📚 Xinwu Canbian — a Ming-dynasty endgame manual
Red to move with a mere five pieces — two chariots, one cannon, one pawn — already deep inside enemy territory, while Black holds twelve pieces, four pawns among them, and a full advisor–elephant guard around the palace. For all that disparity, Tâm Võ Tàn Biên still concludes: draw. The name recalls “Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage” — Liu Bei calling three times at the hut of Zhuge Liang. Unusually, Zhuge Liang himself recorded the episode in his own words in the Xuất Sư Biểu of 227, quoted in the anecdote below. Patience that knocks three times at a cottage door, and patience that holds a losing-looking position — the two stories meet in a single virtue. As Red, would you have the patience to see this one through?
Three visits to a thatched hut — in Zhuge Liang's own words
A warlord came three times to a poor scholar's thatched cottage, and twice found him out — or asleep. On the third visit he waited. The scholar who finally emerged would reshape an empire's fate. Rare for a legend, this one was written down by the scholar himself. What exactly did he say? In his…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
4k4/rr2a4/5a3/4p1RCR/2b6/9/4P4/6n2/3pp1p2/c4K3 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