External Link: Chinese Chess
Chinese Chess, or Xiangqi (Elephant Chess), derives from the same source as Western Chess, though there is much debate over whether the earliest form of chess began in India or China. The first definite reference to the game is from the 8th century; the present form dates from about the beginning of the 12th century. Xiangqi is still a popular folk game in China. Among the Chinese, the rules are said to be universally known, and it is claimed that Xiangqi is the world's most popular game, with perhaps 200 million players.The reason why I made this implementation is because the original Zillions Chinese Chess plays badly. I also added a more Western style piece set. The reason why it plays badly is because the pieces are incorrectly evaluated. For instance, the Cannon is regarded as equally valuable as a Chariot. This is clearly wrong. All I did was to apply tweaking to alter the relative values of the pieces. I tested my version against the original Zillions version on a 1.6 GHz computer, at 15 sec per move. The colours were alternated and the openings went differently in each game. My version won six games out of six. More information, and the Zillions
program, is here.External Link: http://www.two-paths.com/bg/chinesechess.htm
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By M Winther.
Web page created: 2006-09-10. Web page last updated: 2006-09-10