Breaking Up the Horizontal Alliance 计散连横

⚖ DisputedBook result: Red wins淵深海闊

📚 Yuanshen Haikua — a Qing-dynasty endgame manual

楚河漢界cotuong.synerworlds.com將炮俥士兵士象傌象砲俥車帥相馬馬卒車砲cotuong.synerworlds.com

This is one of the rare positions where the classical book and the computer argue openly. Red to move, both armies still large — Red has two chariots, two cannons, a knight; Black keeps both advisors and elephants, two knights, two chariots. The classical manual Uyên Thâm Hải Khoát (game 260) concludes: Red wins. But Fairy-Stockfish disagrees outright: by the machine's reckoning, Black checkmates Red in just 7 moves. One side has misread the whole position. The name comes from the Warring-States 'horizontal alliance' stratagem: Zhang Yi promised Chu 600 li of land to break its alliance with Qi, then delivered six. That diplomatic swindle — and the price Chu paid — is told below. A printed verdict that may itself be a '600-li promise': do you trust the old book or the machine — and can you work out which one is right?

⚖ Disputed — The Fairy-Stockfish engine (NNUE) overturns the classical book's result: Black checkmates Red in 7 moves — the main line was checked move by move, every move legal. Date checked: 2026-11-03.

📖 Anecdotes

600리를 약속하고 6리를 내주다: 한 나라에 땅을 잃게 한 외교 사기

진(秦)의 재상 장의는 초(楚)에 가서 회왕에게 약속했다. 제(齊)와 관계를 끊으면 진이 초에 땅 600리를 주겠다고. 땅에 욕심이 난 왕은 제와 절교했고, 사람을 보내 제왕을 모욕하기까지 했다. 그런데 초의 사신이 땅을 받으러 오자, 장의는 전혀 다른 숫자를 내놓았다. "6리 — 제 봉토입니다." 600리가 6리가 됐다. 그리고 초가 치른 대가는 굴욕에서 그치지 않았다. 그 '선물'의 실체는 무엇이었을까? 《사기》(70권, 장의 열전)와 《전국책》은 이렇게 전한다. 장의(기원전 373~310년)는 '연횡(連橫)' — 동쪽…

— Đội ngũ SynerWorlds

Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.

Source
淵深海闊 第260局
Book result
Red wins
Verification
⚖ Disputed
Side to move
Red to move
Difficulty
Hard
Red forces
King, Elephant, Horse, Chariot ×2, Cannon ×2, Pawn
Black forces
King, Advisor ×2, Elephant ×2, Horse ×2, Chariot ×2, Cannon, Pawn
FEN
4k3c/2R1a1P2/3ab1N2/9/2b6/4CR3/r8/3KB4/1nn1p3r/5C3 w
Transcribed from
xqipu.comdpxq.com

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Solution