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Last weekend, I attended theTaiwanese American Student Coalition's (TASC) game night on the Binghamton University campus. Thanks to the patient e-board and club members, I learned how to play both Chinese chess (象棋 ssed throw back Thursday, I guess I'll have to settle for flash back Friday.Xiàng qí ) and mahjong (麻将 má jiàng ).
As someone who plays American chess regularly, I figured learning Chinese chess would be a breeze; I mean, how different can they really be?
Really, really different.
The way in which many of the pieces move is extremely intricate and difficult to remember. The only pieces that move in way similar to American chess are the knight and the rook, called ma (马 mǎ) and ju (车jū). One of the most important pieces on the board is called pao (炮 pào), which means 'cannon' or 'firecracker'. This will be your main weapon when taking out your opponent's pieces. If you have the pao captured by your opponent within the first few moves of the game (don't worry, we've all been there. Or at least I have. Twice.), you're probably going to lose.
While at TASC's game night, I also participated in a newspaper rock-paper-scissors tournament. In this game, two people go head-to- head at rock-paper-scissors while standing on a sheet of newspaper. After each round, the loser must fold his or her paper in half. If you step off of your newspaper at any point in time, you lose the game.
My first two matches went extremely smooth, only having to fold my paper once until coming out victorious. But by the third match, my luck had clearly run out. I folded my paper four times within the first five rock-paper-scissor rounds. The paper was hardly the size of my foot. My only choice at that point was to channel my inner Karate Kid, balancing on one leg, with the other dangling in front of me at a 90 degree angle.
OK, fine...I was far less majestic than Karate Kid. |