Check out Janggi (Korean Chess), our featured variant for December, 2024.

External Link: Korean Chess

Korean Chess, or Changgi (Tjyang Keui), is similar to Chinese Chess. The pieces have similar names, but their moves differ somewhat from Chinese Chess. The goal is to checkmate the opponent's General. Korean Chess takes longer to play than Chinese Chess, often 100 moves before a conclusion is reached. On the other hand, it is relatively fast paced. It is an attractive variant, perhaps somewhat underestimated. Korean Chess evolved either from Xiangqi or from a common ancestor.

I made this implementation because the original Zillions Korean 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 strongly undervalued. I have re-used the code but applied tweaking to alter the relative values of the pieces. Since the original version wastes a lot of time calculating pass moves, I have altered the pass procedure. I tested my version against the version on the Zillions CD 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 comfortably won five games out of five.

A Zillions program and more information is here.

External Link: http://www.two-paths.com/bg/koreanchess.htm


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Author: M Winther.
Web page created: 2006-10-29. Web page last updated: 2006-10-29