📚 Shiqing Yaqu — the famous Ming-dynasty collection of entertaining endgame compositions
Red to move — checkmate in 12, machine-verified. This is a long siege, not a lightning strike: Red has the larger force — two chariots, two knights, a full advisor–elephant set — but no cannon; Black has a cannon, two knights and a chariot, and a king with room to slip away. Twelve moves, each tightening the net a little more — exactly the strategy carried in the position's name. The position is preserved in Thích Tình Nhã Thú (game 46). 'Viễn giao cận công' — befriend the distant, attack the near — was the maxim of Phạm Thư, a man beaten half to death on a false charge of treason, who fled into enemy country under a borrowed name and rose to become Qin's chancellor. His full saying and his road there are told in the anecdote below. On this board: do you have the patience to 'swallow it inch by inch' through all 12 moves?
✓ Engine-verified — The Fairy-Stockfish engine (NNUE) confirms Red checkmates in 12 moves — the main line was checked move by move, every move legal. Date checked: 2026-11-03.
'Every Inch Gained Is the King's Inch': The Strategy That Swallowed an Empire in One Sentence
A strategist was beaten nearly to death on a false charge of treason and fled to an enemy state under a false name. Years later, that same man sat in the chancellor's seat, and one sentence of his became the national strategy that led Qin to unify China. What was that sentence? The man was Fan Ju,…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
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