The Five-Six Cannons

How the system works

The system sets Red's two cannons side by side, on the fifth and sixth files as Red counts them from the right. It starts with 炮二平五 (C2=5), which takes the first cannon to e2, where it attacks Black's soldier on e6. Both sides then develop, Red with a horse and a chariot and Black with both horses and a chariot. On Red's fourth move, 炮八平六 (C8=6) brings the second cannon from b2 to d2.

The board in this section draws the first cannon's attack on e6 and marks the second cannon on d2 with a ring. On d2 that cannon attacks nothing. It guards the horse on g2 along rank 2, using the cannon on e2 as its screen, so the two cannons work as a pair.

The central cannon can turn into the five-six cannons against the screen horses (屏风马, pingfengma) and against the counter-palace horse (反宫马, fangongma). The ECCO, a code list of xiangqi openings, gives each form its own range: B40 to B45 against the counter-palace horse and C50 to C56 against the screen horses.

The course line, move by move

The board below plays the line that the site's opening course teaches for the five-six cannons. It begins with the system's standard moves, and a computer engine continued it from there. You can step through its first twelve moves, six for each side, with a note on each.

Red completes the set-up on its fourth move, then brings out the second horse and the second chariot. By Red's sixth move both wings are developed, with a cannon, a horse and a chariot out on each. On the last move Black's cannon steps from b7 to a7, which opens the b-file, and the chariots on b9 and b0 now attack each other.

The opening course has two drills on this line: in one you play Red's moves, and in the other you play Black's. Work through both until each move comes without thinking.

Lines from the archive

The board in this section starts from the five-six cannons against the counter-palace horse, after Red's fourth move, 炮八平六 (C8=6). In the archive, 342 games reached this position. The arrows show Black's three most common replies there, each marked with its share of those games.

The first line below continues with the most common reply, 车1平2 (R1=2). The other two are played against the screen horses, one with Red's edge horse and one with Red's chariot across the river. The course line above meets the screen horses as well. If your opponents answer the central cannon with the counter-palace horse, start with the first line; if they play the screen horses, study the course line and the last two.

The five principles in this line

Five principles help you judge any opening line: bring the chariots out early, do not move one piece again and again, do not grab soldiers in the opening, keep both wings balanced, and keep the general safe. In its twelve moves, the course line for the five-six cannons keeps to all five.

All four chariots come out within the twelve moves, Black's on its second and fifth moves and Red's on its third and sixth. No piece moves twice, and both generals stay on their starting points. Those are the first, second and fifth principles.

Red also keeps both wings in balance, the fourth principle. The cannon, horse and chariot on Red's right make Red's first three moves, and the same three pieces on the left make the last three. No piece is captured, so the third principle holds too, and the line ends with the two chariots facing each other on the open b-file.

Common mistakes

The first mistake is taking the soldier on e6 with the central cannon. The cannon has attacked that soldier since the first move, so the capture can look free. But Black's horse on g7 has guarded it since Black's first move, and from Black's third move both horses do. A horse takes back, and Red has given a cannon for a soldier.

The second is moving the cannon on d2 again too soon, because on d2 it attacks nothing and can look idle. But it already has a job: it guards the horse on g2 along rank 2, with the cannon on e2 as its screen. Each extra move with it breaks the second principle and keeps the horse on b0 and the chariot on a0 at home. The course line leaves the cannon on d2 and brings those two out.

The third is leaving the second chariot in its corner. Moving the cannon off b2 and the horse off b0 clears the b-file, and in the course line the chariot comes to b0 on Red's sixth move. From there it attacks Black's cannon on b7 at once, and when that cannon steps aside, it faces Black's chariot on b9. A chariot left on a0 does none of this, and Red's left wing falls behind the right.

How does the system score in the archive?

In the archive's games with the five-six cannons, Red won 34%, 38% were drawn and Black won 29%. A game lasted 44 moves on average. For comparison, Red wins 37% of all 29,164 human games in the archive, and 36% end in a draw.

As Red, Lü Qin has played the system most often, in 68 games, and Hu Ronghua has the best score, 77.4% over 31 games. As Black, Hu Ronghua has played the most games against it, 60.

At the end of this section you can replay one archive game with the five-six cannons, move by move. Once the course line feels familiar, try the set-up as Red in a few games against the computer. It will not win games by itself, but it gets both of Red's wings into play in good order.