Publisher's Synopsis
Xiangqi or Chinese Chess as it may be more familiar to the Westerner, is an ancient Chinese game that has been played for centuries. There are millions of estimated Xiangqi players, who are mostly concentrated in China and South-east Asia. However, in non-Chinese speaking regions in the world, the game is relatively unknown. The game is intellectually demanding, easy to learn, very exciting, and not too time demanding, which would be a perfect fit for the hectic lifestyles that most people have. Www.xqinenglish.com was formed in 2011 with the main aim of promoting Xiangqi to non-Chinese speaking people. There have been over 2300 pages to date, covering most, if not all aspects of Xiangqi. One of the features provided on the site was a collection of well over 3000 puzzles that have been published over the years. This book is a selection of the those puzzles which has been organized into different levels of difficulty. Detailed explanations of the puzzles have been added with additional diagrams to aid the reader should you get lost. A chapter has also been added to instruct complete new beginners who may not know how to play the game or read notation. An appendix has also been added with detailed biographies of some of the grandmasters and masters whose actual games were used in the book. For complete beginners, the puzzles in Chapter Two would be suitable and amateurs with a slight background in Xiangqi would find Chapter Three a challenge. To facilitate the Westerner who may not know Chinese, a legend has been added at the bottom of each page to show the Chinese characters and their respective pieces. Have Fun! Be a Xiangqi Assassin!
