2014年12月15日月曜日

Basic Tactics For Breaking Yagura Castle (3)

Continued from the previous article.
http://kingcrimsondiscipline.blogspot.jp/2014/11/basic-tactics-for-breaking-yagura_25.html

▲N*24 is a common tactic of Yagura. Then, as I mentioned earlier, there are some ways dealing with it. Let's look at the actual examples in pro games.
Diag.1 is the game between Daisuke Katagami and Eiji Iijima. It's sente (Katagami) to play.

Diag.1

Here, sente played ▲N*24. What should gote play against it?
If △G32-42 is played, ▲B*65 would be an effective attack. After the rook run to somewhere, with ▲Bx43+ △Gx ▲G*32, it's possible to make the shape for capturing the king. And, △G-31 is also the same thing with ▲B*65. Therefore, gote needs to take the knight. It proceeds with △Px ▲Px (Diag.2).

Diag.2

In Diag.2, gote has three ways to deal with the attack from above. (1) △P*23 (2) △N*31 and (3) △Sx.

(1) △P*23

As I wrote in the previous article, after ▲Px+ △Gx, the castle gets weaker against the attack from the side instead of gaining a knight. In this case, ▲B*41 becomes a fork aiming at ▲Bx23+ and ▲Bx74+. Also, if gote protects the gold on 23 with △P*24, ▲S*32 will be more severe than ▲Bx74+. Thus,  △P*23 doesn't fit into this position as there is a subsequent attack for sente.

(2) △N*31

This move adds the power to 23 in order to remove the threat of ▲S*23. But, as well as when △P*23, ▲B*41 would be a severe move aiming at ▲S*23 and ▲Bx74+. In general, the basis front of the king like ▲P24 should not be left as it is, especially while the opponent has a piece to drop on 23. It's too risky.

(3) △Sx

This is a common move. With ▲Rx △P*23, although gote loses material, he can gain a tempo instead. In the endgame, the speed to capture the opponent's king is more important than gaining material. Basically, when attacked the castle, the defender usually has two plans, continuing to defend thoroughly or countering after gaining a tempo. If it's difficult to stop the attack, the player should select the latter.

Actually, in reply to ▲Px24, Iijima (gote) selected △Sx ▲Rx △P*23. Then, it proceeded with ▲R-27 △N*85 (Diag.3). ▲R-27 means protecting the point on 77 horizontally, and △N*85 added more power to 77.
In Diag.3, ▲S*41 is considered as one of candidate moves. This is also the basic tactic for breaking Yagura. If the gold run to 42, there would be an attack like ▲S*52 △G43-33 ▲B*51.
Katagami played ▲S*65 defensively, though. It would be still an equal game in both cases.


Diag.3

Compared with △P*23 and △N*31, △Sx appears frequently against the attack from ▲N*24.














3 件のコメント:

  1. Wow! I will have to go through all 3 parts. I think it should improve noticeably the quality of my play, as I often preffer Yagura myself. Congratulations for the blog! To have a pro present it in English, that's really wonderful!

    返信削除
  2. Thank you for the easy way in describing on how to moves and your English is just fine.

    返信削除
  3. Very instructive, thanks a lot!

    返信削除