Essentials of Modern Openings

ESSENTIALS OF MODERN OPENINGS

A 47-study Xiangqi opening manual from the era that built modern theory. 1,947 half moves, 475 annotations in Chinese, English and Vietnamese, a hands-on Learn mode, and a neural network engine. Offline.

COUNT THE TITLES FIRST

The character 炮, cannon, appears in all 47 study titles, 73 times over. 马, horse, appears in 34. 车, chariot, in only 24.

Now count the annotations. Across the 475 notes, 车 appears 1,252 times, 炮 810, 马 646.

That is the whole book in miniature. The cannon asks the question: central cannon, five six cannons, five seven cannons. The horse answers it: screen horses, reversed palace horses, edge horse. Then the chariots decide it, which is why they barely appear in the titles yet dominate the commentary.

Classical manuals gave a formation and a verdict. This one gives the argument.

NOT GAMES, AND NO TITLE PAGE

No player names, no results, no dates. Each study starts from the standard array, runs 12 to 60 half moves, then stops: the opening is over and a verdict is given.

The records carry no author or year, and we would rather say so than invent one. But a printed book stands behind them. Forty of the 47 open with the transcriber's note 原谱为炮八平五, the original had Cannon 8 to 5, mirrored here. The seven without it are exactly the seven opening with a pawn, which had no cannon to mirror. Another note sends you to Yang Guanlin's 《象棋春秋》, proving the compiler is not Yang Guanlin.

DATED FROM ITS OWN PAGES

Thirty seven notes cite a real tournament game, with players, event and city. Fifteen years appear, 1962 through 1989, nothing later. The latest, from September 1989, even reports what the commentators said afterwards. Sixteen notes say 近年来, of recent years. The 1990s are never mentioned.

WHO INVENTED WHAT

Thirty three notes stop to say a move is new. Nineteen players are named across 51 notes. Hu Ronghua appears in 26, more than the next two combined, from his 1966 innovation that beat Li Yiting to the 1987 National Games move he prepared 卧薪尝胆, sleeping on brushwood and tasting gall. The five six cannons are credited to Zhao Guorong, Wang Jialiang and the Heilongjiang players, dated to April 1980.

One note tells you what a manual is for. Of a 1974 elephant move: players took no notice at the time, Shanghai studied it for years, and it is now a popular variation.

COUNTED FROM THE DATABASE

• 47 studies, all from the standard array. Median 42 half moves.


• 1,947 half moves on the boards, plus 2,701 more written out inside the notes: thirty nine per cent more chess in the margins.


• 475 annotated points, and all 47 titles, in three languages.


• 29 codes across four of the five volumes. Volume A never appears: no flank openings, no opposed cannons.


• Screen Horses 15 studies, Reversed Palace Horses 15, Same-Direction Cannons 10, Immortal Points the Way 7. The two main defences get exactly equal room, which no classical compiler allowed.


• 红优 Red is better in 46 notes, 先手 the initiative in 35, 黑优 Black is better in 17, 均势 level in 17.


• A note every 4.1 half moves.

HOW YOU STUDY IT

• Browse and replay. Four dropdowns, then step a half move at a time.


• Learn. Nothing moves by itself. You play both sides by hand, with optional arrows for the book moves.


• Go off book. Play a move the compiler did not print, explore, then return.


• Ask the engine. Full-strength NNUE from any position, no network call.

SETTINGS

• English, Vietnamese or Chinese across titles and all 475 notes.


• Thirteen board sizes, 1.0x to 2.2x, and thirty five board themes.


• Six study-board themes, five highlight colours, five board fonts, light or dark.

推陈出新。
Bring forth the new out of the old.

Genuinely offline. No account, no ads, no tracking, no permissions.