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'' ...

, Yōryū Fourth File Rook (耀龍四間飛車 ''yōryū shikenbisha'') is a

Fourth File Rook In shogi, Fourth File Rook (四間飛車 ''shikenbisha'') is a class of Ranging Rook openings in which the rook is initially positioned on the fourth file if played by White or the sixth file if played by Black. History The earlie ...

(

Ranging Rook Ranging Rook or Swinging Rook (振り飛車 ''furibisha'') openings in shogi position the rook to the center or left of the player's board to support an attack there. Ranging Rook strategies used in Ranging Rook vs Static Rook are among the old ...

)

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 * , ...

. This strategy was developed by

Takahiro Ōhashi is a Japanese professional shogi player ranked 7-dan. Early life and apprenticeship Ōhashi was born in Shingū, Wakayama on September 22, 1992. He learned how to play shogi as fourth-grade elementary school student, and entered the Japan Sho ...

, who published a systematic study of it in a book of the same name in 2020. He was awarded the prestigious Masuda Award in 2021 for the development of this tactic.

Overview

This tactic is a similar to a Normal Fourth File Rook opening. Instead of castling the king in a Mino castle, it is castled first in a

Cozy castle The Cozy castle or Ōsumi castle () is a type of shogi castle. It is one of the fastest castles to form; it can be completed in just three moves (e.g., in the case of Black (''sente'') castling to the right, K-48, K-38, G-48). It is mainly used ...

, from which it can develop into various castles such as an Amano Fortress, Doi Fortress,

Right King In shogi, Right King or Right-hand King (右玉 ''migi gyoku'') is a defensive subcomponent of different openings in which the king stays on the right side of the board together with the rook, which protects the back rank (rank 9) as well as the e ...

Subway Rook Subway Rook (地下鉄飛車 ''chikatetsubisha'') is an uncommon Static Rook shogi opening with the rook on the bottom rank 9 (or rank 1 for White) that supports an attack on the ninth file. It may be useful against an opponent playing a Rangin ...

, Peerless Golds, etc., depending on the circumstances. The characteristic of the Yōryū Fourth File Rook is that it keeps the position of the king at 38 (72 for White). While moving the king to a place other than 38 to develop the castle is also possible, that is different from the original conception of the Yōryū Fourth File Rook. The term ''Yōryū'' (耀龍 'shining dragon') was coined by Ōhashi to refer to some of his own strategies, and is not the name of the castle for this strategy. The idea of castling the king in the

in normal Fourth File Rook openings has existed since the early days of classical shogi, and has also been used in conventional modern shogi, as attested by numerous examples, and thus, it cannot be said that Ōhashi's Yōryū Fourth File Rook is the first strategy in using it. However, in Ōhashi's book, he systematically explains for Black and White how to play against rapid attack games (Left Mino Rapid Attack,

Left Silver-57 Rapid Attack Left Silver-57 Rapid Attack or Left Silver-5g Rapid Attack or Left Silver-5g Quick Attack (5七銀左急戦 ''go-nana gin hidari kyuusen'') is a fast attacking strategy in shogi used with several different Static Rook openings often played by Bla ...

, Pawn-46 Climbing Silver, Right Silver-57 Rapid Attack, Elmo castle Rapid Attack) and slow games (

Static Rook Anaguma In shogi, Bear-in-the-hole Static Rook or Anaguma Static Rook (居飛車穴熊 ''ibisha anaguma'') is a Static Rook opening that utilizes a Bear-in-the-hole castle. It is typically played against Ranging Rook opponents. vs Fourth File Rook, ...

, Matsuo Anaguma, Left Mino, Silver Crown, Silver Crown Anaguma), from a position in the Cozy castle with a normal Fourth File Rook. Since there had been no published book that presented such a study until then, it made an impact on the shogi community. In April 2021, Ōhashi won the Kōzō Masuda Award for his development of this strategy.

Characteristics

Compared to a

Mino castle The Mino castle (美濃囲い ''minō gakoi'' or 本美濃囲い ''hon minō gakoi'') is a castle used in shogi. Mino castle is a very commonly used defensive formation that may be used within both Ranging Rook and Static Rook positions again ...

, the 72-King position has some advantages, such as avoiding the bishop's diagonal and being strong against counters when doing edge attacks. In addition, the Cozy castle has a high capability for development. In Yōryū Fourth File Rook, the player takes advantage of the above points to develop the formation as occasion may demand. It requires careful moves and is played with a slightly more Double Static Rook form than the standard Ranging Rook.

Notes

External links

* {{lang in, ja: April 2021 introductory video on professional shogi player Shingo Itō's official ''Itoshin TV'' YouTube channel. Shogi openings Ranging Rook openings Fourth File Rook openings