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From lesson#17, I'll show you various types of castles.
I believe this is what most of you have been waiting for.
When you learn about castles, learning only their names and how they look doesn't do anything.
It is important that you learn the strong points and the weak points of each castle,
and what kind of strategy they should be used in.
There's no castle that is perfect and can be used in any strategy.
Shogi strategies can be classified roughly into two types. "static rook" and "ranging rook".
Static rook is a strategy where the rook, which is the key piece to attack, stays on its initial file and attacks,
which is pretty rational.
In static rook strategy, the king will be castled in the left.
And, ranging rook is a strategy where the rook moves to the left part of the board in the early stage of the game,
and the king is castled in the right.
Why we should even bother to do that in the first place?
Well, I'll explain the merit of ranging rook strategy in the next lesson.
Anyway, therefore, we have basically three types of shogi games, right?
Those are,
"double static rook", in which both players play static rook.
And, "static rook versus ranging rook", or the opposite.
And lastly, "double ranging rook".
You have to choose the type of the castle according to which of these three types of game you're playing.
And today, I'll show you castles for double static rook.
So, let's start with "yagura castle".
The procedure of making yagura is:
First, you make up the castle.
And then the bishop has to get out of the castle for the king.
Now, the king enters the castle.
You can save one move by making it like this.
But it's pretty dangerous, especially at these timings.
Your opponent will try to open fire.
Anyway, this is yagura castle.
It's designed to protect mainly the front, where your opponent's offense is deployed.
And the silver is defending this square.
It's weak points are the edge, and it's side.
The most important piece of yagura is this gold,
and if it's attacked from the side like this in the endgame,
it's pretty weak.
Sometimes your opponent drops a bishop here, and tries to take this gold.
Well, he loses material, but it's like you've lost the most important piece here, right?
And this is no longer an effective castle.
Oh, and another weak point is here.
You see, if it's attacked like this,
it can be easily damaged, and can't be repaired.
Now, let me show you some variations of yagura.
This is "silver yagura".
Actually, what you've seen is a "gold yagura".
And this is just a "yagura".
However, we usually call this "yagura castle", because it's the most common one.
So, anyway, a silver yagura is more flexible than a gold yagura.
If you can feel that it is somewhat flexible by seeing how it looks, then you're starting to have a good sense of shogi.
It is flexible because this square is no longer a weak point.
See?
And this silver also puts string to this gold, right?
However, this square is a weak point.
And you have to attack with a gold,
which is pretty difficult to use in the attack.
Sometimes we call this "complete yagura", or "sou yagura".
And this is a "4-piece yagura", "yon-mai yagura".
It's a very strong castle, but your offense will lack power.
This is called "silver standing yagura", "gin-tachi yagura".
And this, or this is called "kikusui yagura".
The king is far from your opponent's offense, but it's side is weaker.
This is "flowing yagura", "nagare yagura".
This is "hollow yagura", "hekomi yagura".
This is "diamond yagura", "hishi yagura".
This is called "half yagura", "kata yagura", or "Amano's yagura".
We use this when we have exchanged bishops in the early stage of the game.
It covers this square to prevent a bishop drop here,
which often be a good drop.
It's weak point is here.
Only the king is defending the square, while normal yagura defends there with two pieces.
This is called "crab castle", because the king can only move to the side like a crab.
You can see this castle in the progress of making yagura.
The king stays far from your opponent's offense, but it's too weak when it's attacked from the side.
There are many many other variants of yagura, but let's stop it right here.
OK, now, this is "snowroof", "gangi", which is peculiar.
This castle doesn't defend this square.
And the bishop stays here, and attacks in this diagonal.
But it's weak on the side.
This is also peculiar.
It's "right hand king", "migi-gyoku".
In this case, the rook is also a defensive piece.
Actually, right hand king is a very defensive strategy.
So, usually it's used by white.
Now, let me show you other types of static rook opening.
This is "double wing attack" opening, "aigakari".
And,
this is "side pawn picker" opening, "yokofudori".
In this kind of opening, in which the rooks move right and left,
you should castle the king in the center.
This is called, "central house", "nakazumai".
It's defending a wide area so that it prevents rook drops in your own camp.
It's weak point is here.
This is "duck legs", "ahiru".
Or "spreading golds", "kin-biraki".
And this is "Nakahara's king", "nakahara gyoku".
Now, that's all for today.