Openings · 相横歩取り
Double Side Pawn Capture.
Trade bishops and take Black’s side pawn back with the rook, then race: rooks off at once, bishops dropped again, and pawns dropped into Black’s right side.
The idea
This line is White’s. In the usual Side Pawn Capture White plays a pawn down; here you refuse. After Black’s rook takes on 3d, you trade bishops and take the pawn on 7f with your rook, so material is level again, at the cost of a move, and your rook attacks the gold on 7h.
Rooks come off at once and the bishops are dropped again, and games can end inside fifty moves: in 1997 Shima Akira beat Murayama Satoshi in 47. ja.wikipedia says the lines have been studied almost to mate and that Black comes out better with exact play, but the choice is White’s, and a Black player who has not studied them can lose quickly.
The line here is ja.wikipedia’s main line to its last move. A second source has the same moves up to Black’s second bishop drop and the rest in another order, reaching the same position.
How it goes together
Both sides’ moves are shown, because this opening is an agreement rather than a system: one player cannot reach it alone, so a one-sided list of moves would be a fiction.
Step through the moves, or press play.
Tap a move to jump to it. Arrow keys work once the board has focus.
Every move of the line, with reasons
| # | Black | White | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ▲７六歩 7g7f | △３四歩 3c3d | Black opens the bishop’s diagonal. You open yours. |
| 3 | ▲２六歩 2g2f | △８四歩 8c8d | Black pushes the rook pawn. You push yours. |
| 5 | ▲２五歩 2f2e | △８五歩 8d8e | Black’s pawn to 2e. Yours to 8e. |
| 7 | ▲７八金 6i7h | △３二金 4a3b | Black’s gold to 7h guards the bishop’s head. Your gold to 3b guards yours. |
| 9 | ▲２四歩 2e2d | △同歩 2c2d | Black pushes the pawn on to 2d, to exchange it. You take. |
| 11 | ▲同飛 2h2d | △８六歩 8e8f | Black’s rook takes back. You exchange on your side too. |
| 13 | ▲同歩 8g8f | △同飛 8b8f | Black takes. Your rook takes back. |
| 15 | ▲３四飛 2d3d | △８八角成 2b8h+ | Black’s rook takes the side pawn on 3d. It now threatens to trade bishops on 2b, winning a gold or making a dragon. You trade bishops first. Taking on 7f at once would lose to Black’s bishop trade on 2b. |
| 17 | ▲同銀 7i8h | △７六飛 8f7f | Black takes back with the silver. The opening’s move: your rook takes the pawn on 7f as well, attacking the gold on 7h. |
| 19 | ▲７七銀 8h7g | △７四飛 7f7d | Black’s usual answer, by far the most common: the silver to 7g. The rook to 7d, the only square: 2f and 7e both lose. |
| 21 | ▲同飛 3d7d | △同歩 7c7d | Black trades rooks. The pawn takes back. |
| 23 | ▲４六角 B*4f | △８二角 B*8b | A bishop dropped on 4f, at the lance on 9a: Aono Teruichi’s move, now the main line. A bishop dropped on 8b blocks it. |
| 25 | ▲同角成 4f8b+ | △同銀 7a8b | Black takes and promotes. The silver takes back. |
| 27 | ▲５五角 B*5e | △８五飛 R*8e | A bishop dropped on 5e, at the silver on 8b and the lance on 1a. A rook dropped on 8e: it guards the silver and attacks the bishop and the knight on 8i. |
| 29 | ▲８六飛 R*8f | △同飛 8e8f | Ōyama Yasuharu’s move: a rook dropped on 8f, offering the rooks again. You have to take: the rook to 5e instead loses to the rook promoting on 8b. |
| 31 | ▲同銀 7g8f | △２八歩 P*2h | Black’s silver takes back. A pawn dropped on 2h. Black leaves it: after the silver takes, your rook dropped on 2e would hit harder. |
| 33 | ▲８二角成 5e8b+ | △２九歩成 2h2i+ | Black’s bishop takes the silver on 8b and promotes. The pawn takes the knight on 2i and promotes. |
| 35 | ▲４八銀 3i4h | △３八歩 P*3h | Black’s right silver to 4h. Another pawn, dropped on 3h. If the gold takes it, a knight dropped on 2f follows. |
| 37 | ▲８一馬 8b8a | △３九歩成 3h3i+ | Black’s horse takes the knight on 8a. The pawn promotes on 3i. |
| 39 | ▲同銀 4h3i | △同と 2i3i | Black’s silver takes. The tokin on 2i takes back. |
| 41 | ▲同金 4i3i | △５五角 B*5e | Black’s gold takes. A bishop dropped on 5e. |
| 43 | ▲７二銀 S*7b | △３七角成 5e3g+ | Black drops a silver on 7b, at the gold on 6a, close to your king. The bishop takes on 3g and promotes, with check. ja.wikipedia calls the position complicated, and Black better with exact play. |
The plan once you are set up
- After Black’s rook takes the side pawn, trade bishops and take on 7f with the rook.
- After the silver to 7g, offer the rook trade on 7d, the only safe square.
- Answer the bishop dropped on 4f with a bishop dropped on 8b.
- After the bishop dropped on 5e, drop a rook on 8e: it guards the silver and hits the bishop and the knight on 8i.
- When the rooks come off again, go for Black’s right side with pawns dropped on 2h and 3h.
What to watch for
- Take on 7f only after the bishop trade: at once, it loses to Black’s bishop trade on 2b.
- The rook to 2f or 7e instead of 7d is bad: a bishop dropped on 1e, or a pawn dropped on 2b, follows.
- Black can refuse the rook trade by pulling the rook back to 3f; the game then turns slow.
- Black can also answer the rook on 7f with the knight to 7g instead of the silver, as Watanabe Akira did in game 2 of the 2013 Kisei match, for a quieter game.
What it is played against
Black defends the gold with the silver to 7g, trades rooks and drops a bishop on 4f, at your lance on 9a.
After the bishops come off on 8b and Black’s second bishop lands on 5e, Black answers your rook on 8e with Ōyama Yasuharu’s rook dropped on 8f, then lets your pawns into the right side and counterattacks with the horse and a silver dropped near your king.
Play it against the bot.
The bot’s search levels, 9 to 12, open from a book that holds two of these openings, the Fourth File Rook and the Yagura; the Mino levels play the openings people play. Either way the review afterwards shows you where the game left the line. Try the line, then try the plan.