The Counter-Palace Horse

A cannon between the horses

The defence is Black's three moves in the line 炮二平五 (C2=5) 马2进3 (H2+3), 马二进三 (H2+3) 炮8平6 (C8=6), 车一平二 (R1=2) 马8进7 (H8+7). It is one of the four great defences, the four common openings that the second player usually chooses against the central cannon.

On the board, the horse on c7 guards the soldier on e6 through its leg on d7. The cannon moves from h7 to f7, a corner of Black's palace, and once the second horse reaches g7, the cannon stands between the two horses. From f7 it also guards the other cannon on b7, with the horse on c7 as the screen.

This shape has a price. The cannon on f7 stands on the leg of the horse on g7, so that horse cannot guard e6, and the horse on c7 is the soldier's only guard. Keep that in mind whenever you think about moving it.

The most played line, move by move

The walkthrough plays the archive's most played twelve-move line of the counter-palace horse, which 190 games follow. Its first eight moves are the line of the first card below, the five-six cannons, in which Red's second cannon comes to d2 beside the central cannon. Step through it slowly, and before you read each note, ask yourself what the piece that moved is guarding or attacking.

Black builds the defence in its first three moves while Red brings out the right horse and chariot. When the chariot reaches h0, it attacks the horse still on h9, and that horse comes out to g7.

Next, Black's chariot moves to b9, Red's left horse comes out to c2 and Black's cannon goes to the edge at a7. Both sides then push a soldier, Red from c3 to c4 and Black from g6 to g5. Each push opens a way forward for a horse, Red's on c2 and Black's on g7.

What does Red play next?

Once Black has played 马8进7 (H8+7), the defence is complete and the choice passes to Red. The board starts from that position and shows the three moves Red played most often there, 兵三进一 (P3+1), 炮八平六 (C8=6) and 兵七进一 (P7+1), each with its share of the 1,123 games that reached it.

Each card below follows one of these moves into a named line from the archive. The first plays 炮八平六, the five-six cannons; the second plays 兵三进一, which leads to the five-seven cannons; and the third plays 兵七进一. The figures on each card show how the line has scored for each side.

What kind of defence is it?

The counter-palace horse is a solid defence that still keeps some chances to counter-attack. It suits you if you like to make your position safe first and look for play later.

Its other name, 夹炮屏风 (jiapao pingfeng), means a screen with a cannon between. You can see why on the board in the first section, where the cannon on f7 stands between the horses on c7 and g7.

The ECCO, a code list of xiangqi openings, gives each of Red's systems against the defence its own codes: the central cannon against the counter-palace horse takes B30 to B36, the five-six cannons against it B40 to B45, and the five-seven cannons against it B50 to B56. The walkthrough belongs to the five-six cannons, since Red's 炮八平六 (C8=6) puts the second cannon on d2, the sixth file.

Common mistakes

A common slip is moving the horse on c7 a second time. Because the cannon on f7 blocks the horse on g7, the horse on c7 is the only guard of the soldier on e6. Once it moves, Red's central cannon is aimed at an unguarded soldier, and your cannon on f7 loses the screen it uses to guard the other cannon. In the walkthrough no Black piece moves twice, and that is a good habit to copy.

Leaving the second horse on h9 too long causes a different problem. After 炮8平6 (C8=6) both cannons have left the h-file, so Red's 车一平二 (R1=2) puts a chariot on h0 that attacks the horse. The chariot on i9 guards it, but only by staying in the corner, so neither piece takes part in the game. The walkthrough answers at once with 马8进7 (H8+7), which moves the horse out of the attack and completes the defence.

Finally, do not take a soldier only because a cannon attacks it. In the walkthrough Black's cannon on a7 aims at the soldier on a3, but Red's horse on c2 and chariot on a0 both guard it, so the capture would give up a cannon for a soldier. The same holds for Red: while the horse on c7 guards e6, the central cannon cannot take that soldier for free. In the opening, use your moves to bring pieces out and leave the soldiers alone.

The counter-palace horse in the archive

In the 1,928 games with the counter-palace horse, Red won 37%, Black 29%, and 34% were drawn. Across all 29,164 games between human players in the archive, Red wins 37% and 36% end in a draw, so you can set the defence against the average game. Games with the counter-palace horse last 44 moves on average.

As Black, Hu Ronghua played the defence in the most games, 120, and Lü Qin has the best score with it, 67.6% from 37 games. Against it as Red, Lü Qin has the best score, 70.9% from 67 games. If you want to see the defence handled well from both sides, start with their games.

An old defence revived

The defence was first called 反攻马 (fangongma), the counter-attack horse. It is an old opening that has become popular again in modern times, and the contemporary player 胡荣华 (Hu Ronghua) likes to use it.

胡荣华 won the national title ten times in a row from 1960 to 1979, and four more times, in 1983, 1985, 1997 and 2000. He took a fresh, deep look at openings that had drawn little attention, the counter-palace horse as Black among them, and his book on the defence, 反宫马专集 (Fangongma zhuanji), was published in Singapore in 1983.

If the defence suits you, try it as Black in games against the computer, then compare your games with the walkthrough. It will not win games by itself, but it gives you a solid answer to the central cannon.