Bird Catcher.

Static rook, a rapid attack on a ranging rook · castles into Boat, with the bishop on 7i · 鳥刺し torisashi

The idea

The Bird Catcher is a rapid attack on a ranging rook in which Black never opens the bishop’s diagonal. The bishop drops back from 8h to 7i, the square the left silver has left, and from there it backs that silver, which climbs 6h, 5g, 4f; ja.wikipedia says the bishop behind the silver looked like a bird-catcher holding out his pole, which gave the name.

Keeping the 7th-file pawn at home also takes away the ranging rook’s usual counter. With the bishops facing each other, White’s pawn to 4e can win material back with a bishop trade; here it cannot. The king castles quickly, to 7h. The opening is old, from Edo-period handicap games.

This line starts with the silver to 6h, the first move of the Ureshino: shogilounge, the line’s source, says Ureshino players who meet a ranging rook arrive in the Bird Catcher. Three other sources give Black’s build to move 19 in another order, with the rook pawn first; the moves after it have shogilounge alone.

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

• Wait until White has swung the rook. Against a static rook, play something else.
• Push the centre pawn to 5f and bring the left silver to 5g, then the rook pawn to 2e.
• Pull the bishop back to 7i and castle: king to 6h and 7h, right silver to 4h.
• Push the pawn to 3f, then the silver to 4f and the pawn to 3e.
• When White strikes with the pawn to 4e, push on to 3d, and bring the bishop from 7i into the attack once the silver has gone.

What to watch for

• Where White’s silver stands. Against a silver kept on 3b, the attack goes through: the pawn to 3e, the silver to 4f, and White’s pawn to 4e can be ignored for the rook-pawn push.
• White’s pawn to 4e against the silver on 4f. Taking it with the silver runs into White’s pawn to 3e; the source prefers the pawn to 3d.
• White’s bishop retreat to 5a. It blunts the attack, and the game turns slow.
• The edge. A proverb says the Bird Catcher should aim at the edge.

What it is played against

A Fourth File Rook, or a Third File Rook, with a Mino. White’s main answer brings the silver to 4c and swings the rook to 3b, then fights back with the pawn to 4e.

White can also pull the bishop back to 5a. shogilounge’s view is that White should defend solidly rather than counter lightly, and it recommends a Third File Rook against it.