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Very Nice... Can anyone point me where I can download XiangQi board
software with western pieces (instead of the one with their readitional
character pieces).

Thanks.

I disagree. Xiangqi should be played over a grid, not squares. That
probably explains the Horse and the Elephant move. On squares, it's more
natural to jump over an intermediate piece. On a grid, the intermediate
piece blocks the way. Then, since there is no long diagonal moves, there
is no need in checkering.
However, I agree that replacing the XQ piece by figurative pieces
(Staunton or other) could be useful for popularizing the game in the West.
But this has nothing to do with the board.

I have several comments:
1. I believe Seirawan and Harper forbid their pieces being used for any other purposes but Seirawan chess.  I happened to get into an ugly email correspondence over this.  They want their pieces ONLY used for Seirawan chess.  I will say that one could put a second queen in there instead of the Bishops, and use the Bishops to replace the elephants, and it should be ok.  
2. I personally would rather not have a big X through the forts on the board.  But, that would be your choice.  I guess if everyone wanted to use it for just Chinese Chess, it might make sense though.

Checkering the board is not really useful in the absence of Bishops.
So in stead the light / dark square colors are used to contrast the
river banks and palaces. The Mandarins are indicated by a mandarin cap,
which is then used to represent Ferz throughout all variants in WinBoard.
The Elephants and Cannons speak for themselves.

The 'Generals', which we of course tend to think of as Kings, are represented
by the WinBoard Wazir symbol. I am not sure if it would be better to use the
ordinary King symbol here to represent royalty, or use the Wazir to indicate
the moves of the piece. The ornament on the Wazir turban is of course ideal
for indicating royalty. A normal Wazir could use a turban without ornament.

You cannot dictate what people use your 'Chess Pieces' for. I wonder if Seirawan would object to me using his Hawk as a paper weight? He'll just have to take me to court over it.

Honestly, if he doesn't want people to buy his pieces then that's his problem, but I'm sure as Hell gonna promote them, whether it be my own game or otherwise.

Simon: We don't have any proof that this is what's going on with Seirawan
chess.  Don't pass judgment until we can get a confirmation from them.  I
have already sent them an email asking for them to clarify.

Rich,

I'll respond to your comments in the opposite order.

>> 2. I personally would rather not have a big X through the forts on the board.

The X's are actually 4 strips of vynil, and are just laid on top of the board in the shape of the X's, and are not glued or otherwise permanently stuck on the board.

>> 1. I believe Seirawan and Harper forbid their pieces being used for any other purposes but Seirawan chess.

I'll let the other comments in progress address this. They have hit the mark and are on the right track.

WinBoard uses the Wazir symbol for Gold, and the Ferz symbol for Silver, as these Generals are basically Wazir and Ferz augmented with all forward moves:

I converted a travel mini Chess set (square size 15.5mm) to become multi-functional set for Xiangqi and international Chess. Because Xiangqi can be played on the grid points, all that is needed is an extra rank to be slipped in between the board halves. Because this is the River, it needs no checkering. And then some extra pieces for the Cannons and Advisors, which I cut from a rond stick, or made from wood beads, respectively.

The River can be inserted on the top face of the set for Xiangqi, or at the bottom for international Chess (to fix the two halves to each other). When the box is closed, it fits in sideways.

I think Xiangqi should be played with traditional Chinese pieces. I bought a wooden set on Ebay. It was very cheap. After a while they are easy to understand because chess thinking is really very abstract. I think one should keep to traditions that are thousands of years old. It adds to the dimension of Chinese chess. However, this set of yours could be used for chess variants.
/Mats

In my opinion, for better visualization for western begginers, rather than traditional black-and-white checkering, board need special marking for squares, accesible by elephants. And different marking for advisors. And advisors should not resemble queens (unless if player, being new at Xiang-Qi, is not new at Shatranj).

Of course, it is not needed if one already visualize it well. My own prefrence is traditional board.