fast confident play will quickly kill you in a fast game but if you take your time you can spot any strategic or tactical mistakes and roll them back with a counter-attack. My Euro chess skills (my last USCF over the board rating was 2237 although that was about 15 years ago) come into play especially in the middle game if I survive the opening. “Hey! Is this guy using a computer? He plays like a patzer in the opening but a master in the middle game!!” No, I’m a Westerner with some transferable skills from Euro chess.