Tips on Third File Rook

Yauchi (Queen) won the 3rd game of Queen title match and she defended the title.

Iwane selected thirdfilerook opening, and then she advanced the formation into Ishida-ryu.
She was just one step away from winning... , which means she missed mate on the endgame!

You can see detail commentary of the game on the sites below.

• Mynavi Women's Open Official Site (Written in Japanese)
  
• yamajunn's shogi News: Shogi News : YAUCHI beated IWANE's Sanken Bisha and defended her title . (Jo-o)
• Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World: My twitter entries about the moves of 3rd game of Mynavi Joshi Open.

Toyoshima (5dan) used Ishida-Ryu at the tournament finals in Ryuo-sen yesterday, and he won.
Take a look at the game record below.
You can also see the record on the Ryuo-sen site (Unfortunately This site is in Japanese).
http://live.shogi.or.jp/ryuou/

Let me introduce "Ishida-Ryu" from this entry.

At first, I introduce "Classic Ishida-Ryu". This name is not official, but given by myself.

Classic Ishida-Ryu is one of the Ishida-ryu formation which Bishop is on 9g (Figure 1).
This Ishida-ryu is used since early times.
The formation is well-balanced defence and offence, and therefore beautiful.

However, Classic Ishida-Ryu is not often used in recent years.
The reasons are as follows:

1. Rook Pawn
Static Rook tend to move Rook Pawn to 8e instantly (Figure 2), which makeｓ third file rook move B-7g compulsory.

2. Climbing Gold
There is a overwhelming odds for classic Ishida-Ryu, that is "Boukin" (Climbing Gold. I will introduce this tactics in future entry). If Ishida-Ryu moves Bishop to 9g too early, Static Rook aims Climbing Gold. So Ishida ryu had better keep Bishop on 8h until Static Rook shows his tactics - Climbing Gold or slow game. If Static Rook move right Gold to 5b or 5a that means slow game (such as Bear-in-the-Hole), then you can move Bishop to 9g.

3. Tough Fight against Static Rook's Slow game
Unfortunately, the winning percentage of Classic Ishida-Ryu against Static Rook's slow game is not good (under .500 probably) at the moment in professional shogi world.

I hope a good Classic Ishida-ryu Joseki which leads the position against Static Rook is found by professional players.

Take a look at an example below:

Case 3. Against 42Bishop & 53Silver tactics
This is last case of Koyan Style against Static Rook Bear-in-the-Hole.

(Please note that there are another Koyan Style against Static Rook's quick attack and Static Rook with Mino Castle. I will introduce these tactics some day in the future.)

Fig.1 shows a situation that white moves his Bishop from 3c to 4b in order to prevent from fork by Knight.
(Another move to prevent from fork is P-4d, that means Case 2.)

In this case, static rook player tend to move his 2 Golds to 3a and 3b, while black should make own position better.

The keys of this Koyan style are:

• Aims four general mino castle with 4th file vanguard Pawn.
• Attacks from 3rd file and edge (Please refer to Figure 2). Central attack might not work well due to defence by 64Silver.

Take a look at an example below:

Case 2. Against 44Pawn tactics
The keys of this Koyan style are:

• Attacks from 4e.
• Aims four general mino castle with 4th file vanguard Pawn

44Pawn tactics is used when Static Rook Player aims to castle Bear-in-Hole safely. 44Pawn defends 11 King from diagonal line of opposite Bishop.

Koyan style allow to castle Bear-in-Hole.
Instead, this style attacks from 4e and then makes own mino castle more extensive and offensive.

Take a look at an example below:

Koyan Style is a series of countermeasures against Static Rook Bear-in-the-Hole tactics.
The common aim of all Koyan Style forms is, not to allow Static Rook to castle Four generals Bear-in-the-Hole, unlike Manabe Style.

The style name is derived from a nickname for Isao Nakata (7 dan), who is a professional shogi player using the style uniquely in current professional Shogi world.

Case 1. Against 33bishop + 64silver tactics
The keys are:

• Right knight is on 37.
• Pawn in 4th file is not on 45, but 46.
• Aims counterattack by using right knight
  

White obviously aims quick attack by using right silver.
Black's central attack doesn't work on Figure 1 due to the deffence by right silver on 64.
(On the other hand, the central attack of Manabe Style can work because white's right silver is on 33. Please take a look at "Manabe Style" for comparison).

Instead, as soon as white starts attack, black counterattacks immediately.

Take a look at an example below:

Manabe Style is one of the formation against 44 silver formation Bear-in-the-Hole.

The style name is derived from Manabe Kazuo (9 dan), who was a professional shogi player using the style regularly (Unfortunately he died in 2007).

The keys of Manabe Style are as follows:

• Four Generals Mino, one of which silver is placed on 46. The mino castle is strong and extensive thanks to 4th file vanguard pawn.
  
• Parry static rook's 8th file attack easily, and then attack from 5th file

Manabe style make the opponent right silver move to 33 (which leads very storng Bear-in-the-Hole) on purpose.
Instead, Manabe style is more extensive and strong on 4th and 5th file.
In middle-game, basically Manabe Style attacks from 5th file using promoted pawns.

Take a look at an example below: