Author: chinesemoment

The paraphernalia of the game include a dice, chess pieces, a chess board, chips, a cutting knife, a scraping knife and a case. A chess piece, or "chess" for short, is also known as "ma" or "horse". There are a total of 12 chess pieces – 6 black ones and 6 white (or red) ones, with each color representing one side. The chess board, otherwise known as "wooden board" or "qudao", is usually a near square wooden board with grooves of different rectangular shapes and round dots carved in intaglio on the white or black surface. The grooves are either painted with red lacquer or embedded with ivory. The chips are made of thin bamboo slips. There are two types of chips – long ones and short ones. The chips, varied in number from game to game, are used to keep track of the winning and losing condition of the players. The cutting knife and scraping knife are used to make the numbering chips. The case is for holding the chess tools inside.