Synopsis:
Understanding the Elephant Parts 3 and 4 would deal with Xiangqi endgames. “Attention has also been paid to the End-game. The resulting decisions are for the most part so obvious as to stand in need of no demonstration. There would seem to be nothing corresponding to the fine End-game play which is possible in European chess.” --- HJR Murray from A History of Chess, p132, in the section discussing Xiangqi endgames.The author begs to differ. Xiangqi endgames are the fundamentals and yet one of the hardest topics to master. There are hundreds of books on Xiangqi endgames in Chinese that deal with various topics. It would be impossible to encompass all there is to know in these two books. Instead, the author hopes to introduce to the non-Chinese speaking world the depth and beauty of the Xiangqi endgame. As the subject is too voluminous, the author has organized adapted the way Xiangqi endgames are taught in China. In Part 3, the reader would be given introduced to basic endgame theory in the first two chapters. Single piece endgame situations are then discussed before the reader is introduced to basic two-piece endgames involving the chariot. Various strategies like triangulation et cetera are discussed in detail.In Part 4, various two-piece endgame situations excluding the chariot are broken down into simple parts and explained. Endgames involving three or more pieces are beyond the scope of this book. There are over 400 boards in both books to discuss the various basic endgame situations. Many diagrams have been added to assist the reader in visualizing, understanding and appreciating the various endgame situations. There are over 1300 diagrams in Part 3A and over 1000 diagrams in Part 3B.The author hopes that the reader would be able to master the fundamentals and have a better grasp of the Xiangqi endgame after reading the two books.
About the Author:
Jim Png was born in Malaysia, but he grew up in Singapore and later went to Taiwan where he finished his medical education and training to become an orthopedic surgeon. His love affair with Xiangqi has lasted for over three decades now. During his school years in Singapore, Jim had been the president of his chess club and also the captain of his Xiangqi team, which had won the Raffles Cup in 1991 and was placed third place in 1993 in the same event. Medicine, the brutal training regiment of an orthopedic surgeon, family, and kids forced him to stop playing competitive Xiangqi. Instead, Jim has found another way of enjoying Xiangqi, by sharing his love of Xiangqi with the non-Chinese speaking world. He does this with www.xqinenglish.com, a website that he launched in 2011. Since then, Jim has singlehandedly uploaded thousands of puzzles, and hundreds of pages onto his website. The website has over 2400 pages at last count. In 2016, he started uploading videos onto Youtube where there are hundreds of videos now. Feeling that he could do more, Jim has embarked on other ambitious projects. Some of the fruit of his labors include the first ever Lexicon of Xiangqi Terms in English, which he hopes to allow non-Chinese speaking people to communicate Xiangqi in their native tongues. He has also translated several ancient manuals, and meticulously researched Chinese history in his translations. He hopes to be able to translate as many ancient manuals as he can. His ultimate goal is to share with the world the beauty of Xiangqi, a way of life. Jim is still working hard at promoting Xiangqi every day, often putting in more hours into it than his day job. Jim Png is happily married and has two children. Vincent Chai Wen Xuan is an up and coming Xiangqi star. He is from East Malaysia and is studying in Shanghai. Vincent is very enthusiastic and talented in Xiangqi, having represented East Malaysia in the Youth Division of the AXF Tournament in 2012 (17th AXF event). In his free time, Vincent actively pursues Xiangqi and is an ardent promoter. Jim and Vincent met during a chess conference in Hangzhou in 2017 and these two books on endgame tabia was born out of their cooperation in the quest to spread Xiangqi.
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