Check out Atomic Chess, our featured variant for November, 2024.

Since Java is no longer supported in most browsers, our Java applets probably will not run unless you install an extension that will run them. We recommend installing the CheerpJ Applet Runner extension on Edge, Chrome, or another Chromium browser. If your browser still does support Java, and you're not using this extension, make sure this site is listed in your Java exceptions list. You should find this in the Security tab of your Java control panel.

Coffee Chinese Chess

Written by Pham Hong Nguyen, Coffee Chinese Chess is a customizable freeware Java applet for playing Chinese Chess. It is also good for displaying games and practicing with an openingbook. At his own website for this applet, he gives permission for others to include it on their own websites. Since the graphics can be customized, I have customized it for use with various graphics I have designed for Chinese Chess. Below the applet, you can select different piece sets. Some will automatically use different boards than the one shown below. This applet will let you play against a computer program. If you would like to play against other people by correspondence, using the same graphics available here, you can use Game Courier, which will let you play Chinese Chess and many more Chess variants online.

The links below will change the graphics. Be warned that they will also reset the game. So don't use them during an ongoing game you want to continue.

Change Piece Set	Change Board	Change Both
National Standard Chinese	Chinese Art	Both
Traditional Chinese, Large, Some Same		Both
Traditional Chinese, Large, All Different		Both
Traditional Chinese, Some Same		Both
Traditional Chinese, All Different		Both
Scanned Chinese Pieces	Blue & Green	Both
Westernized Iconographic	Lake & Grass	Both
Abstract Marble - Eurasian	Eurasian	Both
Abstract Marble - Blue/Red		Both
Chess Pieces - Alfaerie	Cambaluc	Both

You may customize this applet as much as you want by entering parameters in the URL Query String. All the Coffee Chinese Chess parameters are described on Pham Hong Nguyen's own website.

Coffee Chinese Chess

Note that this page changes some of the defaults of Coffee Chinese Chess. That is, when some parameters are not defined in the URL Query String, values of my own choice are used instead of the default values. For the sake of reference, here are the values that are different than the usual defaults:

Parameter	Value
pieceimage	piecegb.gif
boardimage	chinese-art.gif
notationtag	off
width	600
height	546

Written by Fergus Duniho

WWW Page Created: 28 September 2003.