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Strategies · 戦法

Five openings to start with.

A shogi opening is a plan for where the rook and the king go, and everything else follows from that. Japanese teachers give beginners the same five, because each teaches one idea cleanly: wait and counter, build and race, attack on one file, attack with the whole left side, or bury the king and trade.

The one question: where is your rook?

Every opening in shogi belongs to one of two families. In a static rook opening (居飛車, ) the rook stays on its starting file and the king castles on the left. In a ranging rook opening (振り飛車, ) the rook swings to the centre or the left and the king castles on the right. Decide that by move five, choose the castle that goes with it, and the rest of the opening is development.

The Fourth File Rook 香 桂 金 桂 香 飛 銀 金 王 角 歩 歩 歩 銀 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 角 銀 歩 歩 歩 飛 金 銀 玉 香 桂 金 桂 香 Fourth File Rook Ranging rook · MinoSwing the rook to the fourth file from the left, walk the king the other way into a Mino, and wait for the opponent to come to you.The Yagura 香 桂 王 角 桂 香 飛 金 金 歩 銀 銀 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 銀 金 歩 銀 歩 歩 玉 金 角 飛 香 桂 桂 香 Yagura Static rook · YaguraBoth rooks stay home, both kings castle left, and the game becomes a race to build the best fortress and attack it first.The Climbing Silver 香 桂 王 桂 香 飛 銀 金 銀 金 歩 歩 歩 歩 角 歩 歩 歩 銀 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 角 歩 歩 歩 歩 飛 香 桂 銀 金 玉 金 桂 香 Climbing Silver Static rook · Yagura or a boat castleThe right silver climbs straight up the board behind the rook’s pawn and breaks through where the bishop is the only defender.The Ishida 香 桂 金 桂 香 飛 金 王 角 歩 歩 銀 歩 銀 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 飛 歩 角 歩 桂 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 銀 金 銀 玉 香 金 桂 香 Ishida Ranging rook · MinoThe rook goes to the third file and then forward, the knight and the bishop come to support it, and the whole left side becomes an attacking formation.The Static Rook Anaguma 香 桂 金 桂 香 王 銀 金 飛 歩 歩 歩 銀 角 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 歩 角 銀 歩 歩 歩 香 銀 金 飛 玉 桂 金 桂 香 Static Rook Anaguma Static rook · AnagumaKeep the rook home, bury the king in the far corner behind a lance, a silver and two golds, and attack with everything else.

Which to learn first

If you like to wait for the other side to commit, the Fourth File Rook: it is a system, the same moves every game, and the Mino castle comes free with it. If you like to attack, the Climbing Silver: it is the plainest attack in the game and it teaches how three pieces on one square break a position. Play one of the two for fifty games before you look at the others. The app’s bot plays the Fourth File Rook and the Yagura from its book, so you will see both across the table.

Try one tonight.

The bot plays real openings, and the review afterwards shows you the move where you left the book.

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