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Magic River. Xiang Qi pieces crossing the Magic River turn into their Western counterparts, and vice versa! (17x9, Cells: 77) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Sat, Nov 22, 2008 05:12 AM UTC:
The freezing of pieces eliminates the advantage the Chess side would otherwise have of being able to play pieces that can't normally cross the river across the river, but it doesn't give the Chinese side any added advantage. The Chess side may have the advantage from having more long-range attacks, but I'm not sure about that. Chess has Bishops, but Chinese Chess has Cannons, and the Cannons change to Grasshoppers, which the Chess side never has, while the Bishops change to immobile Elephants. Chess has the Queen, but if the Chinese General can check the Chess King along open files, without the Chess King being able to check back, then both sides would begin with the same number of pieces with long range attacks.

So one thing I'm wondering about is the opposing Generals rule from Chinese Chess. Does this have any play in this game or is it gone? Another thing is Pawn promotion. If the Chess Pawns just become Chinese Pawns with no promotion, while the Chinese Pawns become Chess Pawns with their promotion abilities, this may give the advantage to the Chinese side.