📚 Shiqing Yaqu — the famous Ming-dynasty collection of entertaining endgame compositions
Red to move — and this time the machine has confirmed it: Red checkmates in exactly 6 moves. The two armies are nearly level, and Black still has both elephants and a pawn already across the river, so that number 6 is anything but obvious; it demands that every move land with the precision of an examination. “Examination” is the very soul of the name: “Pointing at a Deer and Calling It a Horse” was Chancellor Zhao Gao's brutal loyalty test at the Qin court, retold in the anecdote below; the position is preserved in Thích Tình Nhã Thú. On the board, too, every Black reply is an answer given under compulsion. Can you pass this six-move test without missing a single beat?
✓ Engine-verified — The Fairy-Stockfish engine (NNUE) confirms Red checkmates in 6 moves — the main line was checked move by move, every move legal. Date checked: 2026-11-03.
Calling a deer a horse: history's cruellest loyalty test
Chancellor Zhao Gao led a deer into court and presented it to the emperor: 'This is a horse.' The emperor laughed: 'The chancellor must be mistaken — that is a deer.' Zhao Gao turned and asked the whole court. Few guessed that each official's answer that day would decide his own life. Why was such…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
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