Gwangsanghui

Not much is known about the origin and history of Janggi, or Korean chess. Some characteristics, such as the absence of the river, suggest it may represent an older form of Xiangqi (Chinese chess) rather than 'just' be a xiangqi variant.

Even less is known of Gwangsanghui, a larger Janggi variant other than that it appears to date from the 18th century. I got my information on this larger game here, and the initial layout of the board and pieces appears to be like this:

I was keen to make myself a gwangsanghui set, using glass pebbles for the pieces, and transparent perspex for the board.

Thought long and hard as to how to make the lines, and finally decided on painting them on the underside of the perspex. In order to do that, I first drew the board on a piece of cardboard, put that underneath the perspex ...

... and then started painting the lines, using the template underneath.

Bit of a tricky job, as I had no margin for error: it wouldn't be possible to 'erase' any mistake from the perspex. But all went fine!

I then added four glass pebbles to the board to serve as small 'feet'.

For the pieces, I cut out their symbols, and glued them underneath the glass pebbles.

And this is then what the full set looks like:

Very pleased with it! And the fact that the lines aren't perfectly straight adds something to the board, I think.

There can't be many gwangsanghui sets in the world, I reckon ....