Although I dabbled in my youth, I’m pretty much a post-Queen’s Gambit chess player. I’ve really gotten into it over the past few years, although I’m still at around 1000 ELO (Daily), so just thought I’d provide a bit of info on the scene in Taiwan and some useful vocab in Mandarin.
Most of my interactions have been online, but there are some meet-ups in Taipei, also happy to play over-the-board with anyone in and around Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall over lunch times.
If you want to play for Taiwan, you can join Team Taiwan on Chess.com (you can only play for one country at a time, but they’re flexible about the flag displayed in your profile). Also, feel free to add me and play me.
Although Xiangqi (象棋) is more popular here, there is a growing community of chess players too, including stand-up comic, presenter and podcaster Brian Tseng. He’s yet to disclose his Chess.com username, but he’s mentioned chess a good few times in his podcast, particularly in the King’s Gambit (王翼棄兵) episode, where he talks about applying the lessons of chess to everyday life.
You can find some cool stickers on Instagram, by searching for “rvdtor.”
You can also follow the progress of World Chess Champion Ding Liren (丁立人) on Weibo, although he seems to be playing less these days. And check out this Taichung-based chess YouTuber!
Chess Vocab:
西洋棋 xīyángqí chess
棋盤 qípán chess board
一盤棋 yīpánqí a game of chess
下棋 xiàqí to play chess
下一步棋 xiàyībùqí to make a chess move
隻 zhī measure word for piece
國王 guówáng king
皇后 huánghòu queen
主教 zhǔjiào bishop
馬 / 小馬 / 騎士 mǎ / xiǎomǎ / qíshì knight
城堡 chéngbǎo rook/castle
斜線 xiéxiàn diagonals (measure word: 條 tiáo)
兵 / 小兵 bīng / xiǎobīng pawn
黑格 hēigé black square
白格 báigé white square
黑 / 白格主教 hēi / báigé zhǔjiào black / white-square bishop
吃 / 敲 chī / qiāo to take (a piece)
翻騎士 fānqíshì to move a knight
