Openings · 横歩取り△２三歩
Side Pawn Pawn*23.
Answer Black’s rook pawn exchange with a pawn dropped on 2c, let Black take the side pawn, then trade bishops and drop one on 2e at the rook.
The idea
This line is White’s, and the old way to meet the Side Pawn Capture. You drop a pawn on 2c to chase Black’s rook instead of exchanging your own rook pawn. When the rook takes on 3d, you trade bishops and drop yours on 2e, attacking the rook and threatening to promote on 4g.
The sources agree that it does not work: Black gives the rook for your gold, guards 4g with the silver, and after Mori Keiji’s pawn to 1f your bishop on 2e has nowhere safe to go. ja.wikipedia says that Kimura Yoshio’s good results taking the pawn in this line, from about 1930, made the capture normal, and that it now turns up in professional games once every few years at most.
If Black does not take the pawn and pulls the rook back instead, the game is a Double Wing. The line here ends with Black better, as every source says of the opening; its last four moves have one source.
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 | Black opens the bishop’s diagonal. You open yours. |
| 3 | ▲２六歩 2g2f | △８四歩 8c8d | Black pushes the rook pawn. You push yours. |
| 5 | ▲２五歩 2f2e | △８五歩 8d8e | Black’s pawn to 2e. Yours to 8e. |
| 7 | ▲７八金 6i7h | △３二金 4a3b | Black’s gold to 7h guards the bishop’s head. Your gold to 3b guards yours. |
| 9 | ▲２四歩 2e2d | △同歩 2c2d | Black pushes the pawn on to 2d, to exchange it. You take. |
| 11 | ▲同飛 2h2d | △２三歩 P*2c | Black’s rook takes back. The opening’s move: instead of exchanging on your side, a pawn dropped on 2c, at the rook. |
| 13 | ▲３四飛 2d3d | △８八角成 2b8h+ | Black takes the side pawn. Pulling the rook back to 2f or 2h instead would make the game a Double Wing. You trade bishops. |
| 15 | ▲同銀 7i8h | △２五角 B*2e | Black takes back with the silver. A bishop dropped on 2e, at the rook, aiming to promote on 4g. |
| 17 | ▲３二飛成 3d3b+ | △同銀 3a3b | Black gives the rook for your gold, promoting on 3b. The silver takes. |
| 19 | ▲３八銀 3i3h | △３三銀 3b3c | Black’s silver to 3h covers 4g. The silver to 3c stops a bishop drop on 2b. |
| 21 | ▲１六歩 1g1f | △２四歩 2c2d | Mori Keiji’s move, the pawn to 1f: it takes 1d away from the bishop, so that a gold dropped on 3e would trap it. The pawn to 2d opens a way back for the bishop. |
| 23 | ▲３一金 G*3a | △２二飛 8b2b | Black drops a gold on 3a, at the knight on 2a. The rook comes across from 8b to 2b to guard it: the only defence. |
| 25 | ▲２三歩 P*2c | △同飛 2b2c | A pawn dropped on 2c, at the rook. The rook takes it. |
| 27 | ▲３二角 B*3b | A bishop dropped on 3b, at the rook. The source calls Black better. |
The plan once you are set up
- After Black’s rook takes on 2d, drop a pawn on 2c at it.
- When the rook takes on 3d, trade bishops and drop yours on 2e.
- After Black’s rook takes your gold, take back with the silver and move it on to 3c, stopping a bishop drop on 2b.
- Find a way back for the bishop on 2e before Black can trap it.
What to watch for
- The bishop dropped on 4e instead of 2e loses it: Black’s rook goes to 3e, and after your bishop promotes on 2g, a bishop dropped on 1e and the pawn to 3f shut the horse in.
- Mori’s pawn to 1f, and then a gold dropped on 3e, which would trap the bishop.
- After the pawn to 2d, Black’s gold dropped on 3a attacks your knight on 2a; the rook has to come across to 2b, and a pawn dropped on 2c and a bishop dropped on 3b follow.
- Black can answer the bishop on 2e with the rook to 3f instead; ja.wikipedia gives Satō Yasumitsu’s bishop dropped on 2g as the move that keeps Black better there too.
What it is played against
Black takes the pawn, gives the rook for your gold when the bishop lands on 2e, covers 4g with the silver and pushes the edge pawn. Black can also keep things quiet by pulling the rook back to 2f or 2h, which turns the game into a Double Wing.
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.