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Chinese Chess variant for 7 players. Missing description (19x19, Cells: 361) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Anonymous wrote on Tue, Apr 20, 2004 08:47 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

To the above comment: although this is not 'standard' Chinese chess it
was invented in China. It is therefore 'Chinese'. As far as I
understand
the above rules:

1) The archers and crossbowmen move as limited orthodox queens (i.e. they
don't kill at a distance any more than the cannon does). The 'on each
move' part of their movement rules suggests to me that the archers
always
move 4 spaces (no more, no less) and the crossbowmen always move 5
spaces.

2) The Zhou King is just a centerpiece and plays no role: he never moves
and cannot be captured, as far as I can see. In effect the central
position is a void, so there are 360 positions that can be used by the
players. Since this game is inspired by the Warring States civil war, it
is semi-historic and therefore the outgoing figurehead 'sons of heaven'
needed to be represented.

3) If the game seems not entirely serious, I suspect that is because the
game is intended mainly for laughs, as the drinking clauses in the rules
suggest.