Righteously Releasing at Huarong 义释华容

📖 As recorded in the classical booksBook result: Draw心武残编

📚 Xinwu Canbian — a Ming-dynasty endgame manual

楚河漢界cotuong.synerworlds.com將兵士象車兵炮俥兵車傌俥砲卒帥仕卒仕cotuong.synerworlds.com

The two sides are almost perfectly matched: Red has two chariots, a knight, a cannon and three pawns; Black also has two chariots and a cannon, with advisors and elephants guarding the palace and two pawns. Neither side owns a finishing blow, neither will give ground — and the classical manual Tâm Võ Tàn Biên concludes exactly that: draw. It is pure deadlock, where everything turns on a single careless move. The name retells Guan Yu's interception at the Huarong path after Red Cliffs in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms — the most famous release of a captured foe in the novel — and a fictional one: the histories record no such scene. Why did Zhuge Liang, who foresaw it all, send precisely Guan Yu? The answer is in the anecdote below. On this board: if you had to pick one side to play for a win, which would you choose — and why?

📖 Anecdotes

화용도에서 관우는 칼을 들었다 — 그리고 조조를 놓아주었다

적벽대전 뒤, 패배한 조조는 화용도를 따라 달아났다 — 칼로 죽이겠다는 군령장에 서명까지 한 관우가 매복해 기다리는 길로 곧장 들어간 셈이었다. 하지만 관우는 조조에게 깊은 은혜를 빚진 몸이었다. 과연 칼이 떨어질까, 아니면 은혜가 이길까? 《삼국지연의》 제50회에서 제갈량은 바로 일이 이렇게 될 줄 알기에 일부러 관우를 보낸다. 관우는 조조가 한때 자신을 얼마나 후하게 대했는지 떠올리고, 칼을 내린 채 옛 은인을 지나가게 하며, 스스로 서명한 군령에 따른 처벌을 받아들인다. 소설 전체에서 의리와 은혜가 가장 유명하게 충돌하는…

— Đội ngũ SynerWorlds

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

Source
心武残编
Book result
Draw
Verification
📖 As recorded in the classical books
Side to move
Red to move
Difficulty
Hard
Red forces
King, Advisor ×2, Horse, Chariot ×2, Cannon, Pawn ×3
Black forces
King, Advisor, Elephant, Chariot ×2, Cannon, Pawn ×2
FEN
3k5/P3a4/b2r2P1c/9/9/3R5/4P4/4r1NRC/1p1KAp3/3A5 w

Open this position in the app: try it against the computer or watch the engines play it out.

▶ Play this study

Load this position into the Setup editor: rearrange it, edit it and try your own variations.

🧩 Open in Setup