📚 Lanke Shenji — a Ming-dynasty endgame manual
Red to move and checkmate in 8. The sides are almost even: Red has two Rooks, a Knight, a Cannon and a Pawn; Black two Rooks, a Knight, two Cannons and a Pawn — Black even has the extra Cannon, Red the extra Advisor. This position is not decided by numbers but by direction: make a loud show in one place, strike in another. The position, from the classical manual Lạn Kha Thần Cơ, bears the name of the sixth of the Thirty-Six Stratagems — 'make a noise in the east, strike in the west' — whose classical example is Chu Tuấn's siege of Uyển Thành in 184. The story is told in this page's Anecdotes section. In your view, on which wing will Red 'make the noise' to cover the decisive blow landing on the other?
✓ Engine-verified — The Fairy-Stockfish engine (NNUE) confirms Red checkmates in 8 moves — the main line was checked move by move, every move legal. Date checked: 2026-11-03.
Drums beaten loud in the south-west — while 5,000 men slipped into the city from the north-east
Drums thundered in the south-west, and the enemy massed to the south-west — while 5,000 elite troops quietly climbed into the city from the north-east. That is "Make a Sound in the East, Strike in the West", Stratagem 6 of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, and the book of the 36 stratagems itself gives…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
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