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 Morishita System (森下システム ''morishita shisutemu'') is a strategy used by Black in

Double Fortress The Double Fortress (相矢倉 or 相櫓 ''aiyagura'') is a shogi opening in which both players construct Fortress formations. Double Fortress games are the most common type of Fortress games found at all levels of play. Historical Fortress ...

(

Static Rook Static Rook (居飛車 ''ibisha'') openings in shogi typically have the player's rook at its start position, which is the second file (on the 28 square) for Black and the eighth file (on the 82 square) for White. Explanation Static Rook is a ...

)

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 * , ...

s. The strategy was invented by professional player

Taku Morishita is a Japanese professional shogi player, ranked 9-dan. He is a former director of the Japanese Shogi Association, and is currently serving as an executive director. He was the challenger for the Meijin title in 1995 against Yoshiharu Habu. H ...

for which he won the prestigious

Kōzō Masuda was a Japanese professional shogi player who achieved the rank of 9-dan. He is a former Meijin who was known for playing very creative shogi. For instance, top player Yoshiharu Habu considered Masuda's playing style to be 30 years ahead of its t ...

shogi award. Morishita himself has described it as a way of thinking rather than a specific strategy. Hitoshige Awaji and

Teruichi Aono Teruichi Aono (青野照市 ''Aono Teruichi,'' born January 1, 1953) is a 9-dan professional shogi player from Yaizu, Shizuoka. Shogi professional Promotion history The promotion history of Aono is as follows: * 4-kyū: 1968 * 1-dan: 1970 ...

are well known for their efforts to systematize it.

Overview

The accompanying diagram shows the basic position. The Morishita System delays moving the right attacking silver to 37 early. Instead, it simply moves the bishop to 68 allowing the king to move into the Fortress castle in subsequent moves. The position continues with Black's N-37, B-64, and P-26. While it is traditionally said in shogi that Fortress is a position in which "Black decides the position while White deals with it," in this strategy this is intentionally reversed. It can be said that the way of thinking is that with the P-26 push, the Nakahara style B-68 move is handed over. Just like in the Katō subvariation of the S-37 variation, when the attitude is decided ahead of time, the main point of the Morishita system is for Black to wait to see the opponent's attitude before deciding on one. With the right silver on S-48 castling the king becomes the priority, and depending on White's strategy, typically S-57 and then S57-68 can be used, or alternatively the knight will be jumped to N-37 (this is also called Knight-37 strategy) and the rook moved to the third file, so that P-46 and then S-47 can be used. Finally, a S-37 strategy can also be developed from it. For some time, the Morishita System become the dominant way to play Fortress. Compared with the earlier three strategies of R-29,

Spearing the Sparrow In shogi, Spearing the Sparrow (雀刺し or スズメ刺し ''suzumezashi'') is one of the substrategies of the Fortress (Static Rook) class of openings. The strategy is basically an edge attack on the first file if played by Black or the ninth f ...

, and

Climbing Silver Climbing Silver (棒銀 ''bōgin'', literally "pole-silver") is a shogi strategy. Climbing Silver involves advancing a silver upward along with an advanced or dropped pawn supported by the rook aiming to break through the opponent's camp on thei ...

variation of Fortress, the "wait and see" attitude was compared with

rock–paper–scissors Rock paper scissors (also known by other orderings of the three items, with "rock" sometimes being called "stone," or as Rochambeau, roshambo, or ro-sham-bo) is a hand game originating in China, usually played between two people, in which each p ...

Decline

By castling faster than White, the defining feature of the Morishita System also becomes a weak point insofar as it enables a

attack. Due to this weak point, the Morishita System all but disappeared.

Gōda R-38 Strategy

Against this,

Masataka Gōda is a Japanese professional shogi player, ranked 9-dan. He is a former major title holder, having won the Ōi, Kisei, Kiō and Ōshō titles throughout his career. Early life Gōda was born on March 17, 1971, in Suginami, Tokyo. He learned ho ...

's play consisting of moving the rook to R-38 without engaging in the G-67, P-74 exchange came to be called the Gōda variation. By postponing the king's move, this strategy provided capacity of resistance against

. With the aim of exchanging pawns on the third file and so on, it was said that this strategy took over the main rationale behind the Morishita System and became a revival of its driving power. The basic idea of this strategy was to move on the third rather than on the second file by not pushing the rook pawn.

The Revival of Morishita System

While Gōda's R-38 variation was being played,

Kōichi Fukaura is a Japanese professional shogi player, ranked 9-dan. He is a three-time winner of the Ōi tournament, and also a former member of the Japan Shogi Association's board of directors. Early life Fukaura was born in Sasebo, Nagasaki on February 14, ...

started research on the conventional Morishita System resulting in postponing the king's move to K-88 against

, by moving the silver to S-46, and then P-55, Px55, Sx55, hence building the position from the fifth file, which was found effective and made the Morishita System become popular once again.

Bibliography

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External links