📚 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?
蚯蚓が龍を降す――最弱の駒が最強の駒を縛るとき
ミミズがどうして龍を降せるというのでしょうか。ところがこの局面では、最初の一手から最後までその不条理が現実になります。紅の二枚の車は洪水の龍のように強大ですが、黒の小さな兵二枚に縛られ、雁字搦めにされるのです。「蚯蚓降龍（ミミズが龍を降す）」は、江湖四大名局の中で最も奇妙で、最も皮肉の効いた名前です。 盤上で最弱の駒が最強の駒を降す――古人はその比喩を名そのものに込めました。『竹香斎』では別名「尺蚓降龍（一寸の虫が龍を降す）」とも呼ばれます。本作は『百局象棋譜』の第93局で、古典の解析は33層もの変化に及び、本線の結論は引き分け。「止まる」「待つ」という、息をのむほど繊細な手を経てたどり着く…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
3ak4/4a4/4b4/9/2p6/5R2P/9/9/4p1p2/5K2R wOpen this position in the app: try it against the computer or watch the engines play it out.
▶ Play this studyLoad this position into the Setup editor: rearrange it, edit it and try your own variations.
🧩 Open in Setup