Seven Stars
In 1916 a Dane, Charles Kliene (1867-1952) translated the Seven Stars, a famous end-game from an ancient Xiangqi book and the first Xiangqi manual published with widespread appeal in the west.
The regular players of Chess in public are the Pai-ch’i-shih-ti. They are the professionals who, provided with a collapsible table, a couple of bamboo stools, a chessboard drawn on a flimsy sheet of paper, and a cheap set of men, as their stock-in-trade, eke out a livelihood at street corners, in tea-houses and in temple-yards where people congregate on feast days, by challenging the whole world. They offer the choice of sides and the first move, and for a small wager will nine times in ten beat anyone who cares to take up the gauntlet.
Front Matter
SEVEN STARS
A Chinese Chess Ending
With Three Hundred Variations
Arranged by
CHARLES KLIENE, F.R.G.S.
Chinese Customs Service
Constellations
The diagram of the starting position is intended to represent a part of the firmament in which two constellations of seven "stars" each are shown in juxtaposition. The space running between the two camps, Red and Black, usually called the river is here a representation of the Milky Way.
If Black were to play, the central pawn move checkmates Red instantly. As this central pawn can not be captured, Red's only defense is to check Black immediately.
Red to play.
Preliminary Movements: 9 variations
As an introduction to the many ramifications of the Seven Stars, here are a few short variant games which quickly conclude in a checkmate.
(Click on the move in the tree representation of the variants below, to play it on the associated board. The move indicated in the tree is the one opening the variant. The color of the text indicates if it ends in a win for Red or Black. More information on move notation may be found here.)
The Grand Tournament
The main line of play studied by Charles Kliene is titled The Grand Tournament and ends up in a draw with seven men left on the board, from the starting position with seven on each side.
References
Xiangqi boards and games are displayed with xiangqiboard.js under the MIT License.
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