Changes

is a version of chess variant which is very popular in east Asia. The rules are analogues to international chess, specially in China and Vietnam. The Chinese Chess set includes a board and 32 pieces for two players. The board has ten horizontal lines called [[Ranks|ranks]] and nine vertical lines called [[Files|files]]. In the middle of the board the central seven files are interrupted by a horizontal space called the “River”, which splits the board into two parts. <span id="Palace"></span>Each side of the board has a “Palace” a 3x3 area in the central base. The seven kind of pieces are placed on the intersections and move and capture according to their individual ability and restriction along the lines including the “River banks”. The two sides are usually distinguished by color, being red or black <ref>[[Shi-Jim Yen]], [[Jr-Chang Chen]], [[Tai-Ning Yang]], [[Shun-Chin Hsu]] ('''2004'''). ''[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220174553_Computer_Chinese_Chess Computer Chinese Chess]''. [[ICGA Journal#27_1|ICGA Journal, Vol. 27, No. 1]], [https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/223d/ef59c884503f18610bba314034157f55aacd.pdf pdf]</ref> .

Basically the rules are similar to chess. The object of the game is to [[Checkmate|checkmate]] or [[Stalemate|stalemate]] (is a win as well) the opponent King aka General. However, partly due to the freedom and power of the Rook over other pieces, and the limited freedom of the GeneralKing, it is forbidden to [[Repetitions|repeat]] perpetually a direct thread (i.e. perpetual check 長將, perpetual thread of capture 長捉, a check and then a threat of mate 一將一殺, or a combination of these). This needs to be taken into account in the [[Chinese Chess Board Representation|board representation]].