Chinese Chess by H.T. Lau

Chinese Chess

Chinese chess, or elephant chess, has intrigued the powerful and the quizzical for centuries. Although its rules are similar to the well-known Western game, subtle and fascinating variations must be mastered in order to understand the strategies it requires. H. T. Lau breaks the silence of decades of publishing on this game and introduces Chinese chess to Westerners, discussing with the aid of 170 diagrams the board, the movement and values of the pieces, and basic rules for capturing and defeating an opponent. Suggested end-games and opening strategies are given as required reading for the beginner. Finally, his artfully simple book is closed with two appendice devoted to the elegantly constructed games found in The Secret Inside the Orange and The Plum-Blossom Meter, two classic seventeenth-century works on Chinese chess.