Castles · 土居矢倉
Doi Yagura.
King 7h, golds 6g and 5h, silver 7g: a Yagura that stops one square short of the corner and keeps the right gold in the middle.
How it goes together
The silver sits on 7g behind the 7f pawn, as in every Yagura. The left gold stands on 6g behind the 6f pawn, and the king fills 7h, the square that gold came from. The right gold stays back on 5h and guards the 6g gold from below. Compared with a Gold Yagura, the king stands one file nearer the centre, and no gold stands beside it.
Move by move
Black only, from the start position, as the Japan Shogi Association’s castle column builds it. The first eleven moves are an ordinary Yagura build, ending with the bishop stepping back to 7i. Then the left gold goes up and the king takes its place.
Step through the moves, or press play.
Tap a move to jump to it. Arrow keys work once the board has focus.
After move 11 a Gold Yagura still needs four moves: the right gold to 6g, the bishop to 6h, the king to 7i and 8h. This castle needs two. The JSA column warns about move 12, though: when the 7h gold leaves, the eighth file goes thin, so check first that your opponent cannot push the rook pawn straight in.
What it is good against
Balance and width. With the right gold free, ja.wikipedia says, you can build an even position, and the shape resists dropped bishops; en.wikipedia adds that it covers more of your camp than a Gold Yagura. The JSA column shows the practical side: when your opponent drops a pawn on 8g, a king on 7h is not in check and you can leave the pawn, while a king on 8h would have to deal with it.
Where it breaks
Hardness. The king on 7h has less around it than a king on 8h with a gold beside it, and the square in front of the corner, 8g, is guarded by the king alone. The moment the left gold steps up is the risky one: the column shows a line where the opponent breaks through on the eighth file at once.
When to build it
Yagura and Bishop Exchange games. Doi built it as Black in game 3 of the 1940 Meijin match against Kimura Yoshio, whose castle was a Complete Yagura; the game began as a Bishop Exchange, and Doi won. Takami Taichi brought it back: the JSA column shows his 2017 Kisei preliminary game, and ja.wikipedia his 2018 Eiō final. ja.wikipedia ties the revival to the computer-era taste for balance over hardness, the same shift that brought the Gangi back.
Build it at the board.
The app’s lesson walks the king into a Mino one step at a time, and its review names the castle you were building when a game turned.