Openings · ゴキゲン中飛車
Cheerful Central Rook.
White swings the rook to the centre file with the bishop’s diagonal still open, then takes the centre with a pawn on 5e.
The idea
The Cheerful Central Rook is a Central Rook in which the bishop stays at home with its diagonal open, so the bishops can come off at any point in the opening, and it is usually White’s. Once both players have opened their diagonals and Black has pushed the rook’s pawn, White pushes the centre pawn to 5d instead of closing the diagonal.
When Black pushes on to 2e, the rook swings to 5b. White closes the diagonal only when it has to, and with the centre pawn on 5e; other ranging rooks use a pawn on 4d. The king walks right into the Half Mino: king 8b, silver 7b, gold 6a, with no second gold beside them, because the rook is standing on 5b.
Kondō Masakazu developed the opening and won the 2002 Masuda Kōzō Award for it, and a Shōgi Sekai editor named it after Kondō’s good mood (gokigen). It was first in the 2019 popularity ranking of the dictionary 『将棋戦法事典100+』. The version for Black is on the Central Rook page.
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 | Open the bishop’s diagonal. White opens its own: both diagonals are open. |
| 3 | ▲２六歩 2g2f | △５四歩 5c5d | Black pushes the rook’s pawn, a static rook. The move that makes it the Cheerful Central Rook: the centre pawn, with the bishop’s diagonal left open. |
| 5 | ▲２五歩 2f2e | △５二飛 8b5b | Black pushes on to 2e. The rook swings to the centre file. This is the basic position. |
| 7 | ▲４八銀 3i4h | △５五歩 5d5e | Black’s right silver starts out: the Super High Speed Silver (超速▲3七銀), the main reply. The pawn takes the centre on 5e. From now on it is this pawn that closes White’s bishop line. |
| 9 | ▲６八玉 5i6h | △３三角 2b3c | Black’s king steps to 6h, and stays near there. The bishop comes out to 3c. |
| 11 | ▲３六歩 3g3f | △６二玉 5a6b | Room for the silver. White’s king starts walking right. |
| 13 | ▲３七銀 4h3g | △７二玉 6b7b | The silver to 3g: the move the reply is named for. White’s king takes its second step, to 7b. |
| 15 | ▲４六銀 3g4f | △３二金 4a3b | The silver reaches 4f and aims at the pawn on 5e. ja.wikipedia’s diagram of the Super High Speed line stops here. White’s left gold to 3b. |
| 17 | ▲７八玉 6h7h | △４二銀 3a4b | Black’s king to 7h. White’s left silver to 4b. |
| 19 | ▲６八銀 7i6h | △８二玉 7b8b | Black’s left silver to 6h. White’s king reaches 8b. |
| 21 | ▲５八金右 4i5h | △７二銀 7a7b | Black’s right gold to 5h. The silver to 7b, and White’s Half Mino is complete: king 8b, silver 7b, gold 6a, with no second gold beside them, because the rook stands on 5b. |
The plan once you are set up
- Answer Black’s rook pawn on 2f with the centre pawn to 5d, and after 2e swing the rook to 5b, leaving the bishop on 2b.
- Push the pawn to 5e. It takes the centre, and from then on it is the pawn that closes your bishop’s diagonal.
- Castle on the right: king to 6b, 7b and 8b, then the silver from 7a to 7b. The gold on 6a does not move.
- Choose when to reopen the bishop’s diagonal by moving the 5e pawn. The attack the sources describe uses the silver, the rook and the bishop together.
What to watch for
- Black’s rook-pawn exchange before your pawn reaches 5e. Take the bishop on 8h, and when the silver takes back, drop your bishop on 3c, where it hits the rook on 2d and the silver on 8h at once.
- The same exchange after the pawn is on 5e. The drop on 3c no longer works, and with the gold to 5h first the game can become the Super Rapid Attack (超急戦), a race the sources call a contest of home preparation.
- An early bishop trade by Black, before you push 5e. This is the Maruyama Vaccine (丸山ワクチン): Black wants a slow game with a bishop in hand each. The answer the sources give is to castle into a Mino and then switch the rook to the Opposing Rook file.
- The Super High Speed Silver: Black’s right silver to 4h, 3g and 4f, with Black’s king left on 6h, aimed at your pawn on 5e. One reply in the sources brings your own left silver to 4d to meet it.
What it is played against
A static rook, most of all the Super High Speed Silver (超速▲3七銀). Hoshino Yoshitaka devised it as an apprentice professional and won the 2011 Masuda Kōzō Award for it, and both Cheerful Central Rook books checked for this page give it a chapter.
The other named answers are the Super Rapid Attack with the gold to 5h, the Maruyama Vaccine bishop trade, the setups with the gold on 7h or the silver on 4g, a Static Rook Anaguma, and a Double Ranging Rook game with Black’s rook on the third file.
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.