Korean Job Discussion Forums

[lifeinkorea]

Contact info: [email protected]

Chess / Go / Korean Chess / Japanese Chess / Chinese Chess

For those of you who enjoy chess or want to try some variations on the game, I am organizing a group meet up in Seoul. I am not sure yet where we will be meeting, but after some more people contact me I can better suggest a place. Right now, Yongsan seems like a good central location. If there are more people interested on the east side of Seoul, we may want to consider the Gangnam area or Bundang.

I live in Pyeongtaek, so if you are south of me (like in Daejeon) and still want to meet, we can also arrange something where you don't have to go all the way up to Seoul. People in Yongin can let me know which is better. Seems like either would do (especially if you have a car).

So far, I have 2 people interested. One is a Korean who knows Korean chess and he can teach us how to play. I have learned Japanese chess (called shogi) and can give a brief outline of the game. For those who would like to learn more about shogi, I suggest watching these Youtube videos http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=587865CAE59EB84A

Japanese chess:

1. is like regular chess, but when you capture pieces you get to use them later in the game as one of yours.
2. takes longer to finish than regular chess. You won't get checkmated in 5 moves or less.
3. is a very fun game after you learn the rules and play it a few times
4. doesn't require a lot of memorization to play well
5. has checkmate exercises. These are more practical and interesting than regular chess problems. In regular chess problems, you get made up scenarios that don't really fit into a real game of chess. So, you are not really training your brain to play the game better, just solve puzzles. Japanese checkmate problems can be a fun 2 person game if you think an actual game is too long. The way you play is one person attacks while the other defends. The rule is simple, to checkmate. However, every move you make has to put the king in check and you have a limited number of moves to checkmate the king.
6. uses Chinese characters instead of different shapes for the pieces. So, I will be getting some easier to read shogi sets without the Chinese characters. There will also be the Japanese version for those interested in learning.
7. can be very difficult to learn by yourself, which is why you should join this meet up to better learn the rules and enjoy the game "over the board".

If you are still interested, but don't want to go through all the hassle of meeting up then let me know and I'll put up some flash demos using easy to read pieces.

My contact info again is [email protected] and if you would like to teach Go, Chinese chess, or any other variant feel free to let me know.

[crossmr]

I play Korean chess. Unfortunately my schedule is all over the place, so I don't have any regular time to meet. There is a pretty good cell phone game for Korean chess for anyone who wants to learn (you can grab the english rules on wikipedia) it is called World Janggi Chess 2. Includes western chess and Korean chess. There are single player tournaments and practice games where you can use take back.
It also lets you save up to 10 games for playback.
http://mobilepack.hangame.com/skt/gameView.nhn?cid=01104140
So far I can sometimes beat the cell phone on level 2 of 5. Not bad considering I've only been playing about a month.

This game is available for LG and KTF users, but I haven't tried it: http://mobilepack.hangame.com/ktf/gameView.nhn?cid=01104106

I also ordered a magnetic Janggi set from Gmarket which is quite nice if you're traveling, or want something a bit smaller to carry around to have a game. Cost around 6500W, plus I got a free (and crappy) mini chess set, but the mini chess set wasn't even magnetic.

This is the set on the official site, if you search for it on Gmarket you'll find it along with some others: http://migame.co.kr/shop/shopdetail.html?brandcode=001001000002&search=&sort=price

They have bigger mobile sets, and they also have reversible mobile sets. One side is janggi, the other side Go or Western Chess, etc