Janggi
| Korean spelling | |
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| Korean alphabet : | 장기 |
| Hanja : | 將 棋 |
| Revised Romanization : | Janggi |
| McCune-Reischauer : | Changgi |
Janggi (also Changgi ) is the national chess variant of Korea .
It is a board game played on a board with 9 by 10 lines. A Janggi game develops faster than a FIDE chess game , as the opportunities for blocking by the pawns are greatly reduced.
Comparison with Xiangqi
Janggi is derived from the Chinese Xiangqi . The playing field and layout are the same as those of Xiangqi, except for the missing “river” in the middle. The generals also start in the center of their palace instead of the baseline.
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將 棋 , 장기 Janggi basic setup |
象棋 Xiangqi basic table |
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characters
The game pieces are labeled as in Xiangqi with Chinese characters, but in a barely legible cursive script. The following stones exist:
| (blue green | red | Remarks |
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one general (king) each: Han 漢 on the red side and Cho 楚 on the green side. The general may only move within the 9 spaces of his “palace”. (In the palace there are additional diagonal lines from the center to the corners.) As soon as the generals are directly opposite each other (without a piece in between) the game ends in a draw ( bitjang ). |
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Two guards each: sa 士 (officials) The guards start on the baseline to the left and right behind the general. They only move around in the palace like this one. |
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two elephants at a time: sang 象 The elephants begin next to the guards on the baseline. Elephants move one space horizontally / vertically per turn and then two spaces diagonally in the direction of the move. |
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two horses each: ma 馬 At the beginning the horses stand next to the elephants. They move in a similar way to the knights in chess, but (like the elephants) they have to move across free spaces (1 time horizontally / vertically and 1 time diagonally). |
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two chariots each: cha 車 The chariots start in the corners of the playing field. They move like rooks in chess. |
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two cannons each: po 包 The cannons start on the third line, in front of the horses. They move like the chariots, but they have to "jump" over another (own or opposing) figure, this must not be another cannon. Nor can they hit cannons. |
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5 soldiers each: byeong 兵 (“soldiers” for the red side) and jol ( 卒 ) (“soldiers” for the green side) The soldiers start on the fourth line of the playing field, each two fields apart. You move one space forwards or sideways at a time. |
In the palace, chariots, cannons and soldiers can also move along the diagonal lines.
Playing
The game ends with a “ checkmate ” if a general cannot free himself from a threat (janggun) (a successful liberation is called meonggun ). If no legal moves are possible, there is a tie. An illegal move would be one that leads to a bitjang (see above) or the repetition of an earlier move.
literature
Banaschak, Peter: Chess games in East Asia. Xiangqi, Changgi, Shogi. Sources on their history and development up to 1640; 2001. ISBN 3891296568
