Castles · 銀立ち矢倉
High Silver Yagura.
A Yagura whose left silver has stepped up from 7g to 7f behind a pawn on 7e: the castle of the King’s Head Vanguard Pawn against a ranging rook.
How it goes together
The king and the golds stand as in a Gold Yagura: king on 8h, golds on 7h and 6g, with the 6f pawn in front of the 6g gold. The left silver is one step higher, on 7f, and the seventh-file pawn is pushed to 7e in front of it. The 6g gold guards the 7f silver, the only piece that does, and the silver guards the 7e pawn and the 6g gold; the 7h gold guards the 6g gold too. The 7g square the silver left is free, and in this build the bishop goes there.
Move by move
Black only, from the start, in the order of the Japan Shogi Association’s castle column: a Boat castle first, then the left silver, with the pawn pushed to 7e before the silver reaches 7g, and last the bishop, the right gold, the king and the left gold to 7h.
Step through the moves, or press play.
Tap a move to jump to it. Arrow keys work once the board has focus.
Eighteen moves. The pawn goes first for a reason the column gives: with the silver on 7g first, White pushes a pawn to 7d and the vanguard pawn never gets there. The bishop on 7g and the right silver on 5g are the order’s, not the castle’s, and the column also shows a quicker form with the king left on 7h.
What it is good against
Space. The 7e pawn and the 7f silver hold the seventh file in front of the king, and Shogi Wars describes the silver keeping the vanguard pawn and controlling the king’s head. ja.wikipedia says that once it is built the ranging rook finds it hard to improve its castle or use its right knight, while the static rook’s king gets room and a thick position. shogijugem names the attacks it prepares against a Mino: a pawn to 7d at the side of the Mino king’s head, the eighth-file pawn pushed at the head itself, and the 7f silver joining an edge attack.
Where it breaks
The side, and the time it takes. With the silver up on 7f the castle is weaker from the side than a Gold Yagura (shogijugem, shougi.jp). It takes many moves and the king is unsettled while you build: ja.wikipedia says a Fourth File Rook can strike first with a silver to 4d and a pawn to 5e, and the JSA column shows that pawn push catching a player who brings the last gold to 7h too soon. The 7f silver can itself become a target (shougi.jp).
When to build it
A static rook against a ranging rook, as the King’s Head Vanguard Pawn (玉頭位取り), more than in Double Yagura (ja.wikipedia, Shogi Wars, shougi.jp). ja.wikipedia says it was played a great deal from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s and is out of fashion now; its article on the strategy says it faded once the Static Rook Anaguma proved itself.
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.