Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Homer]

I started playing Jangi a couple of months ago and I must say i quite enjoy the game.

Very different fro "regular" chess.

Anybody else play?

[ulsanchris]

I learned how to play. My gf taught me, but when i started beating her after the third time we played she didn't like playing the game anymore. Now she refuses to play it.
Its ok but I don't like the movement of the pieces. NOt much flexability. Then again maybe if i was better at it, i wouldn;t think like this.

[VanIslander]

A 12 year old taught me the game and he lost the very first time we played a full game because it's close enough to Westernized chess to use the same skills of contingency planning. I said I was lucky and let him win the next game. I then played my director and got up a couple of pieces before he checkmated me: It seems like the strategies of the game are somewhat different than chess. Yes, the elephants are a bit cumbersome, and the cannons are inconvenient, but those aspects become strengths once one figures out how to use them. I'm still learning. I bought a portable board to be able to play anybody anywhere, like those old men I have seen at Haeundae Beach in Busan. I want to play them someday.

[Universalis]

I'm too busy trying to learn paduk at the moment. Once I get a firm grasp of that, I want to learn jangi. And then Mah Jonng...

Sigh... so little time...

Brian

[IconsFanatic]

I play shogi (the Japanese version.... which is better! ), and that's about it.

Back in Vancouver, our multicultural station had a Japanese drama about a chick who played shogi... that's how I got into it.

[VanIslander]

Why is the Japanese version better?

As for Korean chess, I've seen it played in many places in Busan, Tongyoung, Geoje and even in the entranceway to a fishing tackle shop in nearby south Jeolla province. But I've never been to Seoul, so maybe it's not as popular in those parts. I don't know. But many of my students know how to play it and older Koreans do so in public.

I found the board in a bookstore here on the island. The larger boards are cheaper but I forked out an excessive 35,000 won for a smaller fold-up version.

Maybe others could give specifics for the big cities.

[Universalis]

A friend of mine bought a Jangi set for our game cafe while he was on vacation in China. It gets quite a few second-takes from the Korean customers, as I'm told there are some minor differences between the Chinese and Korean versions. It's a nice looking set either way, though... with a gold board and attractrive pieces made of clear plastic.

[seoulmon]

I've played Chinese chess which is more popular and very close to Korean (the knight moves different).

It's supa-cool!

For one, your conceptual strategic space feels smaller, like suddenly you are boxing in a closet. Western chess has big sweeping moves which Chinese chess doesn't have.

Plus, the role of pieces change throughout the game. Like the cannon which moves by jumping over people becomes neutered at the end when there is only a few pieces. And the knight which can't jump over pieces is cramped at the begging has a lot of power at the end.

In China chess is like a freaking Marti gras party.. They yell, shout and make all sorts of comments. you know, there's even a million dollar prize for the first western that can beat a Chinese chess grandmaster.

PLUS! (I am freakin ramblin I know..)

There are free online C.chess games....

S outta

[Homer]

I quite like the differences between western chess and korean chess (which incidently comes from Chinese chess).
The movement of the pieces makes the game more dynamic (in my opinion). I started to play with the old dudes on certain sundays, most of them are my father-in-laws friends or relatives. I won a couple here and there but the next door arabogi is awesome.

I am starting to really enjoy the game.

[IconsFanatic]