📚 Xinwu Canbian — a Ming-dynasty endgame manual
Red to move. The two sides are almost perfectly balanced: each has a Rook, four Pawns and an Elephant; Red's only edge is a second Cannon against Black's one, and Red keeps an Advisor while Black has none. The classical manual Tâm Võ Tàn Biên concludes: draw. This position has not been verified by engine; the result follows the old book. The name is the idiom 'covering one's ears to steal a bell', from the Lã Thị Xuân Thu: the thief plugged his own ears and believed the whole village was deaf too. The story is told in this page's Anecdotes section. In your view, is one extra Cannon in such a balanced endgame a real advantage — or just a 'bell' that only Red can hear?
自分の耳を塞いだ泥棒――村中が耳が聞こえなくなったと信じた
彼は鐘の音で露見するのを恐れた。だから耳を固く塞ぎ、安心して槌を打ち続けた。ただ一つ、小さな問題があった。塞いだのは自分の耳――村中の耳は、槌の一打一打をはっきりと聞いていたのだ。 この話は『呂氏春秋』に語られている。晋の范氏は没落し、一人の庶民がその大鐘を見つけた。鐘は重すぎて運べないので、砕いて少しずつ持ち帰る計画を立てた。最初の一打が落ちた――鐘が鳴り響いた。人に聞かれて奪いに来られるのを恐れ、彼は自分の耳を固く塞ぎ、それから心安らかに槌を打ち続けた。 『呂氏春秋』そのものが原文の中で教訓を引いている。他人が聞くことを憎むのは理解できるが、自分が聞くことさえ憎むのは実に常軌を逸している、…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
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