Castles · 振り飛車ミレニアム
Ranging Rook Millennium.
The static rook’s Millennium built by a ranging rook: king 2i on the knight’s square, silver 2h, golds 3h and 3i, the knight out on 3g.
How it goes together
The king sits on 2i, the right knight’s starting square, with the lance beside him on 1i. The right silver stands over him on 2h, in the square the rook left. The two golds stand one above the other on 3h and 3i, and the knight has jumped to 3g, behind the 3f pawn. The king guards both golds and the silver, and the 3i gold is the only piece that guards the king. The golds guard each other, both guard the silver, and the silver guards the 3i gold; the silver and the 3h gold also guard the knight.
Move by move
Black only, from the start, in the order of the Japan Shogi Association’s castle column: a Fourth File Rook opening with the king on 3h, then the pawns and the knight, the silver, and the king down into the knight’s square.
Step through the moves, or press play.
Tap a move to jump to it. Arrow keys work once the board has focus.
Seventeen moves, and the first seven are an ordinary ranging rook opening; the king reaches 3h by the Mino’s old route, the column notes, since today’s Mino plays the silver to 3h first. The column also says the gold can stay on 4h instead of 3h when 5g needs covering. Square for square it is the static rook’s Millennium, mirrored.
What it is good against
The king is off the static rook’s bishop line and far from the fighting. The column’s example is a pawn push on the rook’s file that a Mino could not afford, because a bishop check would also hit the rook; with the king tucked away on the knight’s square there is no such check. Shogi Wars says the plan uses the deep king and the right knight to attack.
Where it breaks
Time. The JSA column calls it solid once complete, but it takes many moves and the pieces are scattered until then, so it is no castle for meeting a rapid attack, and the knight’s head is thin. Build it when the opponent has chosen a slow game, such as a Static Rook Anaguma.
When to build it
A Fourth File Rook against a Static Rook Anaguma. The JSA column’s professional examples, from 2018 and 2019, are all White’s, and Murata Akihiro published a book on the plan in 2020 (ja.wikipedia).
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.