📚 Lanke Shenji — a Ming-dynasty endgame manual
Red to move — checkmate in 14, even though Black has nearly twice the material: eleven pieces, including two chariots, a knight, a cannon and five pawns, with the king screened by both elephants. Red has only six: two chariots, two cannons, one pawn. Fourteen moves is the longest road among the mating compositions here — Red cannot storm the tiger's mountain head-on; first, Black's king must be coaxed away from its defensive screen. That is precisely stratagem 15 of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, whose name this position — taken from Lạn Kha Thần Cơ — borrows. The principle behind the stratagem, and how it takes shape on the board, is told in the anecdote below. First the test of patience: can you stay the course for all 14 moves — and if not, at which move would you lose your way?
✓ Engine-verified — The Fairy-Stockfish engine (NNUE) confirms Red checkmates in 14 moves — the main line was checked move by move, every move legal. Date checked: 2026-11-03.
Luring the tiger from its mountain: stratagem fifteen
The tiger on its mountain cannot be beaten — there, every path, every ambush favours it. So the old stratagem books give a colder instruction: do not climb the mountain. Tempt the tiger down to level ground first. But what bait is strong enough to move a tiger? 'Lure the tiger from its mountain'…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
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