📚 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.
虎を山から誘い出す――三十六計の第十五計
山の上の虎は倒せません。そこではあらゆる道、あらゆる伏兵が虎の味方です。そこで古い計略の書は、より冷たい指示を与えます。山に登るな。まず虎を平地に誘い出せ、と。しかし虎を動かすほどの餌とは何でしょうか？ 「虎を山から誘い出す（調虎離山）」は三十六計の第十五計であり、そのテキストが明・清代に形を成した古典的な目録です。その根は、漢の官吏兪詡が、より強い敵を前に、自分たちに有利な地形を拒んだ故事のような話にまでさかのぼります。原則は決して変わりません。敵の強さは、しばしば本人ではなくその位置に属しているのです。 本作は棋譜『爛柯神機』に由来し、古典作品には珍しく完全に検証されています。紅は14…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
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