Secrets of Horse Odds

SECRETS OF HORSE ODDS

A Xiangqi collection in which you are never winning on material and you win every game. 59 complete games at odds of one and two horses, compiled by the Hong Kong master Li Zhihai. Chinese, English and Vietnamese, a hands-on Learn mode, a neural network engine on your device. Offline.

THE PREMISE

In forty of these games Red starts with both horses lifted off the board; in the other nineteen, with one horse. Red moves first every time and makes the last move every time. Fifty six records close with the characters 红胜, Red wins, the other three with a written verdict in Red's favour.

The Chinese title is 饶单双马局秘诀, the Secrets of Games at Odds of One and Two Horses. It answers the only question left once the horses are gone: how do you win with a crippled army?

THE HEAVIEST HANDICAP IN THE GAME

A horse is worth four pawns, and for three centuries two-horse odds was how a master was measured. An old boast runs:

逢人让双马，知己让单车。
To any comer, give two horses. To a friend who knows your game, give a single chariot.

What makes it fair is 铁兵, the iron pawn: the central pawn of the side giving odds cannot be taken while it has not moved, unless the capture gives check. Watch it operate here. Red's central pawn never moves at all in 46 of the 59 games, and Black takes it in only 8. The same weapons appear in the odds class of the 1632 classic 橘中秘, 350 years earlier, in the same order.

THE COMPILER

All 59 records carry one name: 李志海, Li Zhihai, born 1929 in Xinhui, Guangdong. In Hong Kong he shared a house with 杨官璘, Yang Guanlin, the first national champion of the People's Republic; their joint book of October 1950 holds a chapter called 饶单双马取局法, Methods of Winning at Odds of One and Two Horses. In July 1953, aged twenty four, Li played four nights in Singapore against the three best local players: eight games, eight wins.

ONE CLEAN IDEA

Every move of all 59 games was replayed and checked; no illegal move was found. With one horse gone you play orthodox chess: Red plays the central cannon 炮二平五 in 19 of 19 single-horse games and brings the surviving horse to its proper square in 19 of 19. With two gone that is unavailable: Red opens with the central cannon zero times in 40 games. What replaces it is the chariot lift 车一进一 in 29 and the river cannon 炮二进二 in 11.

COUNTED FROM THE DATABASE

• 59 complete games, all from the opening array with Red's horses removed.


• 2,721 half moves, 565 captures, 21 to 97 moves per game, median 45.


• 17 end in genuine checkmate, verified by generating every legal reply and finding none. In 14 of those, Red is still behind on material at the moment of mate.


• 13 annotations and all 59 titles, each in Chinese, English and Vietnamese.

Thirteen notes is not a commentary, and we would rather say so. This is a collection in the old style, where the moves make the argument. What makes it worth having is what print never could: a full strength NNUE engine on your own device, so when you cannot see why Red is winning, one button gives an evaluation and a best move.

HOW YOU STUDY IT

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


• Learn. A board where nothing moves by itself. Play both sides by hand, with optional arrows for the book move.


• Go off book. Play a move Li Zhihai did not, explore, then return to where you left.


• Ask the engine. Full strength from any position, on book or off. No network call.

SETTINGS

English, Vietnamese or Chinese throughout, the Vietnamese using the terms players really use: Chap Hai Ma, Tuan Ha Phao, Hoanh Xa, Don De Ma. 13 board sizes, 35 board themes, 6 study-board themes with 5 highlight colours, 5 fonts, light or dark.

PRIVACY

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