Ponpon Knight.

Static rook, a rapid attack on a ranging rook · castles into Boat · ポンポン桂 ponpon-kei

The idea

The Ponpon Knight is a Boat rapid attack from the classical joseki. The name is the sound of the right knight jumping twice, from 2i to 3g and then onto 4e, straight onto the head of White’s pawn on 4d.

If White takes, the bishops’ diagonal opens: Black trades bishops on 3c, pushes the rook pawn, and breaks through on the 2nd file a knight down. ja.wikipedia says Tomizawa Mikio liked it so much that it is also called the Tomizawa Kick. It works only against one setup: White’s silver on 4c, the rook on 4b, and the pawn to 6d already played.

Black must also leave the 4th-file pawn at home, so that nothing else meets on 4e. Three sources give the jump and the breakthrough; the moves after White’s best reply, the rook back to 4a, have one, shogilounge, which ends in a balanced 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.

The plan once you are set up

• Build the Boat with the left silver on 5g and the left gold on 6h, and push the pawns to 2e and 3f. Do not push the pawn to 4f.
• When White’s silver is on 4c, jump the knight to 3g.
• Wait for White’s pawn to 6d, then jump the knight to 4e.
• After White takes, trade bishops on 3c and push the rook pawn to 2d. Take back with the rook.
• Against the rook back to 4a, push the pawn to 3e at the knight on 3c before promoting the rook.

What to watch for

• White’s pawn to 6d. Before White plays it, a bishop dropped on 6d answers the rook-pawn push and the attack fails. Wait for the pawn, or switch to the Pawn-45 Early Fight.
• White’s bishop jump to 1e. If White can answer the knight to 4e with the bishop to 1e, threatening 3g, the attack does not work. The edge pawn to 1f beforehand stops it.
• White’s silver on 3b, or the rook already on 4a. With the silver on 3b White takes back on 3c with the silver and still guards the 2nd file; with the rook on 4a the bishop has a square to escape to. Either way the jump does not work, and Black should attack the bishop’s head instead.
• After the rook back to 4a, promoting on 2b at once wins nothing: White answers with the gold to 4b and then 3b, and the dragon is driven out.

What it is played against

White’s best answer to the breakthrough is to pull the rook back to 4a, keep the extra knight and guard the bottom rank. White can also refuse the jump: pulling the silver back to 3b, or moving the rook to 3b to make room for the bishop on 4b.

Against those, Black switches to other attacks, the silver to 4f against 3c, or the Pawn-45 Early Fight.