Openings · 村田システム
Murata System.
Keep the bishop’s diagonal closed, build the silvers on 6h and 4h, the gold on 7h and the pawn on 5f, and choose where the bishop and silvers go once White has shown a plan.
The idea
Murata Akihiro’s system for a player who wants the same kind of game every time. Black does not push the pawn in front of the bishop, so White cannot steer into a Bishop Exchange or a Side Pawn game. The base position, nine moves long, has both silvers on the second rank, the left gold on 7h and the centre pawn on 5f.
From there Black opens the diagonal when it pays, or pulls the bishop back to 7i, and sends a silver to 4f, 5f or 6f depending on White’s setup. The order here is the base position as a Mynavi column on Murata’s 2023 book prints it from move one, and ja.wikipedia gives the same moves.
The column’s lines after it start from a later position whose moves it does not print, so they are described in the plan rather than played. The system won a special Masuda Award, announced in 2024, and ja.wikipedia says it is said to derive from the Ureshino. Shogi Wars notes that Murata pushed Fujii Sōta to the brink with a newer version in a 2023 Ōza tournament game.
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 | ▲２六歩 2g2f | △８四歩 8c8d | The rook pawn first. White pushes its rook pawn. |
| 3 | ▲４八銀 3i4h | △８五歩 8d8e | The right silver to 4h. White’s rook pawn on to 8e. |
| 5 | ▲７八金 6i7h | △７二銀 7a7b | The left gold to 7h, guarding the pawn on 8g before White’s rook pawn arrives. White’s right silver to 7b. |
| 7 | ▲６八銀 7i6h | △３四歩 3c3d | The left silver to 6h. White opens its bishop’s diagonal. |
| 9 | ▲５六歩 5g5f | The centre pawn. Still no pawn to 7f: the bishop’s diagonal stays closed, so there is no Bishop Exchange and no Side Pawn game. This is the base position. |
The plan once you are set up
- The rook pawn, the right silver to 4h, the left gold to 7h, the left silver to 6h and the centre pawn to 5f. Leave the pawn in front of the bishop alone.
- Against a slow Yagura, the column steps the king to 6i, pushes the 3rd-file pawn and opens the bishop’s diagonal only after White’s bishop has gone to 4b.
- Then the right silver goes out to 4f, aiming at a pawn break on 3e.
- If White has pushed the 4th-file pawn early, take the fifth file with the pawn to 5e instead, to shut White’s bishop in.
What to watch for
- White’s rook pawn. The gold on 7h guards 8g; if White exchanges on 8f, the column answers with a pawn dropped on 8g.
- The timing of the pawn to 7f. Opened too early, the diagonal lets White steer into the openings the system is meant to avoid.
- The branches. The column warns that the system takes time to learn, because there are so many of them.
What it is played against
No source names a refutation. Murata’s book, the column says, is built around answers to White’s rapid attacks, and it calls the first of its two lines against a Yagura-minded White an early success for Black.
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.