📖 Articles
Guides, tips and news from the SynerWorlds games — read up, then play to practice.
🔍 Analysis — All
Ô Ăn Quan vs Mak Khom: One Mancala Family, Two Philosophies of Sowing
Vietnam's Ô Ăn Quan and Thailand's Mak Khom (หมากขุม) sow seeds into stores the same way but differ on everything else: free vs fixed sowing direction, forward chain captures vs the sideways kin thaen, a reseed tax vs a game-ending sweep — and which skills transfer.
Rook, Cannon, Horse: the same pieces, different logic in Xiangqi and Chess
The Chariot moves identically, the Cannon exists in only one game and captures over a screen, the Horse traces the same L but can be hobbled — a quick translation between the two games.
Xiangqi Skills That Make You Better at Chess (and Back Again)
X-rays and batteries learned from the Cannon, blocking-square calculation from the hobbled Horse, rook endgames, planning from chess — the skills that genuinely transfer between the two games.
7 Mistakes Chess Players Make When Switching to Xiangqi
Cannons need screens, Horses get hobbled, generals fly, and running out of moves loses — seven habits that are right in chess and wrong in xiangqi, and how to retrain them.