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| Janggi | |
|---|---|
| Korean Name | |
| Revised Romanization | Janggi |
| McCune-Reischauer | Changgi |
| Hangul | 장기 |
| Hanja | 將棋 |
Korean chess or Janggi is the national chess game of Korea. It is a game that is played on a board that is 9 lines wide by 10 lines long. Other romanizations of the game are Jangki and Tjyang Keui.
Korean chess plays faster than Western chess, because the barrier of pawns is reduced dramatically, and also because the Cannons (see below) jump to capture, which makes them a threat early in the game. Also, while in Western chess battle is concentrated in the middle few rows for the bulk of the game, in Korean chess the battle seems to be happening simultaneously all over the board.
Korean chess is derived from an ancient form of Xiangqi. It is similar to shogi and chess.
The board is composed of 90 intersections of 9 vertical files and 10 horizontal rows. The board is the same as that used in Chinese chess, except that the Korean board has no "river" in the central row. The pieces, disks marked with an identifying character, are placed on the intersections of the lines (as in Go). The sides are green, which moves first, and red. Each side also has a palace that is 3 lines by 3 lines (i.e. 9 positions) in the center of that side against the back edge of the board.
The pieces are labelled with Chinese characters. The labels on the green pieces are all written in the cursive "Draft Script", making some pieces barely recognisable. For instance, the green chariot or cha has a cursive version of 車, which looks something like 车 (the Simplified Chinese equivalent of the traditional character).
The pieces are labelled with the Chinese character Han (in Chinese pinyin: Hàn; 漢) on the red side and Cho (Chǔ; 楚) on the green side. They represent the rival states of Han and Chu that fought for power in the post-Qin Dynasty interregnum period in China (see Chu-Han contention). These are actually referred to as military generals (janggun) in Korean, though they are equivalent to the kings in the Western chess.
Korean chess differs from its Chinese counterpart in that the Korean King starts the game from the central intersection of the palace, rather than from the center intersection of the back edge, as does his Chinese equivalent. The King may move to any of the 9 positions within the palace, following the lines marked on the board. There are 4 diagonal lines in the palace connecting the center position to the corners. When the King is lost, the game is lost. The King cannot leave the palace under any circumstances, but he has the theoretical power of capturing the enemy King by moving along a file like a Rook. Since it is illegal to move into check, a player cannot make any move that would leave the two Kings facing one another on the same file with no other piece intervening. This is a very important feature of the game, as the King often plays a role in enforcing checkmate, especially when many of the other pieces have been exchanged.
The pieces are labelled sa (士) are civilian government officials, i.e. the council members serving the commander in chief. One can call them guards, too, since they stay close to the general. They are also called assistants or mandarins.
To both the left and right of the king are the guards. The guards are the weakest pieces because they may not leave the palace. They are invaluable for protecting the king, though.
The Elephants, sang (相), are located to both the left and the right of the guards. These pieces move one point horizontally or vertically, followed by two points diagonally away from their initial position, ending up on the opposite end of a 2 x 3 rectangle. Unlike Chinese chess, which assigns its elephants a purely defensive role by confining them to one side of the board, behind the "river", Korean chess does not limit the movement of its elephants to the other side of the board, as there is no river. The Korean elephant is, therefore, much more of an offensive piece than its Chinese counterpart.
Called the Horse or ma (馬), this piece is very similar to the Knight in international chess, except that the intersection at the "angle" of the horse's move must not be occupied. The move of the Horse is like that of the Elephant, ending its move at the opposite corner of a 1 x 2 rectangle.
These are labelled cha (車). Like the Rook (or Castle) in international chess, the chariot (or car) moves and kills in a straight line either horizontally or vertically. The two chariots begin the game in the corners.
These are labelled po (包). Each player has two cannons. The cannons are placed on the row behind the pawns, directly in front of the knights. Cannons move like the chariots, but they have to jump over another piece. In order to capture a piece, there must be exactly one piece (friendly or otherwise) between the cannon and the piece to be captured. The cannon then moves to that point and captures the piece. They are powerful at the beginning of the game when "hurdles" are plentiful, but lose value rapidly with attrition. The other piece over which the cannon jumps may not be another cannon. A cannon may not capture another cannon. Unlike the Chinese variant, Korean chess requires Cannons to jump in order to move, as well as capture.
They are labelled byeong (兵) (soldiers) for red and jol (卒) (bandits) for green respectively. Each side has 5 soldiers (or bandits). They are placed on alternating points, one row back from the edge of the river. They move, and unlike Pawns in international chess also capture, straight ahead. Unlike international chess, when they reach the enemy's edge of the board they are not promoted but can move from side to side.
Stalemate is achieved when no legal moves are possible. A stalemate is a draw.
Check is announced by declaring janggun, meaning I capture your General!. Getting out of janggun is called meonggun, and one may declare meonggun while escaping from janggun.
Unlike in western chess, there is no draw by perpetual check or repetition of position. If a position is being repeated, a referee is called to determine who is at fault. Usually the referee orders the player who is losing to make a different move, so the player who is winning can press for an advantage, but sometimes it is not technically clear who is to blame, and different referees may differ as to which player must deviate, or whether repetition is mutually forced.
It is illegal to make a move that results in an unobstructed line between the opposing generals. This is called a General Face-off Position. If such a move is made, it results in a bitjang; bitjang is declared, and the move is taken back.
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