Xiangqi Opening Deceptions

XIANGQI OPENING DECEPTIONS AND COUNTERMEASURES

The classic opening course by Yan Wenqing and Zhang Qiang: 85 lessons that spring a trap, show the natural answers that fall into it, then show how to beat it, plus 12 master games. Every note in Chinese, English and Vietnamese, with a built-in NNUE engine. Offline.

On his sixth move Red leaves a Horse to be taken for nothing. It is the oldest trap in Xiangqi, the Sacrifice of the Horse in Thirteen Moves, printed in The Secret in the Orange in 1632. Take the Horse and you are mated by Red's thirteenth move. Refuse it, and Red's attack is gone. That is how this book teaches: first the trap, then the way out.

THE BOOK

Opening Deceptions and Countermeasures was published in Beijing in 1999, the second book of a celebrated opening trilogy. Its original description says the authors also discussed deceptions with fans on CCTV's Xiangqi World. It was reissued in 2017 as Xiangqi Grandmasters Teach the Opening. "Often imitated, never surpassed," wrote world champion You Yingqin.

THE AUTHORS

• Yan Wenqing, the "opening expert" of Hebei: International Grandmaster, World Championship team gold and individual silver in 1999, later Hebei head coach.


• Zhang Qiang, head coach of Beijing from 1995, trainer of Jiang Chuan and Tang Dan, presenter on CCTV, Grandmaster in 2012.

HOW EVERY LESSON WORKS

Each lesson plays a standard opening to the moment of the trick, then shows two, three or four answers. The greedy capture and the automatic book move come first, played out until the trap closes. Then the countermeasure. Then a short summary in the authors' own words: 85 of them, a handbook in themselves.

NINE CHAPTERS AND AN APPENDIX

• Same Direction Cannons, 10 lessons


• Central Cannon against the Screen Horses, 24 lessons


• Central Cannon against the Opposite Direction Cannons, 7 lessons


• Central Cannon against the Reversed Palace Horses, 6 lessons


• Central Cannon against other defences, 9 lessons


• Immortal Points the Way, 10 lessons


• The Elephant opening, 6 lessons


• Other openings, 3 lessons


• Rare openings: Stacked Cannons, Turtle Back, Mandarin Duck and Golden Hook Cannons, 10 lessons


• Appendix: 12 master games, 1982 to 1998

TRAPS AT THE TOP

Hu Ronghua sees through a prepared trick, and years later has his own trick refuted. Lü Qin, losing to Zhao Guorong, plants a "time bomb" and wins. The young Xu Yinchuan springs a deception on Macau's Feng Qixing. And Yan Wenqing himself beats Liu Dahua in 116 half moves.

WORDS TO KEEP

"If your opponent has prepared an unexpected gift for you, do not pocket it in passing, as though pies fell from the sky. To think three times before you act is always right."

INSIDE THE APP

• 97 records: 75 standard-opening lessons, 10 rare-opening lessons, 12 master games.


• 5,656 half moves, including 168 side lines: every answer to every trap.


• 1,831 notes, over 85,000 Chinese characters, in Chinese, English and Vietnamese.


• 70 opening codes from all five ECCO volumes.


• Replay with notes at every key move.


• Learn: play both sides by hand. Stop at the diagram: bait or countermeasure?


• Go off book: try your own answer, then jump back.


• Ask the engine: full strength NNUE, on your device.


• Three languages, 13 board sizes, 35 board themes, 6 study themes, 5 fonts, light or dark.

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