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The Game of Three Friends. A variant on Chinese Chess for three players. (Cells: 135) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Anonymous wrote on Thu, Mar 12, 2009 11:59 AM UTC:

There is a double confusion here. The Game of 3 Friends, Sanyou Qi, is not the one shown here, it is the one shown on The Game of 3 Kingdoms page.
Yu Ren Don's comments applies for Sanyou Qi, so it does not apply to this diagram.
A good source is Andrew LO, « An Introduction to Board Games in Late Imperial China », in Ancient Board Games in Perspective, edited by Irving FINKEL, British Museum Press, 2007.
Looking at Yu Ren Don's Zillions file, it seems to me that he took some liberty on some moves. I understood from Lo that:
* the Flags go 2 steps (never 1) forward (never otherwise) until they go out of their territory where they move as Chariots.
* the Fires moves 1 step diagonally forward and cannot retreat. I was not aware of any promotion after outing their territory.