Four xiangqi sets on a bamboo board

Some time ago, I bought a bamboo board which had the lines for go on one side, and for xiangqi on the other. 

The 'go side' has already been used for Alea Evangelii, but, clearly, the 'xiangqi side' had to be used as well!

Over time, I collected four different xiangqi sets that, in my opinion, work well on the bamboo board. First one is a wooden set which I got from Masters Traditional Games. Set comes in a nice box, and consists of good quality wooden discs.

Second set I got off eBay, and is made of honey onyx. 

The third set is made of acrylic, and I got it from Amazon; again, the set comes in a nice box

And then the final of the four sets, also off eBay, made from porcelain, and coming in a 'wire cage box'.

Four nice additions to my collection of xiangqi sets, and I have no doubt there will be more sets in the future that fit well on the bamboo board.

ChessPlus set

Recently, I stumbled across a chess variant called ChessPlus, and couldn't resist buying myself a copy. The game comes in a sturdy cardboard box ...

... and the board is a simple fold-out cardboard one.

At first glance, the game doesn't appear to be different from FIDE chess. Same 8 x 8 board size, same types of pieces, which all have the same moves. 

So what then makes the game different? If you look at the pieces in more detail, you notice that, apart from the king, they have a front and back side. And the backside of all pieces is identical. And that goes right at the heart of what ChessPlus is ....

In ChessPlus, pieces can combine! 

So a player can move one if its pieces to a square already occupied by another of its pieces, and that move combines the two pieces. The new combination piece moves as one piece, with the powers of both original pieces. It can split apart again when one of the two original pieces moves away on its own. Combine a pawn with a queen, and getting that pawn to promotion all of a sudden becomes a lot easier!

Downside of combining pieces is that when a combination piece is captured, both original pieces are captured ....