quote:

---

> PROPOSED ADDENDUM to the CHINESE CHESS FOR BEGINNERS
>
> Since the first printing of this book in 1989, there have been changes
> in the World of Chinese chess. The most obvious is the development and
> the expansion of the Internet. Every major Chinese chess organization
> now has a website. Most are in Chinese but some are in English. The
> World Chinese Chess Federation, or WXF, has been formed. Previously,
> there were just endless meetings of preparatory committees. The World
> Chinese Chess Federation has now held nine world championships. The
> most recent was in Paris in August 2005. I wish that I could have
> attended, but I could not, as it conflicted with the US Open Chess
> Championship in Phoenix, Arizona. It was won by Lu Qin, also spelled
> Lv Qin, who has won the last five World Championships of Chinese
> Chess.
>
> In 1990, I played in the World Championship of Chinese Chess for
> Non-Chinese in Singapore. I finished second. I am still angry at
> myself because I missed the flight I was supposed to take and arrived
> late. I forfeited one game. I feel that I would have won had I not
> missed the flight. My result is posted on the Internet on page 8 at
> http://wxf.hypermart.net/eg/wxf-masters.pdf
>
> I have started a new family and this has prevented me from competing
> internationally. I last played in the World Championship of Chinese
> Chess in 1995. I played so poorly that they never invited me back. I
> did get a draw in the first round against Yang Xiang Xi, the number
> two representative of Indonesia, which was a good result for me
> because it is rare that a Westerner has scored even a draw against a
> top level Chinese player.
>
> I learned a good lesson from this result because, when I reached a
> position which I thought was a hopeless draw, I offered him a draw
> which he accepted instantaneously. When it took him less than one
> second to accept my draw offer (even though he spoke no English) I
> realized that I must have done something wrong and turned out that I
> had missed a clear endgame win. I had rook and pawn against rook and
> elephant. It seemed to me that this must be a draw, but I was
> mistaken. This would make a good study exercise. I posted the analysis
> of the position on the Internet under my AOL address at the time,
> which was VanUpp@aol.com .
>
> After drawing this game, the Chinese were so impressed with me that
> they paired me against one of the strongest players in the world, Lei
> Kum Fun of Macau, and put my game up on the stage with a demonstration
> board, posted by a beautiful Chinese girl in a miniskirt, showing the
> moves of my game. A crowd of thousands of Chinese spectators watched.
> I rose to the occasion by playing probably the worst game of my life.
> I played a beginner's trap against my opponent. The game started 1.
> P7+1 P3+1 2. P7+1 E3+5 This is an opening gambit. The idea is that if
> Red tries to save his pawn with 3. P7+1, Black will keep attacking the
> advancing pawn, each time increasing his lead in development. I did
> not play this to insult my opponent, but rather because that was the
> only opening gambit I knew. In response, my opponent did not try to
> hold the pawn. He just let it sit there, forcing me to waste time by
> recapturing it. I then proceeded to play badly and lost in 13 moves.
>
> My poor result in this tournament was made up by the fact that on
> September 9, 1995, an article with a picture of me appeared in the
> Singapore Straits Times captioned "Xiangqi master catches his game -
> again." In fact, the article was not about me but was about Lv Qin,
> who had just won the world championship for the second time, but one
> might easily have concluded that I was the "Xiangqi master" mentioned
> in the article. The picture showed me playing my last round game and
> described how I learned to play Chinese chess. What was odd was that
> the player who had just won the World Championship did not get his
> picture in the newspaper, but I did, simply because I was a Westerner
> who played Chinese Chess.
>
> They gave me a small prize and actually I have won more money playing
> in Chinese chess tournaments than I have ever won in tournaments of
> International chess, even though I have been playing international
> chess all my life. I am told that I was listed in the WXF Bulletin as
> a Master of Chinese Chess, but I make no such claim.
>
> In August 2005, the World Championship of Chinese Chess was won again
> by Lv Qin. In second place was Lei Kum Fun of Macau, the same man who
> defeated me in round two of the 1995 World Championship of Chinese
> Chess. Lei Kum Fun of Macau won his individual game against Lv Qin and
> also defeated the players who finished 3rd and 4th, but he lost to
> some lower rated players and therefore only finished second.
>
> Here is an interesting short game from the 2005 World Championship of
> Chinese Chess, which should help bring you up to date on the latest
> theory. Note that they now use the notational system first established
> by me in my book, "Chinese Chess for Beginners" .
>
> Red : Lu Qin (China)
> Black : Ng Junming (Singapore)
> Date : 1st August 2005 Paris, 9th World Xiangqi Championships (2nd
> round)
>
> 1. N8+7 N8+7 2. P3+1 P3+1 3. C8+4 B7+5 4. N2+3 N2+1 5. C8=3 C2=3 6.
> R9=8 R1+1 7. R8+4 R1=6 8. P7+1 R6+3 9. B3+5 P3+1 10. R8=7 C3+5 11.
> R7-2 P1+1 12. R7+2 G6+5 13. G4+5 C8+4 14. R1=3 P5+1 15. N3+2 C8=1 16.
> P3+1 R6+4 17. P3=4 N7-9 18. C3=5 R9=7 19. R3+9 N9-7 20. R7=3 N7+9 21.
> R3+4 C1=9 22. N2+1 (1-0)
>
> Another interesting development is that some female players of Chinese
> chess have switched over and become the world champions of
> international chess. The first to accomplish this was Xie Jun, who is
> mentioned on page 138 of this book, when she was still virtually
> unknown in chess. She won the World Woman's Chess Championship in 1991
> by defeating Maya Chiburdanidze of Georgia in a match and won it again
> in 1998 by defeating Alisa Galliamova of Russia in a match. In 2000,
> she defended her title by defeating Qin Kan Ying, whose name is also
> mentioned on page 138 of this book. Xie Jun later retired to have a
> baby. In 2001, Zhu Chen took over and won the world championship. In
> 2006, Xu Yuhua, another Chinese girl who happens to be the stunning
> beauty of the bunch, became the third Chinese girl to win the Woman's
> World Championship. Meanwhile, the Chinese women have won every World
> Chess Olympiad by a wide margin since 1998, winning in 1998, 2000,
> 2002 and 2004, usually never losing even a single game. Since an
> Olympiad lasts 14 rounds with three games per match, that means that
> the Chinese women went 42 games in each Olympiad without a single loss.
> The Chinese women are now so far ahead of the other countries that nobody
> can even imagine the Chinese team finishing anywhere other than first.

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> Another positive development is that in the past, party officials
> occupied the top positions in the Chinese Qi Yuan in Beijing and
> accompanied the players to the international competitions, keeping a
> watchful eye. However, that seems to be no longer the case. Nowadays,
> the Chinese players travel alone.
>
> In New York City, the best place to play is the United East Athletic
> Club in the Chinese Cultural Center, a large red building on the
> corner of Mulberry Street and Bayard Street in Chinatown, on the
> second floor. However, you can find a game even quicker in the park on
> the corner of Elmhurst Avenue and Broadway in Elmhurst, Queens. Take
> the R, V or G Train to Elmhurst Avenue. There are always games going
> on there. However, the players are weak there and I can beat most of
> them.
>
> David H. Li, a Professor at the university of Maryland, has emerged as
> both a big promoter of Chinese Chess and a researcher of its history.
> He has published several books, including "The Genealogy of Chess",
> ISBN 0963785222, published in 1998, which demonstrate that what we
> call International Chess was actually invented in China, rather than
> in India, as had previously been supposed. This is the theory that I
> first advanced in my pamphlet, "The Origin of Chess", which was
> published in 1985 and is now on my website at
> http://www.samsloan.com/origin.htm .
>
> To learn the latest news about the World of Chinese Chess, do an
> Internet search for Felix Tan of Singapore, who always has the latest
> information. Peter Sung of Toronto has a good website and a CCH Viewer
> for playing over games. You can search the Usenet Newsgroup
> rec.games.chinese-chess which can be reached at
> http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.chinese-chess
>
> I have established an email group for discussion of Chinese chess. The
> address is chinese-chess@yahoogroups.com There are at present 135
> subscribers to the list, including many of the most important English
> speaking personalities of Chinese chess.
>
> I have broadcast some cable TV shows on Chinese chess and I have
> created an elementary instructional DVD on Chinese chess, which can be
> obtained at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CPMGQE
>
> The best place to buy Chinese chess books and equipment is
> yutopian.com at http://www.yutopian.com/cat.jsp?category=c
>
> Sam Sloan