Our Review:

Qianhong is a remarkably user-friendly chinese chess program recommended for anyone new to the game. You can opt for alternative board designs (in scalable sizes to suit your screen) and select Western-style chessmen. A complete Help manual is included.

To familiarize yourself with the game, you may find it useful to watch the computer play itself. When you decide to join in, Qianhong can give you hints for your next move, or allow you to undo and redo moves in case you make a mistake. Opening and saving games in txt or icc file format are supported while opening-book and end-game resources are also available.

Qianhong installs with a relatively weak built-in engine, which you may find fun to play against if you’re just starting out. However, you can also install a selection of stronger third-party engines, provided as plug-ins.

A particularly versatile and popular one is ElephantEye, and this can be set to six levels of strength ranging from ‘Beginner’ to ‘Overwhelming’. If you get to beat ElephantEye at the fifth level, you’ll have reached Grand Master level.