Saturday, April 1, 2017

Snowroof Castle (Gangi Gakoi-雁木)

Hello guys,this is my first shogi post/blogspot,so feel free to correct me if i am wrong or if i can make things better for you.
I decided to start things off with a little info about the Gangi castle in shogi.
Gangi or snowroof is a castle formation that resembles the roofs of houses.

(Here is a link to show you where it took its name from: http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/1a9b41a324464d1bb39c8f39763eb4d7/japan-koshinnetsu-region-niigata-prefecture-itoigawa-hakusan-shrine-ex8d96.jpg)

It is used as a castle formation in static rook openings.This is it's typical formation.





Some themes that may arise are:
1)The Bishop route:B7g-B5i-B2f/B3g which aims to attack an opponent's castled king towards it's rook side,so used against ranging rook opponents.
2)The Bishop opening:P6e opening the bishop's diagonal,which collaborates well with R4h and N3g,giving and almost Right 4th file rook formation,without the silver on 5e.Furthermore,the user can play P-4e,S-4f and N-3g for a more attacking scheme.
3)Another theme is that via the bishop route from 7g can end at 2f and then the rook can be moved to the 3rd file,adopting a sleeve rook formation.
4)P-8f,Gold General from 7h to 8g and B7g.Then the king can either stay at his initial gangi position(6i) or move in the front 7 or 6 h,having as protection a huge "shield" of pawns defended by generals and the bishop,or the player can try to pierce through with the help of the left gold general and the bishop,and reach the opponent's territory and make it harder to get mated.


Usually as the game progresses,when the bishop is moved to 7g,the king leaves 6i and goes to 7i or 8h.

The opening can take a more defensive formation in case the opponent goes for a ranging rook strategy,simply by swapping places between the king's position and the left gold general's position.
There is always the option of changing gangi and trying to build a silver yagura castle.

It is an opening that it is rarely seen nowadays,though there are games where it is used from time to time.For example a game from 2012-09-19 Sente: Habu Yoshiharu and Gote: Watanabe Akira, Oza.
Here Watanabe employed the Gangi Castle.


Below i will provide some links in case you want to find more info.

http://live.shogi.or.jp/ouza/kifu/61/ouza201309180101.html
http://www.shogi24.com/YB_2012.pdf
http://yamajunnshoginews.blogspot.gr/2009/09/shogi-game-record-unclssified-gangi.html
http://shogienespanol.blogspot.gr/2015/12/castillo-gangi.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowroof
http://japanesechess.org/gsdb/index.php?collection=first_40_moves (Kifu 58-60)
http://www.shogi-rule.com/category7/entry27.html
http://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/%E9%9B%81%E6%9C%A8%E5%9B%B2%E3%81%84

I hope it helps give you a glimpse of this shogi opening!!!

2 comments:

  1. Re: "3)Another theme is that via the bishop route from 7g can end at 2e and then the rook can be moved to the 3rd file,adopting a sleeve rook formation."

    I guess there's typo: should be bishop to 2f (2六角), right?

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    Replies
    1. Yes it is 2f,my mistake :/ i will correct it,thanks for noticing :)

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