As an alternative, for training up, you can print up circular labels of the appropriate size with the Chinese characters and their English meanings and stick them on the bottom of the playing pieces. Just play with the pieces upside-down until you’re used to the characters.

I have no idea. Can’t be much older than 5, though.

BTW, the kid knows the game very well. He kicked the adult’s ass. Almost casually. (There were only two short points where he paused to think when playing.)

象棋 is in the family of Chess games, but it is a different game, yes, like Japan’s Shogi. If you have any chess skills they’ll translate well to this game, though. There’s a Chess Variants page summary available that goes into better detail. In brief, though, the differences include:

1. The “palace” in the centre of each side. The general and his advisors/guards are only permitted to move in that space: the advisors one space along the diagonals only, the general one space orthogonally only.
2. Generals are not allowed to be in uninterrupted line of sight across the board. (A common pinning tactic uses this rule.)
3. The elephant/ministers move diagonally two spaces, can be blocked, and cannot cross the “river” in the middle of the board. (This means they can only inhabit 7 places on the board, yet despite their rigidity knowing how to use them is incredibly important to play.)
4. The horses move like knights in Chess, but unlike knights they can be blocked: they do not jump.
5. The chariots are identical in movement and capture to the rooks of Chess.
6. The cannons are … the things that will screw you up the most. They’re very subtle pieces. They move like chariots, but they capture by jumping a single piece (either side’s) to take a single piece on the other side of the jump. They must have precisely one piece between them and the target to capture it.
7. The soldiers (what you called pawns) move forward one space when on their side of the river. Once they cross the river they can move one space forward, or to the left and right. They capture as they move.
8. The game has the same number of pieces as Chess, but the board is larger (90 spaces instead of 64) meaning games tend to be more dynamic and free-flowing than Chess games.

Read the Chess Variants page for more detailed rules. It’s actually quite a fun game once you get used to reading the characters on the pieces.

Xiangqi, a.k.a. Chinese Chess.

I get this impression that people in the USA simply don’t comprehend how much work and money is going to be needed to “return manufacturing to America”.

Perhaps this video will help: https://peertube.mesnumeriques.fr/w/4ukCr36qciYWFVGpCVPsQM

It is not merely labour costs that make production in China better for most companies. It’s the flexibility that Chinese businesses show as well.

Weirdly that’s exactly the reason I don’t buy American-made products.

Hey, think of the bright side!

Look at your shelf. Count the games that you’ve never played more than once (if you’ve played them at all!). With the industry collapsing you’ll find the time to play those games more often!

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Not. A. Chance.

There isn’t enough money in the world.

This right here. I love the feeling of a drink or two inside of me. I can’t stand being drunk.

I’ve never actually had a hangover. I have no idea what they feel like other than, from inference, bad.

And I drink.

I have been drunk in the past too, though I really don’t like the sensation so try to avoid it.

Perhaps instead of age there’s something else that’s causing your hangover?

I hate you so much right now.

For me it would be Das Boot.

The Ringworld one is brilliant.

Don’t care much about either. My phone does the job for me and I have enough clothing to last me to the end of my life. (You know, about six weeks.) (I jest.)

If I were the kind who’d want children, I’d likely wish to raise them using a scissor lift.

Yeah, small businesses were already suffering at the hands of big box stores, stagnant wages, and online purchasing.

And now there’s a downturn.

Anything made in the USA (though that is not primarily because of cost of living, only partially). I used to stop off at various street food vendors for a snack on the way home every second day or so, but now I maybe do that once a month. And that is cost of living related entirely.

I think you’re missing the point. An American will see the “impact” of the “US President” “globally” while someone in Nigeria will have completely different concerns for what the Big Thing™ will be, and it will be Nigerian-centric, while someone having this same “itch” in Finland will have something Finnish-centric (say, Russia invading again) as their version and so on and so forth.

And yet, historically, when a Big Thing™ strikes it strikes from an unexpected direction from an unexpected place with unexpected outcomes for the overwhelming majority of humanity.

They also tend to think the Big Event™ will be in their geographical area and will think it’s based on their cultural concerns.