I know what you mean! Here's my comparative review in why I don't like xiangqi, told from the perspective of game flow:
Chess:
- Opening is quite exciting if it is a very open game, very tense in a very closed game (thinking about extremes here, obviously there are shades of grey)
- Middlegame is probably the most interesting part. As Sid Meier (designer of Civilisation) says, a game is a series of interesting decisions. The chess mid-game typifies this with all its possible divergences and alternative strategies that can be pursued.
- Endgame is actually kind of weak. It's often very anticlimactic (at least when most of the major/minor pieces are gone) and often highly 'idiomatic', or puzzle-y. There is a number of easily recognisable chess endgames, like the smothered mate or the B+Q+N attack. So it's relatively weak, because it (a) often ends in a similar way (b) is seriously anti-climactic compared to the previous phases and (c) suddenly feels a lot different, more like a puzzle game. It's like NetHack's Sokoban level (I can't believe people still play that awful game when you have Brogue and Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup!).
All in all, chess is the most balanced of the three between tactics and strategy (in board game lexicon, not chess lexicon).
Shogi (Japanese chess):
- Opening is probably the weakest part of the game. It's very slow and often difficult to understand how it develops, aside from the basic fianchetto of the shogi bishop. But the principles are probably a bit clearer than in chess.
- Middlegame is quite exciting, particularly in the interesting balance between attack and defence. Most interesting is how you have to manage your resources (captured pieces and time) to make a good balance between attack and defence.
- End game is amazing. The whole board suddenly gets full of pieces that each player has been saving up for the whole game. It's just really cathartic and feels awesome when you can pull off a checkmate with the last piece in your repository. This is what makes shogi shogi, and why it's so enjoyable. The conclusion is always satisfying and always feels different. In many ways, it's the Chess960 of games in the chess family: it's always a bit different each time, and that's what keeps it so fresh and playable.
Xiangqi (Chinese chess):
- Opening can be quite exciting, particularly if you're a patzer and make your cannon piece jump across the river in the first few moves. ;) Definitely a strong area of the game.
- Middlegame is a bit of a crawl due to slow piece movements. Unlike shogi, you cannot just birth new units on the board to speed things up. It's much more methodical and slow-paced. The whole atmosphere of the game generally discourages you from taking pieces, and it seems like everything is so, so well protected. I just can't imagine it ever being a spectacle as it's like the game is hardwired to make it difficult for the human aspect to shine through (hanging pieces, etc), which is what really makes all sports into spectacles.
- End game is seriously frustrating, because of the rule that the mayor and general cannot face each other. Furthermore, they are both surprisingly well protected, much like many pieces of the middlegame! Because of this, the endgame feels more idiomatic than chess. The slowness of this phase is unacceptable given the alternatives, and it's really a relic of ancient game design. Chess faces it to a much lesser extent and shogi was designed mostly by consensus (which is what makes it so elegant) in the 16th century instead of impromptu like this game was.
Alternatively:
Chess is football (very strict and different roles for each player/piece depending on type, not too aggressive),
Shogi is basketball (each piece type can fill many different roles, more bold),
Xiangqi is cricket (it's boring!).
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As for Go, a lot of chess players like it. It's a much more tactical game than anything in the chess family is, instead of being strategic (again, these are board game terms). So just remember, the two are not comparable, but they're fine games in their own right! :) The best place to play it online is
online-go.com/, which is in many ways inspired by lichess (and vice versa).
