Castles · 片美濃囲い
Half Mino.
A Mino without its second gold: king 2h, silver 3h, and the 4i gold behind them. The castle a Central Rook builds, because its rook stands on the square that gold would take.
How it goes together
Swing the rook, then walk the king from 5i to 4h, 3h and 2h, and lift the right silver to 3h. The gold on 4i never moves. It guards the silver diagonally from below, and the silver guards it back. Next to a full Mino, one square is missing: 5h stays empty, or holds the rook, and the left gold waits on 6i. The 1f pawn gives the king a square to run to, as in the Mino. English sources call it the Incomplete Mino or the Half Mino.
Move by move
Black only, from the start position. These are the Mino’s own first five moves, then the edge pawn, and the left gold never comes.
Step through the moves, or press play.
Tap a move to jump to it. Arrow keys work once the board has focus.
Six moves. One more, the 6i gold to 5h, makes it a full Mino. In a Central Rook the rook already stands on 5h, so the castle stops here.
What it is good against
Speed, and a spare gold. It costs a move less than the Mino and leaves the left gold out of the castle, free for the centre, the left side or the attack. Japanese teaching sites call it firm enough to fight in as it stands, and it keeps the Mino’s low shape, with the king behind his silver and gold.
Where it breaks
One general fewer than a Mino. The 4i gold is guarded by the 3h silver alone, and that gold is the key to breaking any Mino: pull it away, and a bishop or silver dropped on 3i gives check with little to stop it. The Mino’s other weak points, its head and the edge, are all still there.
When to build it
Whenever the rook stands on the centre file: it is the basic castle of the Central Rook, and of the Cheerful Central Rook, where White builds it on the other side of the board. Fourth and Third File Rook players stop at it when the opponent attacks early, or when they want the left gold somewhere else; with bishops traded, some put that gold on 7h to guard against a bishop drop. Opposing Rook games use it too.
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.