Moon Scooping Checkmate 海底捞月 hǎi dǐ lāo yuè
Quite a commonly used technique in Xiangqi, the basic idea is to control the bottom most rank or sometimes the throat rank before a check is given by a chariot. In the older versions of the website, had previously called it the Deep Sea Salvage Checkmate, but in the free ebook on kills by the WXF, this kill was called the Fishing-the-moon-from-under-the-sea checkmate,which is a direct translation of the Chinese name.
海 hǎi= sea/ocean
底 dǐ = bottom of something
捞 lāo = verb, to scoop something
月 yuè = moon.
There are several components to the Moon Scooping Checkmate:
- The friendly king and chariot must control the central file,
- the cannon or pawn present must find a way to get to the same side of the board as the enemy king, and
- an attack or check is intiated from the bottom rank (or occasionally the throat rank) such that the enemy chariot cannot defend that rib file.
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