Janggi is one of a family of strategic board games of which Western chess, Japanese Shogi, and the very similar Chinese Xiangqi are also members. Janggi is native to Korea and is therefore sometimes called Korean chess. Other romanizations of the game are changgi, jangki, and tjyangkeui. It is a game that is played on a board that is 9 lines wide by 10 lines long. Image File history File links Korean_chess. ... Hangul also refers to a word processing application widely used in Korea. ... It has been suggested that Sino-Korean be merged into this article or section. ... The Revised Romanization of Korean (Korean: 국어의 로마자 표기법; 國語의 로마字 表記法) is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea. ... McCune-Reischauer romanization is one of the two most widely used Korean language romanization systems, along with the Revised Romanization of Korean, which replaced (a modified) McCune-Reischauer as the official romanization system in South Korea in 2000. ... A board game is a game played with counters or pieces that are placed on, removed from, or moved across a board (a premarked surface, usually specific to that game). ... See Occident (movement) for the French political movement. ... Chess (from Sanskrit Chaturanga[1]) is an abstract strategy board game and mental sport for two players. ... Shogi ), or Japanese chess, is the most popular of a family of chess variants native to Japan. ... Xiangqi (Chinese: 象棋; Pinyin: xiàngqí; Wade-Giles: hsiang4-chi2; ), is a two-player Chinese game in a family of strategic board games of which Western chess, Indian chaturanga, Japanese shogi, and the more similar Korean janggi are also members. ... Korea (Korean: (조선 or 한국, see below) is a geographic area, civilization, and former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. ...

Janggi is sometimes fast-paced due to the jumping cannons and the long range elephants, but professional games most often last for over 100 moves and is thus most often slower than western chess. Also, while in Western chess battle is concentrated in the middle few rows for the bulk of the game, in janggi the battle seems to be fought simultaneously all over the board.

History

Janggi is closely related to Xiangqi ("Chinese chess", which it may be a direct descendent of), and more distantly related to Shogi and chess. Like all of these games, it derives from the 6th century Indian game of chaturanga, or a close relative thereof. Xiangqi (Chinese: 象棋; Pinyin: xiàngqí; Wade-Giles: hsiang4-chi2; ), is a two-player Chinese game in a family of strategic board games of which Western chess, Indian chaturanga, Japanese shogi, and the more similar Korean janggi are also members. ... Shogi ), or Japanese chess, is the most popular of a family of chess variants native to Japan. ... Chess (from Sanskrit Chaturanga[1]) is an abstract strategy board game and mental sport for two players. ... This Buddhist stela from China, Northern Wei period, was built in the early 6th century. ... Chaturanga. ...

Rules

The board is composed of 90 intersections of 9 vertical files and 10 horizontal rows. The board is nearly the same layout as that used in Xiangqi, except that the janggi board has no "river" in the central row. The pieces consist of disks marked with an identifying character and are placed on the intersections of the lines (as in Xiangqi and go). Janggi pieces are sometimes shaped like octagons and differ in size. The sides are green (or blue), 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 palace also has four diagonal lines that extend outwards from the center, which form an "X" shape. Xiangqi (Chinese: 象棋; Pinyin: xiàngqí; Wade-Giles: hsiang4-chi2; ), is a two-player Chinese game in a family of strategic board games of which Western chess, Indian chaturanga, Japanese shogi, and the more similar Korean janggi are also members. ... Xiangqi (Chinese: 象棋; Pinyin: xiàngqí; Wade-Giles: hsiang4-chi2; ), is a two-player Chinese game in a family of strategic board games of which Western chess, Indian chaturanga, Japanese shogi, and the more similar Korean janggi are also members. ... Go, also known as Weiqi in Mandarin Chinese (Traditional Chinese: 圍棋; Simplified Chinese: 围棋), and Baduk in Korean (Hangul:바둑), is a strategic, deterministic two-player board game originating in ancient China, before 200 BC. The game is now popular throughout East Asia and on the Internet. ... A regular octagon. ...

Pieces

The pieces are labeled 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). Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... Simplified Chinese characters (Simplified Chinese: 简体字; Traditional Chinese: 簡體字; pinyin: jiÇŽntǐzì; also Simplified Chinese: 简化字; Traditional Chinese: 簡化字; pinyin: jiÇŽnhuàzì) are one of two standard character sets of printed contemporary Chinese written language. ... Traditional Chinese characters are one of two standard character sets. ...

General

The pieces that are equivalent to the kings in Western chess are actually referred to as military generals (janggun) in Korean. They 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). In North Korea, the Chu-Han setup is not used; the red general there is called jang (chang; 將, "general,") and the green general is called gwan (kwan; 官, "minister.") 漢字 Chinese character in hànzì, hanja, kanji. ... Pinyin is a system of romanization (phonemic notation and transcription to Roman script) for Standard Mandarin, where pin means spell and yin means sound. The most common variant of pinyin in use is called Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: , Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: HànyÇ” PÄ«nyÄ«n), also known as scheme... The Qin Dynasty (Chinese: 秦朝; Pinyin: Qín Cháo; Wade-Giles: Chin Chao) (221 BC - 206 BC) was preceded by the Zhou Dynasty and followed by the Han Dynasty in China. ... The Chu-Han contention (楚漢相爭 or 楚漢春秋, 206–202 BC) was a post-Qin Dynasty interregnum period in China. ...

Janggi differs from its Chinese counterpart in that the janggi general starts the game from the central intersection of the palace, rather than from the center intersection of the back edge. The general 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 general is lost, the game is lost. The general cannot leave the palace under any circumstances. If the generals come to face each other across the board, and the player to move does not move away this is bitjang--a draw. This rule is different to that of Chinese chess where it is illegal for the generals to face. Xiangqi (Chinese: 象棋; Pinyin: xiàngqí; Wade-Giles: hsiang4-chi2; ), is a two-player Chinese game in a family of strategic board games of which Western chess, Indian chaturanga, Japanese shogi, and the more similar Korean janggi are also members. ...

If there is no move for the general to make without getting into check or checkmate, but it is safe for it to stand still, the person may pass their turn i.e.--leave the king standing still, and have no move.

Guards

The pieces are labeled 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 general are the guards. They move the same as general, along the marked lines in the palace. The guards are one of the weakest pieces because they may not leave the palace. They are invaluable for protecting the general, though.

Elephants

The elephants, sang (象), 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. (Like the Horse and its Chineses counterpart, it cannot move in a direction in which there is a piece standing in it's way.) Unlike Xiangqi, which assigns its elephants a purely defensive role by confining them to one side of the board, behind the "river", janggi 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. The elephant can be transposed with the adjacent horse in the setup. Xiangqi (Chinese: 象棋; Pinyin: xiàngqí; Wade-Giles: hsiang4-chi2; ), is a two-player Chinese game in a family of strategic board games of which Western chess, Indian chaturanga, Japanese shogi, and the more similar Korean janggi are also members. ...

Horses

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. The horse can be transposed with the adjacent elephant in the setup. The knight moves in an L shape. ...

Chariots

These are labelled cha (車). Like the rook in European chess, the chariot moves and captures in a straight line either horizontally or vertically. The two chariots begin the game in the corners. The white rook may move to any square with an X. The black rook may move to any square marked with a dot or capture the white pawn. ...

Cannons

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 (if the Knights are put on the file next to the Chariots). The cannon moves by jumping another piece horizontally or vertically. The jump can be performed over any distance provided that there is exactly one piece anywhere between the original position and the target. 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 Xiangqi, Janggi requires Cannons to jump in order to move, as well as capture. Xiangqi (Chinese: 象棋; Pinyin: xiàngqí; Wade-Giles: hsiang4-chi2; ), is a two-player Chinese game in a family of strategic board games of which Western chess, Indian chaturanga, Japanese shogi, and the more similar Korean janggi are also members. ...

Soldiers

They are labelled byeong (兵) (soldiers, general term for a soldier) for red and jol (卒) (also means soldiers, usually lowest ranking soldiers) for green respectively. Each side has 5 soldiers. 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, by moving one space either straight ahead or to either side. Unlike Chinese chess, soldiers do not have to be promoted to move sideways. Once they reach the end of the board they may only move sideways.

Ending the game

Stalemate is achieved when no legal moves are possible. A stalemate is a draw.

Check is announced by declaring janggun (將軍), meaning "general". Getting out of janggun is called meonggun, and one may declare meonggun while escaping from janggun.

Miscellaneous rules

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.

A player may decide to make a move so that his or her General faces the other player's General unobstructed. Such a move forfeits the first player's right to win the game; however, it may be very advantageous. For the rest of that game, the first player can use his or her General to give check to the other player's General. The decision to cause such a situation is driven by the player's desire to avoid being checkmated. It should be noted that after engaging in this face off, the best possible outcome (for the player who initiated the face off) is a stalemate.

If the game is a stalemate, the players add up the points of their pieces that are still on the board.

Chariots: 13 points

Cannons: 7 points

Horses: 5 points

Elephants: 3 points

Guards: 3 points

Soldiers: 2 points

Because the blue team started they have an advantage, so they must take 1.5 points off their total. The person with the most points wins.

See also

• Xiangqi
• Shogi
• Chess
• List of Korea-related topics

Xiangqi (Chinese: 象棋; Pinyin: xiàngqí; Wade-Giles: hsiang4-chi2; ), is a two-player Chinese game in a family of strategic board games of which Western chess, Indian chaturanga, Japanese shogi, and the more similar Korean janggi are also members. ... Shogi ), or Japanese chess, is the most popular of a family of chess variants native to Japan. ... Chess (from Sanskrit Chaturanga[1]) is an abstract strategy board game and mental sport for two players. ... This is a list of Wikipedia articles on Korea-related people, places, things, and concepts. ...

External links

• Janggi | Chess Variant Pages
• The Rules for Korean Chess