📖 As recorded in the classical booksBook result: Draw百局象棋谱
📚 Baiju Xiangqi Pu — one hundred selected positions, Qing dynasty
Red to move. Exactly seven pieces stand on each side — the 'seven stars' of the name. Red: two Rooks, a Cannon and three Pawns. Black: one Rook, one Elephant and four Pawns. Red is a whole rook up, yet for over 200 years the classical books have concluded: draw. Red must first survive a forced sacrificial sequence at the start, and the main line runs 85 moves with long manoeuvring stretches before the honours are shared.
Thất Tinh Tụ Hội, recorded in Bách Cục Tượng Kỳ Phổ and several other manuals, is hailed as the 'king of endgame compositions' and stands at the head of the Four Great Jianghu Compositions. It has not been verified by engine; the result follows the old books. The Anecdotes section tells how it has defied the world for two centuries. A rook up and still only a draw — where do you think Red's win slips away?