From: utzoo!decvax!duke!bcw Newsgroups: net.chess Title: Re: Vietnamese Chess Article-I.D.: duke.2816 Posted: Tue Dec 7 20:22:50 1982 Received: Wed Dec 8 05:05:52 1982 From: Bruce C. Wright Re: Vietnamese Chess The rule about two Kings not being able to face each other across an open board comes, I believe, from a Chinese version of Chess originally. There are a lot of other strange rules in that version (including a piece which moves by jumping over other pieces ... no I don't mean a Knight ... it's related to the Grasshopper for those of you who know Fairy Chess - it moves to the square(s) beyond those occupied by other pieces and cannot move unless it jumps over pieces, like the jump in checkers. Captures in the normal way, i. e., the jumped piece is not captured). The Chinese version of the game also has a small "fortress" which the King is not allowed to leave. If this rule was brought up during the standard Western game, it was probably being imported from the Chinese/Vietnamese version of chess. There are many versions of the game in the Orient; the Japanese version is also quite interesting: the pieces are totally mercenary, and when captured can be entered (with certain restrictions) on any vacant square of the board instead of making a normal move. Bruce C. Wright @ Duke University