Preface

Xiangqi is a game of long history. With infinite changes and variations, Xiangqi can afford the people with the greatest delight. It can help us to temper the ability of thinking, will and ideal of overall strategy, to enhance the ability of discovery, analysis and solving the problems, it can also help us to regulate our spirit and life. Along with the vigorous development of sports activities, there are more and more xiangqi fans and frequent exchanges of xiangqi activities in the world. Xiangqi has become one of most popular sports and leisure activities nowaday.

A xiangqi game can be divided into the opening, the mid-game and the end-game. These three stages are closely linked. At the stage of opening, both sides deploy their troops in a battle array, and each vies to occupy the strategic points. A mid-game can be directly affected by the opening. The victory is often decided upon in the end-game, when the climax of the battle is over. If one side has the initiative at the opening stage, he can rely on his strength to expend the initiative and wrest the superiority. Though someone has lost the advantage at the opening, if he could respond with correct moves in the mid-game, he still can regain the initiative and enter into the end-game with a superior position. Even that he can take a surprised attack and win the victory before the mid-game is over.

The mid-game is the climax of a game, in which the battle is most fiercely fought. It is full of creativity and the power of attraction. The mid-games have great amount of cream. But, comparing with the opening and end-game, the mid-game still is a blank area as far as the xiangqi theory is concerned. Therefore, many people believe the mid-game is the most difficult part to for the people to learn, as it is changeable, complicated and no fixed law can be followed. It is true that almost all the xiangqi texts, whether the ancient or the contemporary, are related to the full games, the end games or the composed games. Even some books do touch upon some mid-games, they are limited in number and fail to give a comprehensive analysis on the tactics.

In reality, there exist various kinds of basic and concrete tactics in the mid-games. They are similar to the "formulas" as that in "Go" game. It is very important for us to master these "set patterns" and their developments. The ordinary people can only cry out "good play" when they see a brilliant move, they can not tell what kind the tactics is and its features. It prevents them from being promoted from the height of the perceptual knowledge to the height of the rational knowledge.

We often see some well-known players can play fast and are farsighted in their play. This is not because that they are really "genius", but they have spent much time in practice. They are very familiar with various kinds of tactics, have the creativity, and are good at application of these tactics.

We have included in the book 10 categories of the mid-game tactics, their features and development, as well as 170 concise and practical examples, hoping our readers and xiangqi fans can use them as a reference in their mid-games practice.

象棋戰術初步 by Li HaiMing 李海鳴 and Lin Qin林秦


CHAPTER 1 - SHIFTING

1. Shifting Cannon for challenging Chariot

2. Shifting Horse for challenging Chariot

3. Shifting Chariot to expose Cannon

4. Shifting Horse to expose Cannon



CHAPTER 2 - CAPTURE WITH DISCOVER CHECKMATE

1. Common discover check

2. Discover check for capture

3. Discover check for an escape



CHAPTER 3 - CHASE

1. Force one's way into the "forbidden area"

2. Chasing the enemy into its "pitfalls"

3. Chase the enemy with the aid of check or checkmate



CHAPTER 4 - EXCHANGE

1. Direct exchange

2. Indirect exchange of pieces

3. Exchange of a weak piece for a strong one



CHAPTER 5 - CONTAINMENT

1. Containment of Cannon

2. Containment of Chariot and King

3. Containment of Horse and Elephant



CHAPTER 6 - OBSTRUCTION

1. Obstruction with aid of checkmate

2. "Intercept with check or discover check"

3. " Laying obstacles"



CHAPTER 7 - TO EXPELL

1. "Direct expelling"

2. "Expelling with the aid of checkmate"

3. "Remote ambush"



CHAPTER 8 - TRANSFERRING

1. "Conceiving"

2. "Transferring with the aid of checkmate"

3. " Transferring of Pawns"

4. Calculation of moves



CHAPTER 9 - ABANDONING

1. Abandoning for launching an attack

2. Abandoning for taking checkmate

3. Abandoning first and gaining later

4. Nominal abandoning

5. Trapped abandoning

6. Counter - sacrifice

7. Sacrifice combinations



CHAPTER 10 CHECKMATE

1. Central Cannon checkmate

2. Double Cannons checkmate

3. Bottom Cannon checkmate

4. Tiger Silhouette checkmate

5. Elbow Horse checkmate
xiangqi basic tactics

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