RE: About the Chinese Chess - Xiangqi, 象棋

[eniolw]

I've heard of this game. We have to give it a shot. Maybe there is an equivalent for Lichess out there.

On the other hand, I remember I read a chess news a long time ago about Kasparov facing a strong player of an alternative chess (maybe it was this, Xiangqi) and Kasparov was able to beat the guy in that game too!! even though the guys was a professional player. I hope I'm remembering it well, I was a bit lazy to look up again, so don't take my word for it :P

Thus there is an extensive literary fund of especially opening and endgame literature about this game, which even surpasses that of chess!

Wow. To me it's very difficult to believe this since chess is newer, but far more popular. I need to learn more about this. Is it from wikipedia where you heard this?

Comments

[stayoutoftherz]

Yes, Wikipedia and this:

I know, hard to believe, but on the other hand, in numbers more people play Xiangqi! https://en.chessbase.com/post/why-you-need-to-learn-xiangqi-for-playing-better-chess

But no Xiangqi tournament for me, too frustrating.

[eniolw]

I know, hard to believe, but on the other hand, in numbers more people play Xiangqi!

I know, that's a subtle angle to look at it. The same happens with the claims about English being the most spoken language out there. If we count the number of native speakers, then English is only third behind Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. But putting it this way is technically true, but also somehow misleading, since English is for practical purposes the most spoken language out there. So, another way to solve the gasp is by calling it: the most international language.

I think the same applies here: chess is a way more international game, it has a huge chess federation and many business work around chess as a sport and a subject of entertaining. In that sense, chess is more popular.

I'll look up the statistics thing about the number of publications for both games. It's interesting.