Red to move. Red's army looks crushing — two Rooks, a Knight, two Pawns and both Elephants — against Black's lone Rook, two Pawns and an intact palace guard. Generations of players took one look and concluded: Red wins for sure. That 'sure win' is exactly the trap: this is Dã Mã Tháo Cương, one of the Four Great Jianghu Compositions, and its verdict has been fought over for nearly 150 years. The earliest recorded form, in Tiêu Song Dật Phẩm (1879), ends in a draw. Later copyists added edge pawns — Trúc Hương Trai added a Red one, Bách Cục and Uyên Thâm Hải Khoát added a Black one too — and under those versions the verdict flips to a Black win, where modern engine research also leans. This dictionary records the position as disputed. The full story of the variants is in this page's Anecdotes section. Which verdict do you trust: the draw, or Black's win?
⚖ Disputed — A classic controversial position. The original diagram appears earliest in Tiêu Song Dật Phẩm (1879): the classical book records a DRAW, three independent transcriptions of the original diagram agree character for character, and the main lines replayed with an engine are all legal. Later books add edge Soldiers: Trúc Hương Trai adds one red edge Soldier, Bách Cục / Uyên Thâm Hải Khoát add a black edge Soldier as well — both of these variants are recorded as BLACK WINS in every modern transcription, and engine-era research likewise holds that Black wins instead of drawing. The standard version here is the original diagram 蕉窗逸品; the 'draw' result is per the classical book.
A Wild Horse Tramples the Field: The 'Sure Win' Illusion That Fooled Generations of Players
Two chariots, one horse, an attack like a storm — look at Da Ma Thao Cuong (Wild Horse Tramples the Field) and almost everyone concludes: Red wins for sure. That is exactly the mistake this position has used to trap players for centuries, and why it stands among the Four Great Jianghu Compositions…
Edited by the Folk Process: Remove One Pawn and a Game's Fate Changes
The Da Ma Thao Cuong (Wild Horse Tramples the Field) you play today is not quite the position the ancients left behind. Somewhere in its centuries of hand-to-hand transmission, anonymous players removed a single pawn — and that one pawn is the watershed between a Black win and a draw. According to…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
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