📚 Shiqing Yaqu — the famous Ming-dynasty collection of entertaining endgame compositions
Red to move — checkmate in 11, even though Red has only seven pieces and not a single chariot among them. Red's two knights, two cannons and two pawns face thirteen Black pieces with both chariots and a full advisor–elephant guard. The machine has verified it: the 11-move mate is real, but the road is long and winding — one slip and Black's fortress stands firm. The name is the idiom 'Kết Thảo Hàm Hoàn' — grass tied, a ring held in the beak — binding two of the most moving tales of gratitude in the old culture: an old man who returned from death itself to repay a kindness, and a small bird that came back carrying four white jade rings. Both tales are told in full in the anecdote below. Your challenge: with no chariot at all, how do you walk the knights and cannons through all 11 moves?
✓ Engine-verified — The Fairy-Stockfish engine (NNUE) confirms Red checkmates in 11 moves — the main line was checked move by move, every move legal. Date checked: 2026-11-03.
結草・銜環――死を超えて返された二つの恩
老人が夢に現れ、跪いて礼を言い、消えた。少年に救われた傷ついた雀は、ある夜戻ってきた……白玉の環を四つくわえて。何世紀も隔たった二つの物語が、なぜ一つの成語として、そしてこの詰めの名として結びつくのか？ 「結草」は『左伝』（紀元前594年）に語られる。晋の将軍・魏顆は、父の臨終の命令に背いた。子を持たぬ父の妾を殉葬させる代わりに、彼女を嫁がせたのだ――意識がはっきりしていた頃の父の指示に従って。その後の輔氏の戦いで、見知らぬ老人が戦場の草を環のように結んだ。大国・秦の名将・杜回はまさにその草の環につまずき、生け捕りにされた。その夜、魏顆は老人の夢を見た。「私は、お前が嫁がせた女の父だ。恩に報…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
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