Two Chess Bazaar xiangqi sets

A number of years ago, I get my hands on replicas of two Chess Bazaar sets: one 'Space Age' set and one 'Chavel Karpov' set. Both sets came from the same seller, and he was pleased they remained together.

These two sets also came with extra queens, and that made me realise that I could actually use them for xiangqi, by using the two queens per side as cannons, and, given that xiangqi uses five soldiers (= pawns) rather than eight, use two of the three 'left-over' pawns as guards within the palace.

So here is the 'Space Age' set on a large faux-leather xiangqi board:

I do think that works nicely!

The 'Chavel Karpov' set is a bit bigger and chunkier, so I decided to put that on the XL xiangqi board I created recently:

Again, works very well!

In case you're wondering whether having pawns for soldiers as well as guards causes confusion .... no, it doesn't. As the guards can't leave the palace, and soldiers can't move backwards into their own palace, a white 'pawn' in the 'black' palace has to be a soldier. And a black 'pawn' in the 'black' palace has to be a guard. And vice versa. So no source for confusion!

Creating an XL xiangqi board

When placing my ebony, rosewood, or bamboo pieces on the faux leather board that came with the pieces in their carry case, it just felt a bit too cramped, the stones are just a tad too close together in my view.

Well, there is a clear and simple solution to that: create a larger board for them! From the onset, I wanted to stick with faux leather for the playing surface, so the search was on for an XL faux leather xiangqi board. That search didn't take much time!

Next, the base to sport the faux leather. Went for simple plywood, with fancy wooden strips along the edges.

The circumference of the base received two coats of pine wood stain (no need to stain the centre, of course).

Subsequently, the playing surface was added.

Done! So how does it look with the pieces on it?

Ebony pieces first:

How about the rosewood pieces?

And, finally, the bamboo pieces:

Much better, I think! I really feel the pieces have more 'breathing space' on this XL board, so mission achieved!

Rosewood xiangqi set

Some years ago, I got myself a very nice xiangqi set with chunky ebony pieces, and, quite recently, a similar set with bamboo pieces. One set with very dark pieces, one set with very light pieces .... I regularly see a set with rosewood pieces on-line; rosewood would fit nicely between ebony and bamboo, but these sets are always with asking prices which are way above what I'm willing to spend on a xiangqi set (no matter how nice it is). 

Until I saw a rosewood set on Temu, for very little (shipping was included; it was just shipped over land, so it took quite a while to reach me, but I wasn't in any rush). Finally, I could scratch that proverbial itch!

The rosewood set came in the same case as the other two.

And with the same faux leather board.

You have to admit: the rosewood stones fit very nicely colour-wise between the very dark ebony and the very light bamboo stones, right?

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Sticker set

I stumbled across this large sticker sheet of a xiangqi board and pieces:

Quite unusual, and of course it inspired me to use this to create a physical xiangqi board and pieces. Came across a cheap travel set for go, and the board looked exactly the right size for the dimensions of the 'sticker board'.

Works a treat! The 'sticker board' also has some holographic effects 'built in', which really shows when the light hits it from a certain angle.

As to the xiangqi pieces, the go pieces that came with the go board were too small for the 'sticker pieces', so I decided to use red and yellow glass pebbles.

Stickers for the pieces were stuck to the flat (rather than the curved) sides of the glass pebbles. And this is what the completed set looks like:

Looks pretty good as far as I'm concerned!

Because the pieces 'lie' on their curved side, they wobble slightly when added to the board, which gives the whole an interesting little extra.

And I also found a nice little bag to keep the pieces in!

Metal xiangqi set

This xiangqi set popped up on eBay. First picture in the listing showed a very nice wooden box, which opens up and serves as the board.

The buy-it-now price wasn't exactly low, but what interested me was the mention of 'metallic' pieces.

I asked the seller whether that meant the pieces just looked 'metallic' (due to the paint used or something similar) or whether they were actually made of metal. Very helpfully, the seller posted a short video clip in which he (very carefully!) hit one piece against another. Sound was unmistakable: these were actually made of metal!

So I bought it ...

Very nice board indeed ...

... and very nice metal (!) pieces, quite heavy as well.

Despite the highish price, very happy to add this set to the collection!

Children's travel xiangqi set

The box containing this small and cheap xiangqi set seems to indicate that this set is aimed at children (I can't read the Chinese).

Inside the box is a plastic fold-up board ...

... which contains the small plastic magnetic pieces.

Not much else to say about this children's travel set, I guess. 

Small vintage wooden xiangqi set

Another listing on eBay of a xiangqi set in a very nice box, with little additional information. I was lucky last time a similar (but larger) set showed up, so tried my luck again.

And the box really is nice; certainly looks pretty old.

Inside, a dark red board made from some sort of cloth, and simple wooden pieces. 

Inside the box, like in the larger one. drawings and Chinese writing.

So lets put the pieces on the board so see what it look like.

Pieces definitely look old and well-used. 

Given the low price, definitely happy with it!