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I just compared this page with Roleigh Martin's article, highlighting any text I found to be the same. It looks like Martin is the principle author of this page, despite his distribution policy that his article should not be altered. I have a new version of this page in the works, which I'll replace this page with when it is in a more finished state.
While it is plausible that Koreans, or in this case Sillans, originally played the game with Chinese equipment, Hwarang was not a drama that made any effort to be historically accurate. Using a board with a river might have just been an oversight in the production of the show.
Piece | Points |
---|---|
chariots | 13 |
cannons | 7 |
horses | 5 |
elephants | 3 |
guards | 3 |
soldiers | 2 |
These are the values given on wikipedia for the piece values in this game. To me the cannon seems way overrated here. For obvious reasons it should be weaker than it's xiangqi counterpart. In this gmae as I see things the horse should worth a cannon+soldier, maybe a bit less but not the other way around. Maybe this elephant is on par with the Jangg cannon. Am i missing something? Or can I find more reliable data?
There's a reason this regional game has lasted for so long. Perhaps it's even a Classic by CVP standards.
I notice that the board has a river like xiangqi.  Would I be correct to think that janggi had this board feature in the past but developed a board without it, or is this another anachronism (or mistake)?  These are nice images that you posted, so thank you.
Here are a couple images of Janggi being played in the Korean historical drama Hwarang, which takes place in ancient Silla around 1500 years ago. This does not mean the game is actually that old. Characters in this drama can also be seen playing soccer. The woman is the queen dowager, who is serving as regent for her son, who is the king. The man is in charge of forming the Hwarang organization.
How do I swap the knight and elephan at the beginning of the game?
By intuition, the promotion of soldier can affect the strategies of the game drastically. Soldiers would not be sacrificed easily, and exchange of chariots or horses would be played more positively.
Also by intuition, I think the move order gives too much advantage to Chu (the green or blue) who make her setup according to Han's setup and move first.
Here are a couple pictures of Janggi being played in the Korean drama God of War:
The series takes place in the 1200's during the lifetime of Ghenghis Kahn. I have been watching Korean historical dramas in chronological order, and this is the earliest setting I have seen Janggi appear in. Despite the subtitle in the first image, it is not a checkmate just yet. Red subsequently moved the piece in the top corner of his palace as an Elephant, and Blue made another move. In the second picture, Blue has just moved his Horse at the beginning of the game.
Hello Fergus Duniho. Please e-mail to Mr. Song(宋). He is Korean in Japan. [email protected]
In Changgi Association Tokyo Branch Rules, A Pawn must promote on reaching the 10th rank. A Pawn can promote only to a friendly piece (except for Guards ) that has been captured, and for which it is exchanged. Please See http://www.h2.dion.ne.jp/~janggi/tokyo%20new%20local%20rule.html
Here's a Korean Chess problem made from a game I played with Game Courier. I made this with Game Courier's new ability to turn positions in games into fairy chess problems.
Please change link to Roleigh Martin's rule's page to here: http://www.xmission.com/~gastown/afi/koreanch.htm The link you have is dead. (the timelesseye link).
>>How to procure the nice pieces shown on Jose Carillo's photograph on >>this comment page? Thanks. Jean-Louis Cazaux, My pieces just come from a regular plastic set of chess pieces. The Elephants are Seirawan Elephants. For the Cannons, I cut off the top portion of the Rooks from a 2nd set (I kept the top of the Rooks to glue on to Knights to make Chancellors). Finally I drilled holes on the headless Rooks to make them look like Cannons. Cheers, Jose
You are right Nicholas. I tested the swap command and it was banned. Fergus can you fix it? Thanks. Meanwhile, this preset for Korean Chess: /play/pbm/play.php?game%3DKorean+Chess%26settings%3Dplain Doesn't enforce any rules, and will allow to swap the pieces.
>> In N Korea, the initial positions of Rooks and Elepahnts are changed each other. >> It is a different opening setup. >>http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%ED%8C%8C%EC%9D%BC:Yang_sang2.png Thanks Tu Ren Dong. Is it still legal to swap the Knights with the Elephants on the corners? Here is a Game Courier preset for the North Korean setup: /play/pbm/play.php?game%3DNorth+Korean+Chess%26settings%3Ddefault
Jose, I challenge you to try the swap command. It doesn't work. I think three of us have tried to get it to work. Unless we are using the syntax incorrectly. Thanks, though!
Yes, you can use the 'swap' command. Look at the text at the bottom of the Korean Chess Preset page: = = = To swap Elephants and Horses at the beginning of the game, use the swap command. For example, this will swap Elephants and Horses on both sides for Red, then move an Elephant. Follow each swap command with a semicolon, and use coordinates for its arguments. Use it only before your first move. swap b1 c1; swap g1 h1; E b1-d4
Hi I enjoy playing Changgi on this site,though I'm wondering :is there any provision to swap the the Elephants and Knights ,at the beginning if the game?
In N Korea, the initial positions of Rooks and Elepahnts are changed each other. It is a different opening setup. http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%ED%8C%8C%EC%9D%BC:Yang_sang2.png
It seems that the URL I have posted is deleted not because PDF files inside the zip files were corrupt, but rather because the files' names were in Korean texts, and English Window doesn't support Korean texts unless Korean texts were installed. Thus, I am reposting URL with new zip file that contains renamed English PDF files. http://yeo123.com.ne.kr/janggipieces.zip The above zip file contains printable janggi pieces made in PDF documents. First, simply paint the letters of the pieces. Then you can fold along the dotted lines and use glue to form octogonal prism shape. Have fun!
How to procure the nice pieces shown on Jose Carillo's photograph on this comment page? Thanks.
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I have just uploaded a major update to this page. While there is still more work to do on it, it seems to be in a mature enough state to replace the previous page.