Chinese Chess is an extremely popular game in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and amongst Chinese communities everywhere. Watch any travel documentary about China on TV and there is a fair chance that the camera will pause for a few seconds on two men playing Chinese Chess in the street or in a park, usually accompanied by talkative spectators.
Chinese Chess has spawned books, magazines, a mass of opening and endgame theory, problem studies, computer programs, grandmaster titles, and so on - but it is as yet little played in the West and indeed many chess players over here have never even heard of the game! In fact Chinese Chess is just one of several different chess games played in the Far East, but along with Shogi (the Japanese form of chess) it rates as the most important. Our game of Western Chess is, of course, increasingly played in China, but much less so than Chinese Chess.
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