Two Dragonflies Skim the Water 双蜓点水

✓ Engine-verifiedBook result: Red winsMate in 4適情雅趣

📚 Shiqing Yaqu — the famous Ming-dynasty collection of entertaining endgame compositions

Puzzle 84 of Thích Tình Nhã Thú shows what light forces can do: Red has only two horses, a cannon and a pawn, while Black is down to a general with a few scattered pieces. A horse opens with check, the pawn steps up to check in turn, and the two horses close the net with mate on move four. No sacrifice is needed — just precise cooperation between horse and pawn right at the palace door. A short, clear study for beginners learning the horse-and-pawn mating pattern.

✓ Engine-verified — Two independent source transcriptions agree character for character; the Pikafish engine confirms Red checkmates in 4 moves.

Source: 適情雅趣第84局
Book result: Red wins
Verification: ✓ Engine-verified
Side to move: Red to move
Difficulty: Easy
Red forces: King, Horse ×2, Cannon, Pawn
Black forces: King, Elephant, Horse, Pawn ×3
FEN: 1C3k3/1N2P4/1nN1b4/9/9/9/9/4p4/3p1p3/4K4 w
Transcribed from: GitHub · kuiba1949/xiangqi-toolsGitHub · yingwang/chinese_chess_mobile

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Solution

1.Red Horse 2,2→3,0Black Elephant 4,2→2,0
2.Red Pawn 4,1→5,1Black King 5,0→4,0
3.Red Horse 3,0→2,2Black Elephant 2,0→4,2
4.Red Horse 1,1→3,2

Solution

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