Great Power Chess

East meets West on the board

One of the greatest powers in life is the power of friendship. There’s just something special about sitting down with a friend and playing a game of chess in person. It’s not just about the game—it’s about sharing good conversation, laughter, and that quiet feeling of connection. It’s a really nice way to spend time together and enjoy some meaningful fellowship.

Listen to the Deep Dive:

A creative fusion of Western chess and Xiangqi—play solo or with a friend. Designed in Fresno, California. Celebrating 23 years of Good Characters.

Great Power Chess blends the world of Western chess and Chinese Xiangqi into a single, unified battlefield. Each half of the board follows its own traditional rules—until pieces cross over, where they must adapt to a new system.

Western bishops lose their long diagonal range. Xiangqi cannons lose their leap. The queen moves like an elephant. The border is not just a line—it’s a shift in how the game is played.

This version is designed for thoughtful solo play or face-to-face fun with a friend. It’s more than a game—it’s a learning tool and a creative reinterpretation of two centuries-old traditions.

Features

• Combine Xiangqi and Western chess on one board  
• Unique rule crossover at the border  
• Solo or shared turn play — no strict order  
• Designed to encourage learning and experimentation  
• No ads, no tracking, just pure play  

Developed in Fresno, California, celebrating 23 years of Good Characters.

We’d love your feedback!

Great Power Chess (App Store) is a game that blends Western chess and Xiangqi (Chinese chess), with each side of the board following its own set of rules. When a piece crosses into the other half of the board, it must follow that side’s rules—and it can’t move in ways that don’t exist on the other side.

Most pieces must stop at the border before stepping into the opposite side. But there are a few exceptions: Western rooks and Xiangqi chariots can move straight across without stopping. Also, Xiangqi cannons can leap over a piece in their own territory to strike one on the other side—kind of like a cruise missile. However, once they land on the opposite side, they lose this jumping power and start behaving like rooks, since that’s the closest match on the Western side.

The Western queen also changes: after crossing, she can’t keep sweeping diagonally. Her movement becomes limited, like a Xiangqi elephant—two spaces diagonally and no further.

All Western pieces are allowed to cross the border. But in Xiangqi, five pieces—the general, two advisors, and two elephants—can’t travel abroad. They stay on their home turf.

This game is designed for you to play both sides yourself, or even better, with a friend sitting face to face—each person commanding a different side of the board. There’s no strict rule about whose turn comes next, just like when playing over a real board at home. That freedom also makes it a great learning tool. You can experiment, try out moves, and explore how the two systems interact.

If you have ideas or suggestions, I’d love your feedback so I can keep improving the game.

Have fun playing!

Western Pieces

• King: One square in any direction. Cannot cross the border.
• Queen: All directions. After crossing: Moves like a rook + elephant.
• Rook: Unlimited orthogonal movement. Can cross freely.
• Bishop: Unlimited diagonal movement. After crossing: Limited to two-diagonal, like an elephant.
• Knight: L-shape jump (2 + 1). Crosses only from the border row. After crossing: Moves like a Chinese horse (blocked if adjacent square is occupied).
• Pawn: One step forward (two at start), captures diagonally. After crossing: Can also move sideways.

Chinese Pieces

• General: One square orthogonal. Stays in 3×3 palace. No crossing.
• Advisor: One diagonal. Stays in palace. No crossing.
• Elephant: Two diagonals. Cannot cross or jump.
• Horse: One orthogonal + one diagonal (blocked if adjacent square occupied). Can cross only from border row.After crossing: Moves like a Western knight.
• Chariot: Unlimited orthogonal movement. Can cross freely.
• Cannon: Moves like a rook. Captures by jumping one piece. After crossing: Moves and captures like a rook.
• Soldier: One step forward. After crossing: Moves like a pawn.

Haiku Summary

East meets West midboard—
Lines are crossed, roles rearranged,
New rules shape the fight.

Great Power Chess Journal

Tuesday, April 29, 2025

I just found out that NotebookLM can now generate audio overviews in more than 50 languages. I’ve been really impressed with how well it handles English, so I couldn’t wait to try Chinese. Wow—it’s amazing! The Traditional Chinese audio has a Taiwanese accent, and the Simplified Chinese one sounds like someone from mainland China. I’m really impressed.

Listen to the Deep Dive (Mandarin with a Taiwanese accent and word choice):

Listen to the Deep Dive (Mandarin with a Mainland Chinese accent and word choice):

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

There was a little bump in downloads on Tuesday. 12 total, which is actually more than the first 3 days combined. I’m not sure what caused it. I hope it means people are starting to tell their friends. I’ll just have to wait and see.

I played a game with Tommy this evening, and he won! So there you go, the game’s not rigged. If both sides play well, either one can win.

Monday, April 21, 2025

So after 3 days, Great Power Chess has been downloaded 11 times—but that includes me, so really just 10. The downloads came from a few countries: mostly the U.S., and then one each from mainland China, Singapore, Taiwan, and Ukraine.

I shared the app announcement everywhere I could—Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Line, X, texted some friends, and posted on Hacker News, Bluesky, and Reddit (in the Chess Variants subreddit). Reddit said I got about 1.2k views, but everything else barely got any traction.

My email newsletter is scheduled to go out this evening, and I’m planning to post on Product Hunt tomorrow.

It really reminds me how the days are long gone when you could just launch an app and get thousands of downloads without doing much. There are so many apps now that it’s hard to get noticed. And I get it—my app is super niche, and it’s not the kind of thing that goes viral.

Right after I posted on Reddit, someone else shared a chess puzzle app with different levels and amazing animations. I’d love my app to have something like that one day. But for now, I’ve scratched my itch—I made the app, and that was the main thing I wanted to do.

It doesn’t seem like there’s much demand, so maybe I won’t spend too much more time on it. Still, I have a few fun ideas. One I’m toying with: what if each chess piece could be linked to a real person on X (Twitter), and every time you tap on a piece, it speaks one of their latest tweets? That could be fun, right?

I launched, shared, and watched.
A quiet ten crossed the board.
Noticed by a few.

Friday, April 18, 2025

Review of your submission has been completed. It is now eligible for distribution.
App Name: Great Power Chess

Thursday, April 17, 2025

Today I had someone who actually has a real chess rating playtest my app with me. Earlier in the morning, I fixed a bug with the pawn and added castling, so thankfully, no new bugs popped up during the session. He gave me an interesting idea about adding a timed mode, which I might try building later on.

This afternoon, I finally got the whole app together and submitted it to the App Store for review. I really hope it gets approved and I don’t have to go through that frustrating cycle of rejection, fixing, more rejection, and finally approval. The app’s going to be free—honestly, it’s not good enough that I think people would pay for it. It’s more of a personal itch I’ve wanted to scratch for years.

I’ve always thought about building a game like this, but life kept getting in the way. Now, with the help of AI, I was able to finish it—probably 10x faster than I could have before.

Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Today I got to test-play the chess game with three friends. None of them knew the rules of Chinese chess, so I ended up playing the Chinese side every time.

I’m testing to catch any bugs and to make sure the game isn’t unfair. One side shouldn’t be so overpowered that the other has no chance of winning.

With the first friend, I tried my best to win. During the game, he asked about castling. That’s when I realized I hadn’t implemented it yet—definitely something I need to fix.

The second friend was surprised to learn that the cannon on the Chinese side can jump over a piece to capture one on the Western side. He said, “This game is rigged!” and didn’t want to keep playing. I explained that the Chinese side has its disadvantages too. For example, five of its pieces can’t cross the border at all. I really want this game to be balanced enough that, even if the two sides aren’t exactly equal, both have a fair shot at winning with skill.

This game isn’t meant to be your grandfather’s chess. It’s designed to reflect the reality we live in. No two countries or sides have identical power. But that doesn’t mean the one with less power is destined to lose. That’s the idea behind blending West and East on the board.

The third friend was more thoughtful and curious, like the first. He also asked about castling, which reminded me again to add that feature. We also found a bug with how the pawn moves, so I’ll need to fix that too.

Finally, there’s one thing I want to improve in the user experience. Right now, if you tap a piece but change your mind, you have to tap it again to cancel before selecting another one. I know that in real chess, touching a piece means you must move it. But for this learning version, maybe I can code it so that if you tap another one of your own pieces, the app simply switches focus without needing to cancel the first.

Today’s takeaway: Fix the pawn bug, add castling, and test with more people.

Haiku Summary

Old rules meet the new,
Balance danced across the board—
Both sides earn their win.