Castles · 高美濃
High Mino.
A Mino whose left gold has stepped up to 4g. Two more moves, and the attack that breaks a plain Mino stops working.
How it goes together
Push the pawn to 4f, then walk the left gold up from 5h to 4g. That is the whole castle: the gold leaves the king’s side and stands in front of it instead, where it guards 4f, 3f and 5f. The pawn matters as much as the gold does. It closes the long diagonal that runs 8b, 7c, 6d, 5e, 4f, 3g and ends on the king’s own square, which is the line a plain Mino has to watch all game.
Every High Mino starts as a Mino. The first seven moves below build that castle; the last two are what make this one.
Move by move
Black only, from the start position. Moves one to seven are the Mino, and then the pawn and the gold go up.
Step through the moves, or press play.
Tap a move to jump to it. Arrow keys work once the board has focus.
The gold on 4g is the whole difference, and it is worth seeing what it costs: 5h is empty now, and the king has one general fewer beside him.
What it is good against
Attacks from above. A knight landing on 3f or a silver pushing to 4f meets a gold instead of an empty square, and with a pawn on 4f the bishop’s diagonal into 3g is shut. It is also two moves rather than a decision, on a castle you were building anyway.
Where it breaks
The bottom. The gold that used to sit on 5h beside the king is a rank in front of him now, so a rook that reaches the bottom rank, or a piece dropped underneath, finds less in its way than a Mino had. The king’s head on 2g is still bare, which is why players keep going and build a Silver Crown.
When to build it
When the game is slow enough to spend two moves and the opponent is aiming at the front of your castle rather than the edge. It is the usual middle stage of a ranging rook game: Mino first, High Mino when there is time, Silver Crown if there is more.
Build it at the board.
The app names the castle you are building as you play, and its lesson walks the king into a Mino one step at a time.