Castles · 左美濃
Left Mino.
The Mino mirrored onto the left wing, for a rook that stays home. The bishop steps aside to let the king in.
How it goes together
Square for square this is a Mino with the files reversed: king 8h against 2h, silver 7h against 3h, gold 5h in both, gold 6i against 4i. One move is not a mirror. Black’s bishop starts on 8h, which is exactly where the king wants to stand, so the bishop goes up to 7g first and then stays there as part of the wall. The 9f pawn at the end is the escape square, on the same errand as 1f in a Mino.
Move by move
Black only, from the start position. The pawn opens the bishop’s road, the king walks to 6h and 7h, the right gold comes to 5h, and then the bishop moves and the king takes 8h.
Step through the moves, or press play.
Tap a move to jump to it. Arrow keys work once the board has focus.
Eight moves, and a reader who has built a Mino has already built this one: the same three generals, the same escape pawn, the other side of the board.
What it is good against
A ranging rook’s attack, which is what it is for. One move more than a boat castle buys a great deal more wall, and it is far quicker than an Anaguma, so it is the honest middle choice. The bishop on 7g covers 6f and 8f, so the front of the castle is held by four pieces rather than three.
Where it breaks
Its head, as with every Mino, and here the head is 8g and the ninth file. The bishop is doing structural work as well as its own, so a trade on the long diagonal takes a defender out of the wall and leaves 8f thin. Against an attack down the edge the king has 9f and not much else.
When to build it
A static rook facing a ranging rook, when you would rather not spend ten moves on an Anaguma. Against another static rook the Yagura is the shape that belongs on that side of the board.
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.