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| Richard 2004-11-30, 9:45 am |
| Hi all! I'm back! Some of you may remember me as the annoying newbie
who asked lots of stupid questions around 3-4 years ago. I always
enjoyed playing XiangQi, but I eventually became frustrated by the
lack of playing opportunities. No one in my area plays the game, and I
couldn't convince my chess playing friends to give it more than a
glance out of curiousity. Also, I only knew of one internet site at
the time to play chinese chess, and it had an annoying interface that
my clunky old computer couldn't handle very well, so it was tough for
me to play. The low number of English language books available didn't
help much, either.
So I went back to just playing western chess, where there are lots of
English language books, internet sites, and local playing clubs, even
though I really do think that XiangQi is more fun.
But now I've decided to come back and see if I can do better with
XiangQi this time around. I've got a newer computer that can handle
more internet content. I downloaded the free demo of "Zillions of
Games" from www.zillions-of-games.com, which has Chinese Chess as one
of its free demo games, with 10 difficulty levels for the computer
opponent, so at last I know I'll always have that to practice against.
And I see that David Li has written three new XiangQi books that I
want to buy (Congratulations to him if he's reading this).
So on to the questions:
First, what English language play sites are available on the internet
these days? In your opinion, which is best for a low level player?
Second, what other internet resources are out there? I know about a
couple of old web sites that had info about XiangQi, but I've hunted
around the last few days, and it appears that some of them haven't
been updated in years, and I haven't found any new sites that I didn't
already know about. Are there any good English sites out there that
are worth checking out?
And finally, I will once again ask the question that never gets a
response: Are there any XiangQi players in the southern part of
Florida? I live in Boynton Beach (Palm Beach County), so if anyone is
in the area, let me know. I'd like to meet and play in person, if
anyone lives in my area of the world.
--Richard "The Fromper" Becker
| |
| Anthony 2004-11-30, 5:46 pm |
| blueghost73@yahoo.com (Richard) wrote in message news:<c3e4d964.0411300534.13b88817@posting.google.com>...
quote:
>
> First, what English language play sites are available on the internet
> these days? In your opinion, which is best for a low level player?
I play on www.itsyourturn.com. The competition varies from players who
resign after dumping a chariot to people who are not only excellent
players but who have been good enough to coach me! So, I'd just sign
up, post a game in the waiting room and have at. It's like postal
chess--you have plenty of time to think about your next move. Play as
often as you like, join a ladder or a tournament. I'm surprised there
aren't more sites like this, and I'm especially surprised there isn't
one like this for Shogi.
If you prefer real time play, Club Xiangqi seems to work well.
Personally I get antsy about being tied to a computer for the duration
of a game, but perhaps when my reflexes get a little more confident
I'll give it a go. I'm basically just getting conversant in the
openings and tactics myself, so I'm not yet confident enough to wean
myself off the "postal" model.
quote:
> Second, what other internet resources are out there? I know about a
> couple of old web sites that had info about XiangQi, but I've hunted
> around the last few days, and it appears that some of them haven't
> been updated in years, and I haven't found any new sites that I didn't
> already know about. Are there any good English sites out there that
> are worth checking out?
The World Xiangqi Federation has an English Language page. Among its
resources are some translations of Xiangqi books that I think add
considerably to the dearth of English Language sources.
I really do miss Peter Sung's website. I too find myself dropping in
and out of the game (and for the same reason--lack of human opponents)
and was disappointed to find his famous Xiangqi Homepage missing when
I "dropped back in" recently. However, I took the liberty of emailing
him recently about it and he assured me it would be back up soon.
There is another site,
http://www.geocities.com/yccheok/tutorial/menu.html, that I have found
useful. There are lot's of summaries of openings, though commentary on
them is a bit sparse for a beginner. Still, it's better than nothing,
and the site owner is responsive if you have questions.
The author of Saola has a site at www.nchess.com that contains an
online position database similar to Peter Sung's. There is also a
downloadable viewer and quite a number of databases to review.
quote:
> And finally, I will once again ask the question that never gets a
> response: Are there any XiangQi players in the southern part of
> Florida? I live in Boynton Beach (Palm Beach County), so if anyone is
> in the area, let me know. I'd like to meet and play in person, if
> anyone lives in my area of the world.
I have the same problem. I live near Peoria, Illinois.
Anthony R. Glass
| |
| Guy Horelle 2004-12-01, 6:45 am |
| Try highergames.com ., excellent site guy
"Richard" <blueghost73@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:c3e4d964.0411300534.13b88817@posting.google.com...
quote:
> Hi all! I'm back! Some of you may remember me as the annoying newbie
> who asked lots of stupid questions around 3-4 years ago. I always
> enjoyed playing XiangQi, but I eventually became frustrated by the
> lack of playing opportunities. No one in my area plays the game, and I
> couldn't convince my chess playing friends to give it more than a
> glance out of curiousity. Also, I only knew of one internet site at
> the time to play chinese chess, and it had an annoying interface that
> my clunky old computer couldn't handle very well, so it was tough for
> me to play. The low number of English language books available didn't
> help much, either.
>
> So I went back to just playing western chess, where there are lots of
> English language books, internet sites, and local playing clubs, even
> though I really do think that XiangQi is more fun.
>
> But now I've decided to come back and see if I can do better with
> XiangQi this time around. I've got a newer computer that can handle
> more internet content. I downloaded the free demo of "Zillions of
> Games" from www.zillions-of-games.com, which has Chinese Chess as one
> of its free demo games, with 10 difficulty levels for the computer
> opponent, so at last I know I'll always have that to practice against.
> And I see that David Li has written three new XiangQi books that I
> want to buy (Congratulations to him if he's reading this).
>
> So on to the questions:
>
> First, what English language play sites are available on the internet
> these days? In your opinion, which is best for a low level player?
>
> Second, what other internet resources are out there? I know about a
> couple of old web sites that had info about XiangQi, but I've hunted
> around the last few days, and it appears that some of them haven't
> been updated in years, and I haven't found any new sites that I didn't
> already know about. Are there any good English sites out there that
> are worth checking out?
>
> And finally, I will once again ask the question that never gets a
> response: Are there any XiangQi players in the southern part of
> Florida? I live in Boynton Beach (Palm Beach County), so if anyone is
> in the area, let me know. I'd like to meet and play in person, if
> anyone lives in my area of the world.
>
> --Richard "The Fromper" Becker
| |
| Richard 2004-12-01, 5:46 pm |
| arglass@yahoo.com (Anthony) wrote in message news:<ef8522be.0411301054.45129bed@posting.google.com>...
quote:
> blueghost73@yahoo.com (Richard) wrote in message news:<c3e4d964.0411300534.13b88817@posting.google.com>...
>
>
> I play on www.itsyourturn.com.
Yeah, I used to play there. I like to play there now and then, both
Chess and XiangQi, but I really prefer real time play, for both games.
If you'd like to challenge me to a game there, my user id is Fromper
(as on most sites).
quote:
>
> If you prefer real time play, Club Xiangqi seems to work well.
> Personally I get antsy about being tied to a computer for the duration
> of a game, but perhaps when my reflexes get a little more confident
> I'll give it a go. I'm basically just getting conversant in the
> openings and tactics myself, so I'm not yet confident enough to wean
> myself off the "postal" model.
As I said, I prefer real time play. I think Club XiangQi was the site
that I had trouble connecting to much of the time when I played 3
years ago. I'll probably give it another try soon, now that I've got a
better computer. I'm thinking that I'll practice against the
zillions-of-games program for a bit, though, and do some more book
study. I might start a couple of games on itsyourturn.com also. But I
just feel like I should try to improve a little before taking on human
competition in real time.
quote:
>
>
> The World Xiangqi Federation has an English Language page. Among its
> resources are some translations of Xiangqi books that I think add
> considerably to the dearth of English Language sources.
I had a hard time finding this one. For anyone else reading this, the
link is:
http://wxf.hypermart.net/eg/
These look like some good books. The low quality of the diagrams in
most of them might make them a little tough to read, but there seems
to be quite a bit of good study material here. This could keep me busy
for a while.
quote:
> There is another site,
> http://www.geocities.com/yccheok/tutorial/menu.html, that I have found
> useful. There are lot's of summaries of openings, though commentary on
> them is a bit sparse for a beginner. Still, it's better than nothing,
> and the site owner is responsive if you have questions.
I remember this page from years ago, also. It doesn't appear to have
changed at all, broken links and all. I was already revisiting this,
as the information that's there is good stuff for a beginner. I just
wish that the couple of broken links were fixed.
Thanks for the recommendations!
--Richard "The Fromper" Becker
I survived 2 hurricanes in 3 weeks and all I got was this lousy
signature line.
| |
| Anthony 2004-12-03, 12:46 am |
| blueghost73@yahoo.com (Richard) wrote in message news:<c3e4d964.0411300534.13b88817@posting.google.com>...
quote:
>
> First, what English language play sites are available on the internet
> these days? In your opinion, which is best for a low level player?
I play on www.itsyourturn.com. The competition varies from players who
resign after dumping a chariot to people who are not only excellent
players but who have been good enough to coach me! So, I'd just sign
up, post a game in the waiting room and have at. It's like postal
chess--you have plenty of time to think about your next move. Play as
often as you like, join a ladder or a tournament. I'm surprised there
aren't more sites like this, and I'm especially surprised there isn't
one like this for Shogi.
If you prefer real time play, Club Xiangqi seems to work well.
Personally I get antsy about being tied to a computer for the duration
of a game, but perhaps when my reflexes get a little more confident
I'll give it a go. I'm basically just getting conversant in the
openings and tactics myself, so I'm not yet confident enough to wean
myself off the "postal" model.
quote:
> Second, what other internet resources are out there? I know about a
> couple of old web sites that had info about XiangQi, but I've hunted
> around the last few days, and it appears that some of them haven't
> been updated in years, and I haven't found any new sites that I didn't
> already know about. Are there any good English sites out there that
> are worth checking out?
The World Xiangqi Federation has an English Language page. Among its
resources are some translations of Xiangqi books that I think add
considerably to the dearth of English Language sources.
I really do miss Peter Sung's website. I too find myself dropping in
and out of the game (and for the same reason--lack of human opponents)
and was disappointed to find his famous Xiangqi Homepage missing when
I "dropped back in" recently. However, I took the liberty of emailing
him recently about it and he assured me it would be back up soon.
There is another site,
http://www.geocities.com/yccheok/tutorial/menu.html, that I have found
useful. There are lot's of summaries of openings, though commentary on
them is a bit sparse for a beginner. Still, it's better than nothing,
and the site owner is responsive if you have questions.
The author of Saola has a site at www.nchess.com that contains an
online position database similar to Peter Sung's. There is also a
downloadable viewer and quite a number of databases to review.
quote:
> And finally, I will once again ask the question that never gets a
> response: Are there any XiangQi players in the southern part of
> Florida? I live in Boynton Beach (Palm Beach County), so if anyone is
> in the area, let me know. I'd like to meet and play in person, if
> anyone lives in my area of the world.
I have the same problem. I live near Peoria, Illinois.
Anthony R. Glass
| |
| Richard 2004-12-04, 9:45 am |
| arglass@yahoo.com (Anthony) wrote in message news:<ef8522be.0411301054.45129bed@posting.google.com>...
quote:
> blueghost73@yahoo.com (Richard) wrote in message news:<c3e4d964.0411300534.13b88817@posting.google.com>...
>
>
> I play on www.itsyourturn.com.
Yeah, I used to play there. I like to play there now and then, both
Chess and XiangQi, but I really prefer real time play, for both games.
If you'd like to challenge me to a game there, my user id is Fromper
(as on most sites).
quote:
>
> If you prefer real time play, Club Xiangqi seems to work well.
> Personally I get antsy about being tied to a computer for the duration
> of a game, but perhaps when my reflexes get a little more confident
> I'll give it a go. I'm basically just getting conversant in the
> openings and tactics myself, so I'm not yet confident enough to wean
> myself off the "postal" model.
As I said, I prefer real time play. I think Club XiangQi was the site
that I had trouble connecting to much of the time when I played 3
years ago. I'll probably give it another try soon, now that I've got a
better computer. I'm thinking that I'll practice against the
zillions-of-games program for a bit, though, and do some more book
study. I might start a couple of games on itsyourturn.com also. But I
just feel like I should try to improve a little before taking on human
competition in real time.
quote:
>
>
> The World Xiangqi Federation has an English Language page. Among its
> resources are some translations of Xiangqi books that I think add
> considerably to the dearth of English Language sources.
I had a hard time finding this one. For anyone else reading this, the
link is:
http://wxf.hypermart.net/eg/
These look like some good books. The low quality of the diagrams in
most of them might make them a little tough to read, but there seems
to be quite a bit of good study material here. This could keep me busy
for a while.
quote:
> There is another site,
> http://www.geocities.com/yccheok/tutorial/menu.html, that I have found
> useful. There are lot's of summaries of openings, though commentary on
> them is a bit sparse for a beginner. Still, it's better than nothing,
> and the site owner is responsive if you have questions.
I remember this page from years ago, also. It doesn't appear to have
changed at all, broken links and all. I was already revisiting this,
as the information that's there is good stuff for a beginner. I just
wish that the couple of broken links were fixed.
Thanks for the recommendations!
--Richard "The Fromper" Becker
I survived 2 hurricanes in 3 weeks and all I got was this lousy
signature line.
| |
| Guy Horelle 2004-12-06, 12:46 am |
| Try highergames.com ., excellent site guy
"Richard" <blueghost73@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:c3e4d964.0411300534.13b88817@posting.google.com...
quote:
> Hi all! I'm back! Some of you may remember me as the annoying newbie
> who asked lots of stupid questions around 3-4 years ago. I always
> enjoyed playing XiangQi, but I eventually became frustrated by the
> lack of playing opportunities. No one in my area plays the game, and I
> couldn't convince my chess playing friends to give it more than a
> glance out of curiousity. Also, I only knew of one internet site at
> the time to play chinese chess, and it had an annoying interface that
> my clunky old computer couldn't handle very well, so it was tough for
> me to play. The low number of English language books available didn't
> help much, either.
>
> So I went back to just playing western chess, where there are lots of
> English language books, internet sites, and local playing clubs, even
> though I really do think that XiangQi is more fun.
>
> But now I've decided to come back and see if I can do better with
> XiangQi this time around. I've got a newer computer that can handle
> more internet content. I downloaded the free demo of "Zillions of
> Games" from www.zillions-of-games.com, which has Chinese Chess as one
> of its free demo games, with 10 difficulty levels for the computer
> opponent, so at last I know I'll always have that to practice against.
> And I see that David Li has written three new XiangQi books that I
> want to buy (Congratulations to him if he's reading this).
>
> So on to the questions:
>
> First, what English language play sites are available on the internet
> these days? In your opinion, which is best for a low level player?
>
> Second, what other internet resources are out there? I know about a
> couple of old web sites that had info about XiangQi, but I've hunted
> around the last few days, and it appears that some of them haven't
> been updated in years, and I haven't found any new sites that I didn't
> already know about. Are there any good English sites out there that
> are worth checking out?
>
> And finally, I will once again ask the question that never gets a
> response: Are there any XiangQi players in the southern part of
> Florida? I live in Boynton Beach (Palm Beach County), so if anyone is
> in the area, let me know. I'd like to meet and play in person, if
> anyone lives in my area of the world.
>
> --Richard "The Fromper" Becker
| |
| Richard 2004-12-06, 12:46 am |
| "Guy Horelle" <g.guyhorelle@knology.net> wrote in message news:<Yrdrd.38$A26.2@fe40.usenetserver.com>...
quote:
> Try highergames.com ., excellent site guy
No offense, but I tried this site, and I was unimpressed. It took
forever to load, there was no one there, and when I tried "practice"
play against the computer, it got into a "perpetual check" situation
in my first game against it, and it just kept checking me back and
forth, which is illegal in XiangQi. Granted, the graphics were pretty
cool, but it's just not worth going back there.
So in poking around at other play sites, I noticed that chess hub is a
pay site, and Club XiangQi seems to be blitz only (the slowest game I
could find was a 5 minute time limit). So does anyone know any free
sites where I can find human competition with a time limit that's
slower than 5 minutes per game, but faster than 28 hours per move? I'm
thinking in terms of a time limit of 30-60 minutes per player per
game. I haven't found any sites like that yet, though.
--Richard "The Fromper" Becker
I survived 2 hurricanes in 3 weeks and all I got was this lousy
signature line.
| |
| blueghost73@yahoo.com 2004-12-07, 5:46 pm |
| Richard wrote:
quote:
> So in poking around at other play sites, I noticed that chess hub is
a
quote:
> pay site, and Club XiangQi seems to be blitz only (the slowest game I
> could find was a 5 minute time limit). So does anyone know any free
> sites where I can find human competition with a time limit that's
> slower than 5 minutes per game, but faster than 28 hours per move?
I'm
quote:
> thinking in terms of a time limit of 30-60 minutes per player per
> game. I haven't found any sites like that yet, though.
>
> --Richard "The Fromper" Becker
Ok, I'm responding to my own last post now. I discovered that Club
XiangQi has more servers than I originally thought, and there are
people playing 25 minute games, with the option to change the time.
When I first tried there, all the rooms were full other than the blitz
rooms, and it seemed like they're always that way, but I didn't know to
try the "backup server" option, which opens up a whole new set of rooms
that have plenty of room for more players.
So I've got a place to play at slower speeds. Look for me as Fromper
there and at itsyourturn.com (where I recently signed up for two of the
Chinese Chess ladders).
--Richard "The Fromper" Becker
I survived 2 hurricanes in 3 weeks and all I got was this lousy
signature line.
| |
| blueghost73@yahoo.com 2004-12-07, 5:46 pm |
| Richard wrote:
quote:
> So in poking around at other play sites, I noticed that chess hub is
a
quote:
> pay site, and Club XiangQi seems to be blitz only (the slowest game I
> could find was a 5 minute time limit). So does anyone know any free
> sites where I can find human competition with a time limit that's
> slower than 5 minutes per game, but faster than 28 hours per move?
I'm
quote:
> thinking in terms of a time limit of 30-60 minutes per player per
> game. I haven't found any sites like that yet, though.
>
> --Richard "The Fromper" Becker
Ok, I'm responding to my own last post now. I discovered that Club
XiangQi has more servers than I originally thought, and there are
people playing 25 minute games, with the option to change the time.
When I first tried there, all the rooms were full other than the blitz
rooms, and it seemed like they're always that way, but I didn't know to
try the "backup server" option, which opens up a whole new set of rooms
that have plenty of room for more players.
So I've got a place to play at slower speeds. Look for me as Fromper
there and at itsyourturn.com (where I recently signed up for two of the
Chinese Chess ladders).
--Richard "The Fromper" Becker
I survived 2 hurricanes in 3 weeks and all I got was this lousy
signature line.
|
| |
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|