You Sing Your Tune, Then I'll Sing Mine

As everyone knew,

Chinese chess had a long and storied history. Even a small board could offer rich lessons about life.

But no matter how many meanings Chinese chess held, its central purpose never changed—the point of playing the whole game was to win in the end.

The moves that brought about a decisive victory were known as checkmate tactics. In the endgame, they often involved forcing the opponent's general toward a corner, a baseline, the center, or a flank of the board.

Depending on whether the check could be delivered continuously, they could also be divided into consecutive checks or tactical combinations that led to checkmate.

There were many checkmate tactics in Chinese chess, such as the facing generals, the chariot fork, the double cannon, the smothered palace, the smothered mate, and the iron gate bolt, among others.

Among these tactics, however, the sunken cannon was clearly a rather special one.

As the name suggested, a sunken cannon involved one side's cannon invading the opponent's baseline and coordinating with other pieces to deliver checkmate.

Since more than one piece took part in the attack, it was also called a double check.

Another unusual feature of the sunken cannon was that

if it failed to deliver checkmate, its user was certain to lose one of their pieces.

So, conceptually, this move was a little like going all-in. It generally appeared only in the endgame, when both sides were staking their lives on a single move to decide the victor.

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As he looked at the checkmate on the board in front of him, the other refined-looking man sitting beside the player—the Writer—was paying attention to something other than the chessboard:

"Great Sir, looks like it's our turn to take the stage?"

The player held a chess piece between the fingers