Handicaps (让子)

The traditional answer to a mismatch, and the one this site offers

What each one removes

Only three squares on the back rank are ever emptied, and they are always the same three files. Everything else starts where it always does.

Which one to take

• 让一马 — one horse. The gentlest. A horse is worth about four soldiers, so the engine is down real material but keeps both chariots, and the game still looks normal. Start here.
• 让双马 — both horses. A large concession. The engine loses its two most flexible attackers and has to play through its chariots and cannons alone, which makes its play noticeably more one-dimensional.
• 让一车 — one chariot. The biggest of the three, because a chariot is the strongest piece on the board and the one that needs least help. Worth more than both horses together.

The rules do not change

A handicap game is an ordinary game with a different starting position. Nothing about the rules is adjusted: perpetual check still loses, stalemate is still a loss, soldiers still do not promote, and the coach still names your openings. The only difference is what is on the board at move one.

Red still moves first, whoever is giving the odds. If you would rather have the first move as well, take Red in Settings — that is a separate choice from the handicap, and taking both is entirely reasonable while you are learning.

Why odds instead of a weaker opponent

Both are available here — the engine has three strengths — and they do different things. A weaker engine plays worse moves, so you win by punishing mistakes you may not understand. An engine giving odds plays its best and simply has less to play with, so you win by converting a material advantage, which is the skill you actually want.

That is why 让子 survived for centuries as the way a master played a student: the student gets a real game, and the loss, when it comes, is instructive rather than mysterious.