Deceitful Game

Chapter 272 [Wang Yi Abandons His Army]

The fog door leading to carriage number five was eventually opened by Chen Bingwen.

It's still a very simple puzzle.

The puzzle this time is about chess, but it's not about playing chess itself.

Chen Bingwen and Wu Ren would take turns removing the chess pieces from the chessboard.

Fogman goes first, Chen Bingwen goes second. Each time, you can take any number of pieces from one type of unit. You can take one or all of them, but you can only take pieces of the same type.

Whoever takes the last piece first wins.

For example, with the "Bishop" card, you can take one, three, or all four.

This sounds like a game with a high computational load, and the computational load increases as you progress... but actually, this game is very simple. Because the essence of this game is actually a standard "Nim's Game".

The original model of Nim is that two players take turns removing stones from several piles, and can remove any number of stones from a pile. The number of stones in each pile is not necessarily the same, and the person who takes the last stone wins.

But this game actually has a foolproof way to win.

By converting the number of stones in each pile into binary and then performing an XOR operation to obtain their sum, the outcome is determined. If the result is zero, the current situation is a losing proposition. If the result is not zero, the current situation is a winning proposition.

Chess has 16 pawns, 4 rooks, 4 knights, 4 bishops, 2 queens, and 2 kings, and its sum of nims is 20. In this situation, the Fogman, going first, actually has a winning strategy.

However, it is clear that since the Fog Man demands to go first, it is impossible to use this sure-win method, otherwise it would be unfair to Chen Bingwen.

Therefore, when Chen Bingwen saw that the Fog Man had only taken one soldier, he smiled.

Next, he removed eleven pawns, leaving only four pawns on the board.

From this point on, Chen Bingwen had already won.

So the Fogman took a soldier, and Chen Bingwen took a chariot.

The Fogman took two bishops, so Chen Bingwen took two knights as well.

The Fogman took a knight, so Chen Bingwen took a bishop.

No matter what the Fog People took, Chen Bingwen took the same number of soldiers from the same pile as before.

In the end, only two chariots and two kings remained. But the situation was already clear; no matter what the Fog People did, it was meaningless. The Fog People took one chariot, and Chen Bingwen took the last white king, leaving only one chariot and one king on the field.

"General."

Chen Bingwen raised his head and smiled slightly.

Next, no matter which piece the Fogman takes away, it means Chen Bingwen can take the remaining one.

The mist-like figure, who was actually "Mirror Image Chen Bingwen," took away the black chariot, leaving only a black king on the board.

You win.

The fog figure nodded slightly and then vanished.

The entire chessboard vanished along with it... In the end, only this one black piece remained.

Its luster dimmed, transforming from the original warm, lustrous black jade texture into a cold, hard obsidian material. Furthermore, the outlines of the chess pieces became sharper and clearer, even somewhat… ornate.

Even the king's cloak has become much more refined. It looks more like a small figurine than a chess piece.

Chen Bingwen picked up a chess piece, and the information about the treasure clearly came to mind.

"how?"

Mingpo leaned closer: "What's the effect?"

"...I think it should work."

After digesting the information for a moment, Chen Bingwen turned to Mingpo and the others and said, "This thing is called [Wang Qi]."

"The holder can gain corresponding enhancement effects by sacrificing a part or organ of themselves. However, the effect will not become more powerful because the sacrificed part is more precious. In other words, it is best to 'gain a lot with a little'."

"At the very least, you need to lose a finger or a toe to gain explosive power or speed. And if you lose an eye, you can gain clairvoyance in the other eye... That's about all you can use."

"I see, using a small investment to achieve a large return..."

Upon hearing this, Mingpo nodded slowly.

He pondered for a moment and then said definitively, "Wang Yi abandoned his troops."

"What?"

Chen Bingwen paused for a moment.

He clearly didn't know the word.

"This is a relatively old tactic in chess, also known as the 'Kingside Gambit.' Before the mid-19th century, it was a very popular offensive tactic. This was because defensive techniques were not advanced enough at that time, and offensive tactics were very popular."

Mingpo slowly said, "This tactic can be understood as... in the first few rounds, directly sending troops forward to force the opponent to send out more pieces to deal with the excessively advanced troops, thereby disrupting the opponent's balance."

"This piece is destined to be sacrificed when it reaches the second step. Continuing to move forward is only to gain a greater advantage. It may even sacrifice one or two more pieces to force and stretch the opponent's space."

"At the time, the chess world believed that all pieces could be sacrificed in order to seize the rhythm and control the area. This tactic was highly regarded and considered a form of 'heroism'."

"...You actually know how to play chess?!"

Ai Shiping looked at Mingpo with great surprise.

Mingpo's lips curled up slightly.

Clearly, this is a side of himself that he doesn't know.

Whether it was because she hadn't learned chess in her past life, or because Ai Shiping didn't fully know all of Mingpo's secrets... realizing this made Mingpo feel a sense of pleasure.

So, it turns out you don't know everything after all.

"And then what?"

But Ai Shiping didn't have any particular opinion on this; instead, he asked curiously.

Mingpo was quite used to Ai Shiping asking him for advice, so he gave a soft hum, tilted his head slightly, and said earnestly:

"Later, people gradually mastered more advanced defensive concepts. Simply put, you don't necessarily have to take the pieces that the opponent gives you. Play at your own pace first and prepare for future tactics and situations. From this point on, there were established patterns for how to optimally deal with various opening pawn-sacrificing tactics."

"From this point on, Gambit becomes a 'surprise move.' It can only be used when the opponent least expects it, catching them off guard." Mingbo looked at Chen Bingwen and said meaningfully, "By 'sacrifice' to gain 'rhythm.' You will obtain this treasure... which should also be related to your inner self."

He made this deduction because the "four-phase mirror" that Mingpo obtained was obviously related to Mingpo in some way.

"Speaking of which..."

Then, Mingpo looked at Ai Shiping and asked, "Where's your copper coin?"