📚 Baiju Xiangqi Pu — one hundred selected positions, Qing dynasty
Red to move. Red has the two mightiest pieces on the board — both Rooks — plus a single Pawn. Black has no rook at all: three Pawns, two Advisors and an Elephant, a little fortress. And the classical books say the dragons lose: the two Rooks cannot break through, and the verdict is a draw. An earthworm subdues a dragon — the weakest pieces tying down the strongest. Position 93 of Bách Cục Tượng Kỳ Phổ (also in Trúc Hương Trai, where it is named Xích Dẫn Hàng Long, and in Tâm Võ Tàn Biên), this is one of the Four Great Jianghu Compositions. It has not been verified by engine; the result follows the old books. The story of the earthworm and the dragon is in this page's Anecdotes section. If you held the two Rooks, where would you even begin against that fortress?
An Earthworm Subdues a Dragon: When the Weakest Piece Ties Down the Strongest
An earthworm — how could it ever subdue a dragon? Yet in this position the absurd happens from the first move to the last: Red's two mighty chariots, strong as flood-dragons, are tied down and shackled by two tiny Black pawns. Khau Dan Hang Long — "earthworm subdues the dragon" — has the strangest,…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
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