📚 Shiqing Yaqu — the famous Ming-dynasty collection of entertaining endgame compositions
Red to move — checkmate in 5, even though Black has almost twice the pieces: ten men, with both advisors and elephants, knight, chariot, two cannons. Red has just six — two chariots, two cannons, one pawn — but all six are aimed straight at Black's palace. Five moves is a breathlessly short window: either Red finishes the attack right here, or the storm passes and the material count takes over. The position, from Thích Tình Nhã Thú (game 174), borrows the "three enragings" of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms — Zhou Yu goaded to coughing blood in chapters 51, 54 and 56; the historical Zhou Yu was in fact a generous man, and the anecdote below distinguishes the two versions. Before the story, the challenge: which move opens the 5-move mate?
✓ Engine-verified — The Fairy-Stockfish engine (NNUE) confirms Red checkmates in 5 moves — the main line was checked move by move, every move legal. Date checked: 2026-11-03.
Thrice 'angered to death' — the real Zhou Yu was nothing like that
Three times Zhuge Liang provoked him, three times Zhou Yu raged — and the third time, the story says, he coughed blood and died, gasping that Heaven had made Liang to torment him. A satisfying legend. But what if the real Zhou Yu was the one man Zhuge Liang could never have rattled? The 'three…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
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