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Magic River. Xiang Qi pieces crossing the Magic River turn into their Western counterparts, and vice versa! (17x9, Cells: 77) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Charles Gilman wrote on Wed, May 13, 2009 06:28 AM UTC:
A possible solution has occurred to me to the complications of certain Xiang Qi pieces being restricted or having no FIDE Chess counterpart:
	The Elephant is barred from entering enemy territory, but its positional counterpart the Bishop is not, leaving it turning into an Elephant that shouldn't be there. On the other hand the Cannon can enter enemy territory but, in your variant, has no counterpart to become when it gets there. How about making the Bishop transform to a Cannon and vice versa? That way both pieces can continue in a relatively normal way. This also echoes the Bishop's position in Shogi, which could be considered equivalent to one of the Cannons.
	The King and Queen can enter enemy territory, but the reason why the General and Ferz cannot is that the Fortress bars them getting anywhere near it. This could be seen as the Fortress being the real barrier for them, in which case the King and Queen should transform to a General and Ferz unable to enter the Fortress. As they therefore cannot give check they are sufficiently weak pieces to not upset the balance.
	I hope that these ideas go some way to propelling this variant toward excellence.