Janggi: tournament rules with points scoring

What changes, and what does not

Every rule of the Korea Janggi Association preset applies here without alteration: the board, the setup phase, the way the pieces move, the pass, checkmate, and the loss for a third repetition of a checking position.

The single change is at the end of the game. Certain endings that would be drawn under the standard rules are instead awarded to the player with more material, valued on a fixed table. It is an administrative fix for a real problem: janggi draws often, and a tournament full of draws produces no order of finish.

Because material now decides those games, the shape of play shifts. A position you cannot win by force but can win on points is worth reaching, and an exchange that would be irrelevant under the standard rules can hand over the game.

The board and the setup phase

Nine lines by ten, pieces on the ninety points, no river, and a three-by-three palace at each end with both diagonals drawn and usable. Each side has one general, two guards, two elephants, two horses, two chariots, two cannons and five soldiers, and the general starts on the centre point of his own palace.

Before the first move each side chooses one of four ways to fill its own horse and elephant points: both elephants inside next to the guards, both outside next to the chariots, the elephant outside on the left wing only, or the elephant outside on the right wing only. Han declares first, Cho second, and Cho then moves.

The arrangement does not affect anybody’s point total. Both sides start with the same pieces.

Moving and passing

• General and guards: one point along a drawn palace line, diagonals included, never leaving the palace.
• Elephant: one point straight then two diagonally outward, blocked if either point it passes over is occupied, and free to cross the whole board.
• Horse: one point straight then one diagonally outward, blocked on the straight point.
• Chariot: any distance along a clear rank or file, plus the palace diagonals while inside a palace.
• Cannon: moves and captures only by jumping exactly one piece; never jumps or captures another cannon; may use the palace diagonals; cannot move at all without a screen.
• Soldier: one point forward or sideways from the first move onwards, never backward, plus forward steps along the diagonals of the enemy palace.

A player not in check may pass, and there is no stalemate. Under this preset a pass carries an extra consequence: if both players pass in succession the game ends at once and is settled on points, so passing while behind on material is a way of losing.

Winning, and the point count

A game can still be won outright: by checkmate, by resignation, on time, or by the opponent repeating the same checking position for a third time. The table below never overrides those results.

Otherwise, when a game reaches one of the endings listed further down, both sides count what they still have on the board:

The general has no value, because he is never captured. Everything else is counted exactly as it stands at the moment the game ends; nothing is counted for position, activity or pieces already taken.

The higher total wins. The 1.5 added to Cho does two jobs: it is the compensation this rule set attaches to the seat that moves first, and because every other value is a whole number it makes an exact tie arithmetically impossible. There is no such thing as a drawn point count.

Which endings are converted, and which stay drawn

Three endings that would be draws under the standard rules are decided on points here:

• The no-progress limit — 120 half-moves, counting the turns of both players, with no capture. Any capture resets the count to zero.
• A double pass: both players passing in succession.
• Repetition that does not involve check.

Two endings remain draws, and the point count is not consulted for either:

• Bikjang. If the generals face down an open file at the start of a turn and the player to move leaves them facing, the game is drawn whatever the material says. That is the losing side’s one escape from a hopeless point count, and it is worth watching for in every game.
• Insufficient material. If neither side has the pieces to force a mate, the game is drawn rather than awarded.

A draw agreed between the players is still a draw: the conversion applies to the endings the rules force, not to the ones the players choose.

The checking-repetition rule is untouched. A third repetition of the same checking position still loses for the player giving check, however far ahead on points that player may be.