Xiangqi set for practice

I was looking for a basic xiangqi set to use for practicing, and found this set made of beechwood.

To help me with learning the Chinese notation of moves, I wrote the Chinese numbers on the files.

So here's the set at the start of a game.

At the moment, I'm working through endgame puzzles from the two volumes of Becoming a Xiangqi Assassin.

If you want to have a go, here are two of these puzzles; red to move and win!

Inca & Conquistadors set

'Inca & Conquistadors' sets often pop up on eBay, often claiming to be made in South America (though I can't prove or disprove that), so it was only a matter of time before one got added to my collection.

The set comes as a hinged wooden box which contains the pieces, which appear to be made of some sort of clay, and then painted.

The set is quite a small one: the playing area of the board measures just under 20 x 20cm. Around the playing area is a wide edge with colourful patterns. 

The pieces are nicely done, and have a bit of a comical touch, with most pieces having bulging eyes. The pawns on both sides have wide open mouths, showing their tongues (conquistadors) or teeth (incas). Are they meant to be screaming insults at each other?

And I particularly like the use of llamas rather than horses for the inca knights!

Puzzleball set

Puzzleball chess pieces are intricately carved wooden pieces, where the carving has resulted in a small wooden ball being loose and enclosed in a larger sphere (so the puzzle is "how did that little ball get into the larger sphere?"). When puzzleball sets come up for sale, they usually aren't cheap, but patience is a virtue, and I managed to get my hands on this puzzleball set for a very nice price.

The set didn't come with a board, but I felt it would look very nice on the heavy resin board I got some time ago.

Something I can't share in this blog post, but the pieces smell very nicely of sandalwood or the wood used for cigar boxes.

And here's a close-up of the actual puzzleball:

Alice Chess set

Alice Chess is a popular chess variant, based on the idea of Alice going through the looking glass. The game uses two boards, and every time a piece completes a move on one of the two boards, it is transported 'through the looking glass' to the equivalent square on the other board.

I already had a nice red board I wanted to use to create an Alice Chess set, and recently acquired a similar blue board (that's what I got that set for!). To make the boards a bit more Alice-y, I added small playing cards along the edges of the boards.

Sets of Alice in Wonderland chess pieces are easily obtained via eBay, so here's a complete Alice Chess set at the start of a game:

The White Rabbit functions as pawn, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are the rooks, the White Knight is the knight, the Mad Hatter the bishop, the White King the king and Alice herself stars as the queen.

Once a game has got going, it will look something like this.

Play on two boards simultaneously adds an extra dimension to the game, literally!

Star Trek vs Star Wars!

Now that I have in my collection a Star Wars set and a Star Trek set, we can finally settle the age-old issue!

We can either have the 'white' Star Trek pieces pitted against the 'dark' Star Wars pieces, on the Star Trek board ...

... or we can have the 'light' Star Wars pieces lined up against the 'black' Star Trek pieces, on the Star Wars board.

Pick your side!

Star Trek set

I'm definitely a Trekkie, and in my collection are already a Klin Zha set and a Tridimensional set. Several other Star Trek sets have been marketed over the years, some for ridiculous prices. But this one pops up on eBay quite regularly, and is usually affordable. So it was a matter of wait and hold fire until one was listed in good condition, and for a good price.

As often with chess sets like this, the board is a simple fold-up cardboard one, and the pieces are made from a sort of plastic.

Pieces are the same on both sides, and only differ in their colours, all with the Starfleet symbol as base. The pawns are in the shape of the Enterprise.

We then have Will Riker as rook, Data as knight, Worf as bishop, and Beverly Crusher as queen (curious about that choice; why not Deanna Troi?). Of course, Jean-Luc Picard is the king.

Can't call yourself a chess set collecting Trekkie and not have several Star Trek related sets in the collection!

Varnished and mother-of-pearl xiangqi set

Beautiful varnished fold-up board, containing the pieces, which are plastic with a mother-of-pearl effect.

The board is in-laid with some material; I don't know exactly what, but it looks great. The photos don't really do justice to how shiny the board is.

Very nice addition to my collection of xiangqi sets!