shogi , also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as Western chess, ''chaturanga, Xiangqi'', Indian chess, and '' janggi''. ''Shōgi'' ...

, the Duck or Duck Legs (アヒル ''ahiru'')

opening Opening may refer to: * Al-Fatiha, "The Opening", the first chapter of the Qur'an * The Opening (album), live album by Mal Waldron * Backgammon opening * Chess opening * A title sequence or opening credits * , a term from contract bridge * , ...

is a surprise Static Rook position characterized by a Duck

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

and formation similar to a Double Wing Attack opening that transitions to a

Twisting Rook The Twisting Rook (ひねり飛車 ''hineribisha'') opening strategy is characterized by first playing a Static Rook shogi opening, opening, which then switches to a Ranging Rook strategy with the rook positioned in front of one's camp. Twis ...

-like position. It is typically used in a

Double Static Rook Double Static Rook (相居飛車 ''ai-ibisha'') positions are shogi openings in which both players use a Static Rook position. Relation to castles Most Static Rook openings coincide with a castle development on the player's left side of boar ...

game; however, there is a variation for playing against a Ranging Rook opponent. The opening may be played by amateurs but is not used by professional players. Essentially, the opening tries to trade the major pieces to get them in hand in order to drop them within the opponent's camp. Since the Duck castle is defends broadly against major piece drops, this situation can favor the Duck player. Failing the piece exchange, the Duck opening typically aims for an edge attack to break through their opponent's camp.

Against Static Rook

1. P-26 P-84, 2. P-25 P-85. Double Wing opening. After this, there are two published variations in 湯川 (2015). One has an early floating rook (in the section below) while the other variation has an early peeping bishop (immediately following section).

Early peeping bishop

3. P-96. Protect bishop head indirectly via the edge pawn instead of the more common gold defense. This move allows for the peeping bishop (のぞき角 ''nozoki kaku'') position characteristic of this opening. 3. ...G-22. Gold protects bishop head. 4. B-97. The peeping bishop. White's 53 pawn is now being attacked. 4. ...S-62. White must defend against the attack of Black's peeping bishop. Using their right silver to do this is a natural move since this silver is usually advanced for attack anyway. However, this move allows prevents White from using a direct Climbing Silver offensive. 5. P-24 Px24, 6. Rx24. Black trades his second file pawn in order to get a pawn in hand. 6. ...P*23. White must protect their bishop head square (23) from Black dropping a pawn there. Dropping a pawn on 23 for this purpose is a standard move in Double Wing openings. 7. R-26. Black retreats their rook to rank 6 in a floating rook position. This floating rook position is necessary in the Duck opening since Black must protect their peeping bishop from an edge attack if White pushes their ninth file pawn (...P-94, ...P-95). 7. ...K-41. White starts castling their king leftward away from their rook. 8. S-68 S-42, 9. S-48 G-52. Black also starts castling first starting with moving both silvers up and toward the center building the legs of the Duck castle. White builds a Crab castle. 10. G-79. Black moves both golds outward creating the Duck feet. 10. ...P-34. White activates their bishop by openings its diagonal. Black offers a rook trade. A rook trade would be beneficial to Black since their Duck castle has their camp well defended against a rook drop while White's camp has open undefended spaces. Therefore, White should reject the rook trade.

Rejecting rook trade

=Edge attack

Accepting rook trade

Early floating rook

3. R-26. In this variation, Black dispenses with an initial rook trade and instead moves their rook into the floating rook (浮き飛車 ''ukibisha'') position on rank 6. (Cf. the initial position of

Buoyant Rook In shogi, Buoyant Rook (浮き浮き飛車 or ウキウキ飛車 ''ukiukibisha'') or the Deceiver (目くらまし ''me kuramashi'' or 浮き飛車目くらまし ''ukibisha me kuramashi'') is a surprise Static Rook opening in which the player's ...

Against Ranging Rook

Bibliography

* * {{Shogi openings Shogi openings Double Static Rook openings Static Rook openings Static Rook vs Ranging Rook openings Shogi surprise openings