Sleeve Rook.

Static rook, played by White · castles into Boat, on White’s side · 袖飛車 sodebisha

The idea

This line is White’s. The Sleeve Rook keeps the rook on its own side but moves it one file over: to the 3rd file for Black, or the 7th for White, as here. It is old: ja.wikipedia finds it in a book from 1804, and says the name is said to come from Sakata Sankichi’s play: the rook moved one file over is likened to a sleeve.

Against a ranging rook it is a direct way to fight on the 7th file before the Ishida player’s pieces are ready. You build a Boat with the king on 3b, golds on 5b and 4a and the left silver on 4b; the right silver goes out through 6b and 6c, and the rook moves to 7b, so rook and silver both point at the 7th file.

You prepare with the pawn to 5d and the silver to 4b, then push the pawn to 7d. The one source found with the whole line, a 2026 Mynavi article, writes it with the board turned round; it says there is little to memorise and that you are not left only defending, and it calls the final position equal, with Black’s pieces on the left hard to free.

Either side plays the Sleeve Rook: the section below shows Black’s, against a static rook.

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

• Answer the pawn to 7e with the silver to 6b and the king to 4b. With both diagonals open, Black’s natural king or silver move would allow the bishop trade on 8h and a bishop drop, so Black has to close its diagonal with the pawn to 6f.
• Build the Boat: the right gold to 5b, the king to 3b, then the left silver to 4b.
• Bring the right silver to 6c and swing the rook to 7b.
• Play the pawn to 5d and the silver to 4b before attacking, then break with the pawn to 7d and take back with the silver.
• When Black opens the bishop’s diagonal with the pawn to 6e, close it with the pawn to 4d and aim the silver and pawns at 7e.

What to watch for

• Black’s bishop. Once the pawn to 6e opens its diagonal it looks at 5e; your pawn on 5d is there so it cannot jump out to 5e.
• Black’s rook swinging to the 3rd file. The silver on 4b is what answers the rook to 3f and 3d.
• Black’s strongest reply, a pawn dropped on 7c and the bishop out to 9e. Take the pawn, drop the rook back to 7a, and stop the 6th-file pawn with a pawn on 6b before you chase the bishop with the edge pawn.

What it is played against

Black’s Ishida Third File Rook with a Mino, the floating rook on 7f and the bishop on 7g. Black opens the bishop’s diagonal with the pawn to 6e and counters on the 7th file with a pawn dropped on 7c and the bishop to 9e.

Black can also keep the left silver on 7i, where it guards the bishop, and jump the knight to 7g and 8e as soon as you push the pawn to 7d; the Mynavi article calls that line equal as well.

Black’s Sleeve Rook

This line is Black’s, but its two boards are drawn from White’s side like the rest of the page, so Black’s rook on 3h stands near the top.

Against a static rook (対居飛車)

The oldest use of the Sleeve Rook is Black’s, against a static rook whose king has gone to 3b, and ja.wikipedia describes it first. With the bishop’s diagonal closed, Black brings the left silver to 5g, pushes the 3rd-file pawn and swings the rook to 3h, aimed at White’s king up the file (the first board).

The silver goes on to 4f and the pawn to 3e; after the exchange Black drops a pawn on 3d, brings the knight from 3g to 4e, and when White promotes a pawn on 8g, finishes with the pawn promoting on 3c, a knight trade on 3c and the silver to 2d (the second board).

A second Mynavi column gives the line from move 1 and shows White’s king mated soon after. ja.wikipedia gives the same attack, with the same last five moves, from a diagram of its own, and calls it Sakata’s Sleeve Rook and a surprise attack. The moves up to the rook on 3h have the column alone.