Comments by Antonio Bruzzi

Hi Fergus!

Ok. Thanks for your clear answer! Regards. Antonio

Here you are the official main janggi rules from KJA. Draw, in official tournament games, is not allowed. 


1. Game Time

You must understand the concept of countdown periods. Many English speaking
people refer this as 'byoyomi' - Japanese term used in the game of Go.

At the first janggi tournament, each player was given 20 minutes with 3
periods of 40 seconds each. This means that each player may make as many or
as few moves as he chooses during his first 20 minutes of thinking time. If
the player uses up all of 20 minutes, the countdown of 40-seconds periods
start. If a player makes his move within the 40-seconds period, he retains
all of his three 40-seconds periods for his future moves. But if the player
does not make his move after the 40 seconds, he loses one of his 40-seconds
periods. If the player uses up all of his three 40-seconds periods, the
player loses.

2. Perpetual move

When the tournament uses the 'point system' as a tie breaker, perpetual
move, such as repeating checks or repeating positions, is prohibited. If
the player repeats the same movement more than three times, the player
loses.

3. Bikjang (King's check)

In janggi, there's a unique rule called 'bikjang'. You may call this in
English as 'King's check'. When the player moves his king to face the other
side's king without any pieces between them, this is the bikjang or king's
check. If it's a general game that doesn't use the 'point system', when the
player commits 'bikjang', the other side can either accept the bikjang and
make the game as a draw or reject the bikjang by either moving the king or
placing other pieces between the kings.

However, under the 'point system', if the player commits bikjang and other
side accepts it, the game does not end in a draw. Instead, the points of
remaing pieces are summed up to decide a winner.

4. Stalemate and skipping turn.

Before I explain the stalemate, I must explain this carefully. Many
Westerners think a stalemate is same as a draw. But, this is not the case.
A stalemate is a situation where one side cannot make any move legally.
Because many Westerners are used to play chess, many of them think both
stalemate and draw are same term.

Unlike Chess, in which a stalemate is a draw, in janggi if a player does
not have any legal moves, he must 'skip' his turn. This situation
effectively leads to the other player making moves more than once in a
row.

Also, even if the player does have legal moves, the player can 'choose to
skip' his turn as desired. The player can show the sign of skipping his
turn to other player by flipping his king.

5. Total Time.

Other than the game time of 20 minutes and 3 periods of 40-seconds each,
sometimes there would be a limit of 1 hour per game due to time constraint.
If the game does not end within 1 hour, the game will be stopped and the
winner is decided by summing up the points of remaining pieces.

6. Switching pieces of Ma(Horse) and Sang(Elephant)

Before the start of the game, a player can choose to switch the position of
Ma(Horse) and Sang(Elephant) as desired. Usually, the red side decides his
position of those pieces first, and then the blue side decides his position.




Regards
Antonio