Re: Chinese Chess File Format standard

Noah Roberts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> Pham Hong Nguyen wrote:
> > I have added a new page about Chinese Chess File Format standard
> > (written by Huayong Yang) in my home page at http://www.nchess.com -
> > in hope it may be useful for some people.
> > 
> > If you have any new information about that standard / author, please
> > let me know and many thanks in advance.
> 
> In my opinion the FEN notation should be altered more for use in chinese 

Note that the FEN notation is a new one and different from Chinese
Chess File Format standard.

> chess.  There is no need to have a castling availability or en-passant 
> field so why require the extra code to be aware of them (even if just to 
> ignore them)?  The color field could be better customized by using r & b 
> instead of w & b, but that is relatively unimportant.

The idea here is that we "borrow" the FEN standard of western chess to
use for Chinese chess. If we modify that, it should be call by other
name, such as XFEN, etc. It also requires an orgnization (e.g., AXF)
to edit and publish it as an official standard. All will take time and
much effort.

Event though there are few redundant things in the FEN notation when
applying for Xiangqi, they are not really a problem for both users and
developers. On the other hand, if we just "borrow" - (keep the
standard unchange as much as possible), many western chess users and
programmers are quite familiar with it and spend no effort to use. We
can also test how that standard is useful and make it quickly be
popular.

> 
> Also, just what exactly is the 50 move rule as it pertains to chinese chess?

There is an 60 move rule of China (not Asian Xianqi rules): a game is
a draw if there is no capture in 60 moves. Unlike western chess, you
can count moves of pushing Pawn.

Regards,
Pham

> 
> So, there is my feedback.