'Westernised' xiangqi set

In case you're not familiar with xiangqi (Chinese chess), it differs from 'Western' chess in several ways, two of which are that it's played on the intersections rather than the squares, and that it uses discs with Chinese characters rather than three-dimensional pieces (there are more differences; I'll come to those). You can see a set with a board I made years and years ago here.

Because it takes some time to become familiar with the Chinese characters, xiangqi is sometimes regarded as not being very accessible to non-Chinese people. In order to remedy that, there have been attempts to 'Westernise' the game by the use of three-dimensional pieces, and play on the squares of a board rather than the intersections. My aim was to create a full set (board and pieces) along those lines, but limiting myself entirely to 'Staunton-style' pieces. Because xiangqi has a piece that does not occur in 'Western' chess, the cannon, that creates a unique challenge ...

But first the board! Got myself some adhesive vinyl with a chequerboard pattern, and cut off a 9x10 piece. Rectangular piece of plywood, spray-painted silver, formed the basis of the board.

Xiangqi has palaces (which limit the movement of the general = king) and a river (which some pieces can't cross), and I decided to implement those with wooden dowels, also spray-painted silver.

So that completes the basic board! In case you're wondering why it has such wide margins, bear with me; all will be revealed ...

On to the pieces. Because xiangqi has two advisors (one on either side of the general=king), which are basically the Western queens (although they're far less powerful), I got myself two full sets of plastic Staunton pieces. That would give me the extra queens I needed for the two advisors on both sides. But, as I mentioned, xiangqi also has cannons, which have no equivalent in Western chess. That meant thinking cap time, because I definitely did not want to use some random plastic cannons; I really wanted to have the full set 'Staunton'-style. After some thinking, I came up with the following idea: take the extra rooks, saw off the crenellations, saw the tops off some pawns (I had plenty of surplus pawns, given that xiangqi only has five pawns on each side) and glue these on top of the de-crenellated rooks, thereby creating a pile of cannon balls on a base! Given that the movement of the cannon is identical to a rook, it also makes sense to have a bit of rook in the cannon.

I'm quite pleased with having created clearly recognisable cannons, without using anything that's not already part of a Staunton set.

Following this, I still had quite some surplus pieces (few pawns, two kings, and several knights and bishops), so I decided to saw some of those in half ...

... and glue these half-pieces to the edges of the board, making them appear half-embedded. That's why the edges were so wide!

Pieces done, board complete, let's put the pieces on the board.

See what you think, but I'm really pleased with how it all came out and together. Palaces and river are clearly demarcated, and the cannons are immediately recognisable. And the embedded half-pieces add something to the whole.

As I said before, it remains weird to see a xiangqi set with anything other than discs with Chinese characters. But seeing that set on squares rather than intersections makes it doubly weird. Judge for yourself; I'm very happy with the set, though!

Basic xiangqi sets

I've always had a special interest in Xiangqi, Chinese chess. Besides the board I made myself a long time ago, and the pasta-based set I made recently, I've also gradually built up a bit of a collection of commercially available sets over the years (one of which I already wrote a blog post for). Rather than show each of these in individual blog posts, I thought I'd combine them in just a few blog posts. So here the first of these, showing my most basic Xiangqi sets.

First one here is a very basic set. Pieces are made from a type of plastic, and the board is the foldable paper board that often comes with cheap and basic sets.

Next basic set has simple wooden pieces, and a board made from some sort of thin plastic film.

On to another set of wooden pieces, in rather unusual colours (especially the purple). It did not come with a board, but I put them on a fake leather board I had lying around.

Another set with a fake leather board, which came with the set. The pieces are made of metal.

This is one of several portable magnetic sets. Board and pieces are made of plastic and the symbols on the pieces are painted in metallic red or blue.

Another plastic magnetic portable set; here the board and pieces are made to look a bit like wood.

And the third of the plastic portable magnetic sets. Board is a bit fancier than the other two, and the pieces resemble jade pieces.

A set which is part of a Xiangqi package for beginners, with a small book included. The board is made of cardboard, whereas the pieces are plastic. Note that this set does not have the Chinese symbols, but uses pictograms. The idea is that this will make it easier for people not familiar with the Chinese writing to recognise the various pieces.

One of two small travel sets, also magnetic. This one is plastic, shaped to resemble a wallet.

And this one is all metal.

Finally, a portable plastic magnetic set for Janggi, Korean chess, which is very similar to Chinese chess. I did make a board for a larger set of Janggi pieces in the past.

Besides these basic sets, I have several more fancy Xiangqi sets in the collection; will show them in a future blog post!

Roman set

The story of this set is a bit of a funny one .... I saw a chess board on eBay which I quite liked. Seemed to be made from some sort of wood. Got it for a very decent price.

Not long after, a listing appeared on eBay for a set or Roman-style chess pieces. The buy-it-now price was very low, so ...

The funny thing was that both board and set came from the same seller. I hadn't paid particular attention to the seller's username on eBay, but he messaged me after I paid for the Roman pieces, saying how pleased he was that the set was reunited again!

'Doggy' set

Some time ago, I saw this leather chess board on eBay, and couldn't resist. It looks gorgeous, and I was sure I'd find a set for it in due course.

Now it so happened that the Etsy shop that I got both my Lewis set and my Royal Beasts set from listed a new chess set, consisting of dogs. When it comes to dogs, I'm a real sucker; I love dogs. So even though I resisted ordering a set rightaway, I knew that resistance would ultimately be futile ...

And what would be better than having a 'doggy' set on that leather board?

Isn't it fitting that a poodle is the queen?

Neat little set, on a beautiful board.

Transformers set

Given the success of the Transformers franchise, it's not surprising there is a Transformers chess set.

I must admit I've not seen any of the Transformers movies, but the chess set looked quite different from any other in my collection, so ....

Pieces are again made from a type of plastoy, and the two sides are Autobots (gold pieces) and Decepticons (silver pieces). All the pieces also have names (the silver queen is called Starscream, for instance), but not having seen any of the movies, those names mean nothing to me.

Each piece has the official symbol on its base, and that would be essential if I were ever to play a game with it, because it isn't obvious from looking at the pieces which is the rook, knight, bishop, etc.

So why did I get this set, you may wonder? As I said, it's different, and it didn't cost me much off eBay ...

'Gonzalez Byass' Régence set

Chess sets have come in different designs over the years. Probably the best known, and nowadays the standard, is the Staunton design, and of course I have a Staunton set in my collection. Earlier designs often popping up on eBay are St George style and Régence or Regency style. I do have a St George set, but until now no Régence set. As you have probably gathered, that has changed ...

The set came in a cork box, with the name and coats-of-arms of the Spanish Gonzalez Byass company.

The set didn't come with a board, but it fits very nicely on the board I used for the other two vintage sets.

Nice wee addition to the vintage part of the collection!