📖 As recorded in the classical booksBook result: Red wins淵深海闊
📚 Yuanshen Haikua — a Qing-dynasty endgame manual
At first glance, this is a rare position where Red has more pieces: two chariots, one cannon and a pair of elephants against a bare Black king with no advisors and no elephants, only two chariots and one pawn. But those two Black chariots have burrowed deep into Red's own camp — victory is not yet in hand, because one careless moment lets Black harass without end. The position is no. 43 of Uyên Thâm Hải Khoát; the old book concludes that Red wins, and it has not yet been verified by machine. The name does not commemorate the famous assassination itself, but the moment before it: Jing Ke crossing the Yi River in 227 BC — the crossing from which there was no way back, retold in the anecdote below. Can you finish this position as cleanly as the old book promises?