📚 Yuanshen Haikua — a Qing-dynasty endgame manual
Red to move, and Red holds the bigger army — two chariots, two cannons and a solid row of five pawns — yet the old book concludes only: draw. The name explains the trap: Black's smaller force is curled into one compact block, and every Red attack runs into a siege wall built in reverse. “An Ambush from Ten Sides” names the classic encirclement at Gaixia in 202 BC, where Xiang Yu heard the songs of his homeland Chu rising from all four sides in the night and understood that Chu was already lost. The anecdote below retells that night — and what broke an army before the battle had even begun. The position is no. 174 of Uyên Thâm Hải Khoát, one of the four great classical endgame manuals. Can you find any way to break this balance — or is a draw the only possible ending?
十面の伏兵――楚の歌が項羽を取り囲んだ夜
垓下に追い詰められた軍が、闇の中で恐ろしいものを聞きました。四方八方から、故郷の民謡が聞こえてきたのです。韓信の伏兵は刃が抜かれる前に完成していました。その音自体が、項羽の兵士たちに故郷はすでに落ちたと告げていたのです。それはどんな武器なのでしょうか？ 『史記』は紀元前202年の垓下の最期を淡々と記録します。韓信の軍が項羽を「十面」で包囲し、夜になると包囲軍は四方で楚の歌を歌いました。それを聞いた項羽は、楚はすでに失われたのだと叫び、最後の突撃を前に軍の意志は砕けました。その後の最後の抵抗と烏江での死が続きます。 この言葉は戦いを生き延びました。「十面埋伏」は後に中国音楽で最も有名な琵琶曲…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
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