Battle Chess II:

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Loading Instructions Movement

LoadingInstructions

For IBM/Tandyand 100% Compatibles

Battle Chess II requires atleast 640K to play. Beforeyou begin, make a backup

of your BattleChess II disks.(Refer to yourDOS User’sManual for in-structions onhow to makebackups.)MAKE SURE

YOU PLAY WITH YOURBACKUP DISKS ONLY

1. Boot your computerwith DOS. If you have amouse, make sure it is con-nected and the driver in-stalled.

2. Insert your backup ofthe BCII Startup disk Thefirst time you playCHINESE CHESS youmust run the setup pro-gram. Type a:setupcenter >.

Follow the instructionson screen. The setup pro-gram will configure BCII toyour system (graphics,sound boards, inputdevice). If you are not surewhat you have or arehaving problems, con-figure your system to:

Graphics - CGA, SoundBoard - Internal Speaker,Input device - Keyboard.

When you are finishedwith configurations makesure you save them to disk

3. If you want to playBCII from your hard disk,create a subdirectory (wesuggest creating one calledCHESS2) and copy all filesfrom all disks into it. (Referto your DOS user’s manualfor instructions on how tocreate directories and howto copy files.)

4. To load BCII from here,make sure you are in theproper directory or at theproper drive prompt, andtype CHESS2<enter>

Copy ProtectionDuring the setup pro-

gram, you will be asked totype in a move from one ofthe fictional games in Ap-pendix A of this manual.Type in the move it re-quests and type <enter>.For example, if asked forBlue’s third move in game#5, Morphy vs. Ching Ti,you would type K5Flcenter>. BCII will then beconfigured specifically foryour system. If you changesystem configurations, youwill need to run the setupprogram again.

MovementNOTE: Mouse and

joystick operationsare the same.

Using Keyboard - Tomove your chess pieces,use the arrows to positionthe flashing square underthe piece you want tomove, then press < enter >to select it. Select thedesired destination pointby using the arrows andpress < enter > . (You willnotice that legal moves aresolid green squares and il-legal ones are solid red.)You can also move theflashing square by using al-gebraic notation. For ex-ample, to move the Knightyou would type

Bl <enter>C3 <enter>.

Using Mouse - To moveyour chess pieces, use themouse to position the flash-ing square under the pieceyou want to move, thenpress the left button toselect it. Select the desireddestination point by usingthe mouse, then press theleft button. (You will noticethat legal moves are solidgreen squares and illegalones are solid red.)

Battle Chess II Menus Battle Chess II Menus

Battle Chess IIMenus

Using Keyboard - Pressthe <F1> key to bring upthe menus. Use the arrowsto switch between themenus and highlight an op-tion. Press the <enter >key to select it. Press the<ESC> key to exitwithout selecting any op-tion.

Using Mouse - Press theright mouse button tobring up the menus. Keepholding the right mousebutton down as you movethe pointer over menu tit-les and the appropriate op-tions will appear. Move thepointer down to the optionyou desire and when theoption highlights, releaseyour hold on the rightmouse button. The fourmenus contain the follow-ing options:

DISKLoad Game, Save Game,

New Game, Set Up Board,Quit

MOVEForce Move, Take Back,

Replay, Suggest Move,Show Layout, Help Move

SETTINGSSound On/Off, Music

On/Off, 3-D Board, 2-DBoard Roman, 2-D BoardChinese, Human PlaysBlue, IBM Plays Blue,Modem Plays Blue, HumanPlays Red, IBM Plays Red,Modem Plays Red

LEVELNovice, Level 1-8, Set

TimeMenu options that have a

" +” beside them are cur-rently selected. Note thatthe Boards you can changeto will show up in the Set-tings menu, while the oneyou are on does not.

Menu OptionsExplained

Load GameIf you’ve saved a game

before, this option recallsthe game and picks upwhere you left off. Afterselecting Load Game, theLoad window will then ap-pear displaying a list ofyour saved games. Selectthe game you wish to loadby double-clicking withthe mouse or using thearrow keys and pressingthe center > key if you

don’t have a mouse. Thegame will be loaded withits saved settings.

Save GamePick this option if you

want to save a game todisk while the game is inprogress. After BattleChess II asks you to insertyour save disk, the Savewindow will appear.Choose a slot with themouse or arrow keys, typea name for the game youwish to save, and thenpress the <enter> key.

New GameThis option lets you start

a new game at any time.

Set Up BoardThis option lets you set

up games for testingstrategies. Set Up is per-formed on a 2-dimensionalchess board with the addi-tional chess pieces ar-ranged vertically on eachside of the board. Any ofthe pieces can be selectedand moved into any posi-tion by clicking on themwith the mouse.

Keyboard users: To selecta piece on the side of thechess board, press the< F3 > key, then using thearrows choose a specific

piece, and press the<enter > key. This willreturn your chosen pieceto the chess board.

From Set Up, you havefour additional menu op-tions:

Clear Board: Removes allpieces from the board.

Restore Board: Whileremaining in Set Up, thisaborts any changes you’vemade.

Next Move Blue, NextMove Red: This deter-mines who moves next.

Done: Returns you tonormal playing mode soyou can play the gameyou’ve set up.

Note that once you’veentered Set Up Board, allmoves stored from yourcurrent game are lost.

QuitYou’ve had enough. Exit

to the operating system.

Force MoveIf you get impatient while

waiting for Battle Chess IIto make its move, you canforce it to move with thisoption. This interrupts thecomputer’s thinkingprocess and makes it takethe best move that it hasthought of so far (this com-mand is not instantaneous).

Battle Chess II Menus

Take Back while illegal ones are solid

This option will take backred. This defaults to on.

the last move made by Sound On/Offeither side. You can takeback as many moves as you Toggles the combat and

want, back to the first animation sounds on and

move you made. off.

Replay Music On/Off

Let’s say you’ve just Toggles the individual

taken back a move, then music scores for each piece

decided it wasn’t such a on and off.

bad move after all. Justselect Replay to put the

3D Boardpiece back where it was.

Suggest Move

Shows the board in itssplendid three-dimensionalview with all pieces animat-

Want a hint for your next ing.

possible move? The sug-gest Move option will give

2D Romanyou that hint. Flashing Shows the Two-dimen-highlights will appear on a sional board with Romanpoint occupied by one of lettering carved into theyour pieces and the sug- pieces.gested destination point(this command is not in- 2D Chinesestantaneous). Shows the two-dimen-

Show Layoutsional board with Chineselettering beautifully

If this is selected, a win- engraved into each piece.dow will appear showingthe 2D board and pieces. Human/IBM/This is advantageous whenyou want to see the board Modem Playslayout without pieces in Red/Bluethe way.

Help MoveIf selected, legal moves

will be solid green squares

Use these six settings todetermine who playswhich side. For example, ifyou wanted to play againstanother person, set Human

Battle Chess II Menus

Plays Blue and HumanPlays Red. If you wantedthe computer to playagainst itself, set IBM PlaysBlue, IBM Plays Red. Anycombination of these is al-lowed (Exception: ModemPlays Red, Modem PlaysBlue) as long as one sideplays Red and the otherplays Blue.

LevelsLevels Novice through 8

are available. Novice is theeasiest, and 8 is the hardest.

The longer Battle Chess IIthinks, the more carefullyplanned its moves will be,and the better game it willplay. Under the Novicelevel, Battle Chess II onlydoes one simplistic boardevaluation. Remember, ifit’s taking too long, youcan always override thethinking time by using theForce Move option.

Set TimeThis lets you change Bat-

tle Chess II’s average think-ing time to any amountyou want, from 1 minute to10,000 minutes. A windowwill appear after you pickthis option. Type a numbermeasured in minutes andpress the <enter> key, andBattle Chess II will take ap-

proximately that long tothink per move.

Shortcut KeysIf vou don’t want to use

the’mouse toselect themenus, certainshortcut keysare available incombinationwith the ALTkey See the boxbelow for thekeys.

CheckWhen your

King is in

icon. It will chanthe normal

the Ring es-capes check

I

Playing By Modem Playing By Modem

Playing BattleChess II by Modem

You can play Battle ChessII against a distant op-ponent if each of you has aHayes-compatible modemhooked up to your IBM. Ifyou have only one cornport, you cannot have amouse driver installed. Ifyour modem is properlyconnected, as shown inyour modem manual, thereare 3 steps to start playingover the modem with Bat-tle Chess II.

1. Arrange with your op-ponent who will play Redand who will play Blue.After you’ve agreed, bothof you should load BattleChess II and set youropponent’s color with the“Modem Plays Blue” or“Modem Plays Red” menuoption. Hang up the phoneon both ends before con-tinuing.

2. One player must set hismodem to auto-answermode. You can do this bypressing the <F2> keythen typing ATS0=l andpressing the <enter > key.(That’s a zero, not the let-ter “O”.)

3. The other player mustcall the player whosemodem is set to auto-

answer. To dial a number,press the <F2> key thentype ATD 555-1212, sub-stituting the correct phonenumber, and press thecenter > key You can useany phone number withthe ATD command, includ-ing area codes.

Your modem will pick upthe phone and dial thenumber, and if all goeswell, it’ll then connectwith the modem on thereceiving end. If you getthis far, you’re set; you canstart your chess game.When you move a piece,that move will happen onyour opponent’s end aswell as yours. Note thatafter the two players areconnected, the menu op-tions New Game, Set UpGame, and Load Game willsend an entire new chessboard to both sides, dis-carding the current game.

When you set one playerto Modem you can sendtext to your modem or op-ponent by pressing the<F2> key. This will bringup a dialogue box in whichyou can enter a line of text.The window will disap-pear when you presscenter> and the line oftext will be sent. This is theway you control yourmodem in Battle Chess II,

using the modem’s AT com-mands, and it is also theway you send messages toyour opponent once youare connected. Press the<F2> key then type oneline and press the < enter >key. A window will pop upon your opponent’s screenwith your message. Afterhe or she dismisses thewindow, the game can con-tinue. You can receivethese messages at any timeexcept when a window isopen on your screen. Ifyou type modem com-mands in this way, themodems will act on them.See your modem manualfor details on AT com-mands.

There are two steps tobreak the connection andhang up the phone. First,press the <F2> key, thentype + + + (three plussigns), press center>, andwait a moment. This willget your modem’s atten-tion. Then press the <F2>key and type ATH to tellyour modem to hang up.This will close the connec-tion between the twoplayers.

Battle Chess II communi-cates at 300 baud with 8bits and no parity.

Playing BattleChess II WithSerial Cables

If you and an opponenthave two IBM computers,you may play with one per-son at each IBM. Hook upa null modem cable be-tween the IBMs’ serialports. Then one personshould pick Modem PlaysRed and the other, ModemPlays Blue. You canproceed to play as if youwere connected by modem.The only difference is thatyou never need to typeany dialing commands.

Brief History of Chinese Chess Basics of Chinese Chess

A Brief History ofChinese Chess

The central theme in allforms of chess is that chessis a representation of warwithout the randomness orinequalities of real warBoth sides begin the battle

of chess can be traced backto seventh century India,where the game was called‘Chaturanga’. Soon, itspread to the nearbyregions of Persia andChina. By the eleventhcentury, the game hadmigrated throughoutEurope by way of Spanishand Italian traders. Duringthis time, it underwentmany modifications until itbecame the internationalversion of chess that isseen today.

While all this was happen-ing in Europe, chess wasundergoing different chan-ges in China. The Chineseversion of chess differsfrom its western counter-part in that it more so

reflects the Chinese cultureand philosophy. For in-stance, since the Chinesewere the early developersof gunpowder, a piece rep-resenting a cannon wasadded to the set. Eachpiece has a unique historyassociated with it whichreveals something ofChinese culture. The riverin the middle of the boardrepresents the ‘CelestialRiver’ or the ‘Yellow River’dividing the “Northern Ter-ritory” from the “SouthernTerritory”.

All in all, Chinese Chessis perhaps a more colorfulrepresentation of war Itcombines a richer historicalfeeling characterized bythe symbolic presence ofeach piece with a greaterscope of movement al-lowed by the larger andmore open board.

Basics ofChinese Chess

The goal of playing agame of Chinese Chess isidentical to that of manyother games - specifically,defeating your opponent.In Chinese Chess, this isdone by placing youropponent’s King in check-mate or stalemate.

Here are the rules ofChinese Chess in a nut-shell:

l Two opponents playagainst each other. Oneplayer is usually red, andthe other, blue.

l Each player has oneRing, two Rooks, two Can-nons, two Knights, twoMinisters (blue Ministersare sometimes replaced byElephants), two Counsel-lors (or guards), and fivePawns.

l The object of the gameis to put the opponent’sRing in “checkmate” or“stalemate”.

l The red player movesfirst and then the twoplayers alternate moves.You must move when it isyour turn.

- You may only moveone piece per turn. A move

is when a piece movesfrom one intersection toanother intersection. Eachkind of piece moves in itsown individual way,described in the section ofthe manual titled, “The In-dividual Pieces.”

l No piece (except theCannon) may jump over orpass through any otherpiece on the board when itmoves. Only one piece canbe on an intersection at atime.

- Any piece may captureany of the opponent’spieces by landing on thesame point with it. The cap-tured piece is removedfrom the board and is outof the game. You may onlycapture one piece per turn.

l When an opponent’spiece threatens the Ringand that piece could cap-ture the King on the nextmove, the King is said tobe in “check”.

l If your Ring is in check,you must either move theKing out of check, blockthe attack with anotherpiece, or capture the pieceputting your Ring incheck If you cannot escapecheck in one of these ways,the King is in “checkmate”,you lose, and the game isover.

Basics of Chinese Chess

- If your King cannotmake a legal move and isnot in check, your op-ponent has achieved a vic-

a statlernate vic-

tory in the ways describedherein.

through check-mate.

l A draw oc-curs whenneither side iscapable ofachieving a vic-

The Board

The BoardAs you can see by looking

at your screen, thechessboard consists of ninevertical and ten horizontallines. When you bootChinese Chess, all thepieces are in their startingpositions. All ChineseChess games start from thisinitial position.

Each side has an ImperialPalace made up of ninepoints in the 3 x 3 squaremarked by the diagonallines. The open section,called the river, in the cen-ter of the board dividesthe northern territory fromthe southern. The mark-ings at some of the intersec-tions denote the startingpositions of the pawns andthe cannons.

The Pieces

The Pieces

Kings:The King may

move one pointforward, back-ward, left, orright, but maynever movediagonally He isalso restricted tomovement withinthe ImperialPalace. The Kingmay never moveso that he is incheck or directlyacross the boardfrom the enemyKing with nopieces in be-

tween. Also, another piecemay not move in such away that the King will be

in check or that he will bedirectly facing the enemyKing.

Moves of the King

Counsellors:Counsellors may move

one point in any diagonal

The Pieces

direction within the Im-perial Palace.

Knights:Knights may move one

Moves of the Counsellor

Ministers:

point forward, backward,left, or right, fol-lowed by onepoint diagonal-ly left or right.Unlike conven-tional chess, theKnight may notleap over piecesto make itsmove. For ex-ample, if apoint directlyahead of the Knighcupied, the Knight cannotmove forward in that direc-tion.Ministers may move exact-

ly two points in a diagonaldirection along the sameline. They may never crossthe river and they cannotjump over or throughobstructing pieces.

The Minister The Knight

The Pieces The Pieces

Rooks:Rooks may move any

number of unobstructedpoints in ahorizontal orvertical direc-tion.

Moves of fheKnight

Cannons:The Cannon

moves muchlike the RookIt may move

any number of points in ahorizontal or vertical direc-tion. However, in order tocapture a piece, the Can-non must first jump over asingle piece of either color.This piece is called a“bridge” or “screen”. TheCannon then moves to thepoint occupied by the cap-tured piece.

The Rook

Moves of the Rook

leap the blue cannonto capture the knight.The red cannon cannotcapture the blue cannon

Moves of the Cannon

T h e C a n n o n

Pawns:Pawns may move a single

point forward, until theycross the river. After cross-ing, they may move left orright in addition to for-ward. Pawns may nevermove backwards and theynever promote upon reach-ing the far end of theboard. Unlike conventionalchess, they capture bymoving straight ahead.

Roman LetteringEach piece is represented

with the following letteron the 2D Roman board:

K - KingsG - Counsellors

(Guards)M - MinistersN- KnightsR - RooksC- CannonsP- Pawns

The Pawn I

The Importance of Each Piece The Importance of Each Piece

The IndividualImportance ofEach PieceBy now, you should be

getting a sense of thepower of each piece.

The Rook is consideredthe most powerful piece be-cause of its ability to moveswiftly from one side ofthe board to the other. It isconsidered to have rough-ly the power of a Knightand Cannon combined. Itspower diminishes slightlytoward the end of thegame as it requires the helpof other pieces to penetratea well-established enemydefense.

The Cannon is con-sidered the second mostpowerful piece because ofits ability to destroy from adistance and its swift move-ment. Like the Rook, itspower diminishes towardthe end of the game be-cause its capturing poweris reduced as more piecesare eliminated from play.However, it is perhaps themost important pieceduring the opening bothoffensively and defensive-ly.

The Knight is consideredonly slightly less powerful

than the cannon because ofits restricted movementearly in the game. Duringthat time, it is used primari-ly for defense. Its powergreatly increases towardthe mid-game as fewerpieces get in its way

Ministers and Counsel-lors are extremely limitedbecause the former cannever cross the river andthe latter cannot leave theImperial Palace. For thisreason, both are used ex-lusively for defense. Mini-sters provide the outerdefenses while Counsellorsblock attacks within the Im-perial Palace.

Pawns are considered theleast powerful pieces be-cause of their limited move-ment. Once across theriver, however, the Pawn’spower increases as itsmovement abilities in-crease. Initially, a Pawn isused to block the enemy’sattacks and providebridges for the cannons.Unlike conventional chess,Pawns are not promotedwhen reaching the farhorizontal line. Therefore,it is not always wise to ad-vance your pawns too faracross the board.

A way of remembering allof this is to think in terms

of points: a Rook is worthabout 9 points; a Cannonabout 4.5; a Knight about 4;a Minister or Counsellorabout 2; and a Pawn about1. If the Pawn has crossedthe river, however, itshould be consideredabout 2 points.

Because of the King’s im-portance in winning thegame, his value cannot beassigned a point value.

Keeping this in mind, youcan see that you wouldcome out well ahead inpower if you were able totrade a Knight for a RookHowever, there will betimes when you may wantto sacrifice a high valuepiece for one of muchlower value - if, for in-stance, by trading a Rookfor a Counsellor you canset up for checkmate in thenext move, then it doesn’treally matter how manypoints you have lost. Whatultimately matters in thegame of Chinese Chess iswhether or not you winthe game. Everything else,including points, is second.

Winning the Game Drawn Games

Winning the GameBecause of the limitations

on many of the pieces’movements, Chinese Chessgames are generallyshorter than conventionalchess games. Basically,there are two ways to win:

1. Put your opponent incheckmate.

2. Stalemate youropponent.

A checkmate occurs whena King is in check and hehas no way to escape thecheck A stalemate occurswhen a player has no legalmoves to make. A player isconsidered to be in checkwhen his Ring can be cap-tured by an enemy pieceon his opponent’s nextmove. A player can escapecheck in one of three ways:

1. Move the Ring out ofthe way to a safe point.

2. Move another piece toblock the path of thecheck

3. Capture the enemypiece putting the Ring incheck

A player who cannot es-cape check in one of thesethree ways is said to be incheckmate and the game isover. If a player is not in

check, but any move theplayer makes will put himin check (which is illegal),the player has beenstalemated and loses thegame.

Drawn GamesAs in conventional chess,

if neither side is able to cap-ture the opposing Ring,the game ends in a draw.This often happens ifneither side has any piecesremaining which can crossthe river. There are twoother rules, unique toChinese Chess, which helpprevent draws:

1. It is illegal for the samepiece to put the opposingRing in check three timesin a row. “Draw By Per-petual Check”, as it iscalled, is NOT allowed.

2. It is illegal for a piece tochase an opposing pieceback and forth. If eitherpiece moves to more thantwo squares while the“chase” occurs, then it islegal to continuallythreaten that piece.

Also, if the threatenedpiece is protected at eitherpoint, the chase can con-tinue.

For example, a Rookmoves from point A topoint B to avoid capture byan enemy Knight. Theenemy Knight then movesfrom point Y to point Z. Ifthe Rook moves back topoint A, the Knight could

not move back to point Yunlesss the Rook isprotected at either A or B.

Therefore, draws usuallyoccur when both sides arereduced in power so thatneither can penetrate theenemy’s defenses.

Chinese Chess Notation Strategy

Chinese ChessNotation

For the purposes of play-ing Chinese Chess by com-

123456789puter, algebraicnotation is used to

’ enter and notemoves. The letters“a” through “i” runacross the bottomof the board fromleft to right, whilethe numbers “1”

987654321

I

through “10” (or “0”Some Opening

Movesfor our purposes) run frombottom to top. Therefore,to move the red Cannonon the left to capture theblue Knight on the firstmove, you type

B3<enter>B0<enter>

Descriptive Notation ismore commonly used intexts containing games, al-though it is ratherawkward. The verticallines are numbered “1”through “9”, left to right forblue pieces and right to leftfor red. Each move consistsof a four letter code. Thefirst letter is the piece’sdesignation (eg. “C” forCannon). the next place isthe number of the file(line) that the piece is on.The third letter representsthe type of movement (“F”

for forward, “B” for back-ward, and “H” for horizon-tal). The last digitrepresents one of twothings: if the piece remainson the same vertical line, itis the number of stepstaken forward or back-ward; if it changed lines,then it is the new line thepiece is on.

The four opening movesin Fig. 1 can be representedas follows:

AlgebraicH3-E3Bl-C3G4-G5B3-B7

DescriptiveC2H5N8F7P3FlC8F4

StrategyThe objective in Chinese

Chess is the same as in con-ventional chess, however,the strategies involved aremuch different. In ChineseChess, a positional ad-vantage is very important,since the Ring has suchlimited mobility. Often, asubstantial material ad-vantage can be offset by asingle Rook deep in enemyterritory Remember thatChinese Chess is muchquicker and deadlier thanconventional chess. It’svery common to win orlose in the first few movesof a game. Be aware of themany ways a Ring can becheckmated and watch forthese positions developing.

Openings:There are many different

openings in ChineseChess. Whole volumeshave been dedicated to thissingle facet of the game.

The most common open-ing is the “Central Cannon”opening. This consists ofmoving either Cannondirectly behind the centralPawn. Subsequently, theKnights may be moved outto defend the central Pawnin case the opponent

decides to open similarly.Otherwise, the centralPawn can advance with lit-

Other varia-tions on this

seventh rank or, using theCannons to defend ranksadjacent to the river fromattack

Other strategies involvemoving pieces to free themost powerful piece, theRook Carefully watchwhich pieces areendangered andwhich ones youcan capture.

It’s importantto establish your-self offensivelyand defensivelyfrom the start of the game.For example, you can cap-ture an enemy Knight withyour Cannon on the veryfirst move. This is general-ly not considered a goodmove since the resultingloss of your Cannon is

Strategy Strategy

usually devastating in theopening game. However, itis important to note thatyou can threaten manypieces within one or twomoves.

Though theopening gameis important, itis not absolute-ly necessary toconsume a vastknowledge ofopening movessince theChinese Chessboard is somuch largerand more openthan itswesterncousin. Im-

agination and innovationin the opening game veryoften results in a far supe-rior position.

Midgame:Like conventional chess,

there is no single “formula”for success in the mid-game. There a severalguidelines that may behelpful in forming yourown strategy:

l Do not attack withoutenough reinforcements.

l Try to shift your pointof attack from one side of

the board to the other inorder to keep your op-ponent off balance.

- Capture at least oneMinister and/or Guard tohelp you set up your finalb l o w .

l Keep pressuring youropponent’s weaklyprotected pieces, even ifthey are only Pawns.

l Move your Rooks outinto an attacking positionearly, but not at the ex-pense of your initiative.

l If a piece cannot beprotected from an attackvery easily, it is often bet-ter to use the ‘extra’ moveto advance anotherpiece to a much better posi-tion.

When deciding whetheror not to sacrifice a piece,you must take into accounthow valuable that piece isat that point of the game.For instance, a Cannon isnot worth as much later inthe game simply becausethere aren’t that manypieces to jump over.Knights generally tend tobecome stronger later inthe game because theybenefit from greatermobility. Also keep inmind that a Cannon is in-

valuable when attacking a

well defended King, sinceit is the only piece in thegame that can ‘jump’ overother pieces.

Endgame:The end-game in Chinese

Chess is not quite as com-plicated as conventionalchess because

a) the King is very limitedin its mobility, and

b) a stalemate is con-sidered a victory.

There are a few points tokeep in mind when ap-proaching the end-game:

l The King cannot movediagonally Therefore, aRook can effectively limitthe King to only a fewmoves without the risk ofbeing captured itself.

l The King cannot direct-ly face the enemy Kingwithout another piece be-tween them. This rule caneffectively be used tocontain the enemy King toa smaller area.

l Make sure you haveenough pieces to overcomethe defenses. Otherwise,you should try to force adraw by using youroffensive pieces (ones thatcan cross the river) indefense.

The side with the mostpieces or points does notnecessarily have the ad-vantage. Many strategiesexist to win the game or atleast force a draw whenyou are at thedisadvantage.Learning andpracticing endgame strategiesby setting upboards with onlya few pieces willgreatly improve yourChinese Chess playing.

Appendix A Appendix A

Fictional Games 10. R2F7 C5F4

from History 11. C5F4 N3F5

12. R2H5 M3F51) Marco Polo (Red)

vs. Kublai Khan (Blue), 13. N4F5 R9Fl1275 AD 14. R2F7 R9H4

It is rumored that on one 15. N5F3 R4F4of his visits to China,Marco Polo engaged the 16. RSB4 C5B2great Khan in a game of 17. RSH4 R4H5Chinese Chess. Although-neither player was a 18. G6F5 C5F4

master, Kublai was the 19. G4F5 G6F5more experienced of thetwo.

20. R4F5 R5H3

Marco Polo’s fast and 21. K5H4 R3F4

furious attack on the 22. K4Fl R3H7Khan’s territory is at firstsuccessful, but he sacrifices

23. N4F4 R7Bl

too many pieces. The end 24. K4Bl R7H5result has Marco Polo withonly one offensive piece

25. R4B2 G5B6

remaining and a certain vic- 26. R4F3 K5Fltory for the Khan. 27. R4Bl K5Bl

R e d Blue 28. R4Fl K5Fl1. C2H5 N2F3 29. R4Bl K5Bl2. N2F3 C8H6 30. resigns3. RlH2 N8F7

4. C8F4 C6F4 2) Xi Tsung (Red)5. P7Fl C2F7 vs. Emperor Chao (Blue),

6. R9H8 C6Hl975 AD

7. C8Fl ClH7Tai Tsung is one of the

early masters of the game8. C8H3 C7B4 of Chinese Chess. His

9. N3F4 C7H5strategy is unusual andworthy of observation. Un-

-.

like many players, TaiTsung used his Pawns as of-fensive spearheads for hisattacks. Here is one of hisrumored games against theEmperor.

Notice Tai Tsung’s earlysacrifice of one of his Can-nons for position. Then heslowly advances his Pawnalong the seventh rank tosecure his victory.

R e d

1. C8F4

2. NSF7

3. C2F5

4. N2F3

5. RlH2

6. R2F6

7. R2Fl

8. R2F2

9. M3F5

10. P7F1

11. N7F6

12. N6F7

13. M7F9

14. R9H7

15. P7Fl

16. PlFl

17. R7F3

18. N3F5

19. P7H6

Blue

C8H5

N2F3

NSF7

C5H8

C8H9

P7F1

R9H8

N7B8

C9H7

c7F4

M3F5

K5F1

C7H1

R1F1

N7F6

RlH4

ClH5

R4F6

R4H5

20. G6F5 R5Hl

2 1 . P6Fl RlF2

2 2 . G5B6 RlH2

2 3 . C7B3 C2Fl

2 4 . P6Fl N3Bl

2 5 . C8H9 R2H4

2 6 . K5H4 C2F6

2 7 . P6Fl K5Bl

2 8 . C9F5 C2H6

2 9 . C9Fl G4F5

3 0 . P6Fl mate

3) Su Hsun (Red)vs. Tai Sung (Blue),989 AD

It is rumored that theaging master Tai Tsung puthis undefeated record onthe line against the poet SuHsun.

Tai Tsung as usual moveshis Pawns out early, but SuHsun reacts well to thismovement. It is Su Hsun’sRooks, however, that movein for the kill to give TaiTsung his only recordeddefeat.

R e d

1. C8H5

2. C2F4

3. N2F3

4. N3F5

Blue

N8F7

C2H5

C5F4

N2F3

Appendix A Appendix A

5. C5H3 M3F5 4) Dmur (Red)

6. C3F4 P3Flvs. Yung Le Ti (Blue),1395 AD

7. P3Fl N3F2The great general of

8. P7Fl P5Fl Southeast Asia, Timur, is

9. P9Fl P5Fl rumored to have avoided a

10. P9Fl PlFlconflict with the MingDynasty in China by chal-

11. P3Fl M5F3 lenging the best Chinese

12. NSF7 PlFlplayer at the time, Yung Le‘Ii, to a game of Chinese

13. N7F5 M7F5 Chess. The winner wouldbe allowed all of the ter-

14. NSF6 K5Fl ritories in Indochina

15. C3H6 N7F6 without interference from

16. C6H5 K5H6the loser. One can onlyguess at how the history of

17. C2H4 C8H4 that region might be dif-

18. P3Fl N6F4ferent if the outcome ofthis game had been dif-

19. C5Bl RlF3 ferent.

20. C5H4 K6H5 Timur moves into attack

21. RlH2 RlH6position early, while YungLe Ii establishes his defen-

22. R2F8 K5Bl ses. Through careful

23. C6H5 R6H5 sacrifices, it is the greatgeneral and strategist,

24. C5H8 N4B2 Timur, who comes out with

25. R9F4 M5F7 a victory. Note alsoTimur’s use of both Rooks

26. R2H6 C4H7 to achieve his checkmate.

27. R9F5 C7F7 R e d Blue

28. K5Fl P5H6 1. C2H3 C2H3

29. K5H6 C7H4 2. RlF2 CSHS

30. R9H6 mate 3. N8F7 C3F4

4. C3F4 P3Fl

5. P3Fl P3Fl

6. PlFl

7. R9H7

8. P3Fl

9. C8F5

10. C8Hl

11. P3H4

12. P4Fl

13. K5H4

14. P4Fl

15. C3H5

16. P4H5

17. P5Fl

18. RlH6

19. R4F6

20. R4Fl

21. R4H5

22. C5H7

23. R7F3

24. R7F2

25. R7Fl

26. R7H6 mate

C3F3

NSF9

R8H8

R8F9

M7F9

R8H7

R7H6

P5Fl

C5H3

P3Fl

G4H5

K5Fl

C3F5

K5Fl

N2F3

K5H4

C3B4

C3Fl

RlF2

M3F5

5) Morphy (Red)vs. Ching Ti (Blue),1860 AD

The great Americanchessmaster, Palos Morphy,is rumored to have agreedto play the Chinese master,Ching Ti, one game of

Chinese Chess and onegame of European Chess.After soundly defeating hisopponent in the Europeangame, Morphy was quiteshocked to lose theChinese game in onlyeleven moves.

Morphy attempts one ofthe standard openings inChinese Chess, but his ex-perienced opponent uses itto set up the kill. Noticethe power Ching ‘Ii haswhen his Cannons arelined up together. Morphycan move out of the waybriefly, but not for long.

R e d Blue

1. C8H5 N8F7

2. P5Fl C2H5

3. C2F4 K5Fl

4. N2F3 C5F3

5. C5F4 N7F5

6. C2H5 C7H6

7. RlH2 C6F4

8. K5Fl C6H5

9. K5H4 C5B3

10. N3F4 C5H6

11. N4F3 C5H6 mate

Index

IndexLoading Instructions 2Movement 3Battle Chess II Menus 4Load Game 4Save Game 5New Game 5Set Up Board 5Quit 5Force Move 5Take Back 6Replay 6Suggest Move 6Show Layout 6Help Move 6Sound On/Off 6Music On/Off 63D Board 62 D R o m a n 62D Chinese 6Human/IBM/Modem 6Levels 7Set Time 7Shortcut Keys 7Check 7Playing By Modem 8History of Chinese Chess 10Basics of Chinese Chess 11The Board 13The Pieces 14T h e K i n g 14The Counsellor 14The Minister 15The Knight 15The Rook 16The Cannon 16The Pawn 17Importance of the Pieces 18Winning the Game 20Drawn Games 21Chinese Chess Notation 22Strategy 23Openings 23Midgame 24Endgame 25Appendix A 26Fictional Games 26

1

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