How should Black answer the Pawn Opening (仙人指路)?

These answers restate the rules implemented by our open-source engine, which follows the WXF laws for movement, checkmate and both repetition rulings: a side that forces a repetition by perpetual check or perpetual chase loses rather than drawing. The chase half has not been validated against the official casebook. Where an answer refers to a specific position, that position lives on the linked reference page, where the build verifies it before publishing.

卒底炮: hitting the soldier straight away

Red's first move, 兵七進一, pushes a soldier up to the river bank. Black can answer by moving a cannon sideways onto that same file, behind Black's own soldier (炮2平3). Black's soldier becomes the cannon's screen, and the cannon now attacks Red's advanced soldier through it. Red has to deal with the threat, so Black has turned Red's flexible waiting move into a target.

This is the most direct reply and it leads to active, double-edged play.

The calmer replies

• Mirror soldier move: symmetrical and flexible, and the resulting mutual Pawn Opening is fully playable for both sides.
• Elephant or horse: Black declines to commit, just as Red did, and develops solidly.
• Central cannon: Black takes the initiative in the centre that Red chose not to claim, accepting a more open game.

How to choose

Match the reply to the rest of your repertoire. If you already defend the Central Cannon with Screen Horses, a horse move keeps you in familiar structures. If you like sharp games, the cannon-behind-soldier reply gives them to you from move one. What matters is knowing the plan behind the reply you chose, as explained in what 仙人指路 is.

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