Castles · 金美濃
Gold Mino.
A Half Mino with a gold on 3h instead of the silver, and the silver beside it on 4h.
How it goes together
Walk the king to 3h and lift the right silver from 3i to 4h: that much is the Wall castle (早囲い). Then take the king on to 2h and bring the 4i gold up to 3h beside him. The gold guards the silver on its left, but the silver cannot guard the gold back, because a silver has no sideways move. The silver’s work is in front, on 5g, 4g and 3g.
Move by move
Black only, from the start position. The rook swings to the centre first, as in a Central Rook; the king and the silver make a Wall castle, and two more moves turn it into a Gold Mino.
Step through the moves, or press play.
Tap a move to jump to it. Arrow keys work once the board has focus.
Seven moves with the edge pawn. Two more, the 4f pawn and the silver up to 4g, would make it a Kimura Mino.
What it is good against
From above, and at the centre. With a gold on 3h, a piece dropped on 2h after the king has moved can be taken back by the gold, which a silver on 3h could not do. The silver on 4h guards the 5g pawn, which no general covers in a Half Mino, and Shogi Wars names that, and a good fit with bishop-exchange games, as the castle’s selling points. It is also quick: four moves in, the king and the silver already make a Wall castle.
Where it breaks
Underneath. The 4i gold has moved up, so nothing guards 4i: a silver dropped there attacks the 3h gold from behind, and nothing can take it. shogi-gym’s advice is to build the Half Mino instead while the opponent has a silver in hand. Shogi Wars also finds little to develop it into.
When to build it
A ranging rook castle, mainly with a Central Rook or the Cheerful Central Rook, where the rook stands on 5h. Japanese sites call it uncommon. The static rook’s 金美濃, a Left Mino shape with a gold on 7h that became common against the Fujii System from about 1997, is a different castle with the same name.
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.