"Avoid a sitting king" - What can we learn from Japanese Chess Proverbs? Part 1

As a kid I loved playing a lot of board games. My favourites were Risk, Monopoly (when my dad wouldn't crush me) and Chess. However, there was one other board game that took its share of the spotlight: Shogi! (Japanese Chess for the ill-informed). It may surprise you but whilst the rest of the world is enamoured with our royal game, there is another strategic board game that rules in the Japan:

This video is a brilliant and fascinating introduction to Shogi.

I myself got into Shogi via a very weird route. When I was around 12 years old I owned a "Nintendo ds" game called "42 All-Time Classics:" 

It was called Club House Games in the US, but 42 All-Time Classics in Europe.

It is, and still remains, one of my favourite ds games due to its great multiplayer features and wide range of different board/card games to play - great if a human opponent was not available. In this game was a campaign mode where you had to play every different game to progress and unlock new games to play. At the top of the 42-game mountain, in what felt like Mt. Fuji at this point, was the game Shogi. It was weird, it was mysterious... but I got battered by the AI very easily. This was not a game for the faint-hearted. It was chess but on steroids! If the kanji characters weren't confusing enough, the added challenge of defending against your opponent's drops was incredibly difficult. I just could not beat the AI and became very frustrated against my only silicon opponent (although I revisited this game recently and crushed it!).

Thankfully around this same time I was watching a lot of anime. One of my favourite shows at the time was Naruto. There was a memorable scene in which Shikamaru and his sensei, Asuma, had a flashback scene involving them playing shogi. Unfortunately I could not find this scene on Youtube, but this certainly rekindled my interest in the mysterious Japanese board game.

I found a similar scene involving Shikamaru and his dad. Not the same scene but still full of suspense

Luckily at this time there were online servers available for me to play against a real human! No more Mr. Silicon beating all my enthusiasm for the game! Furthermore, the online server I used had an option for Westernised pieces:

Finally I was not getting so confused with the Japanese characters! This allowed me to learn and grow as a player. At the same time, Youtube was also becoming a great source of learning new hobbies. A user by the new of Hidetchi: https://www.youtube.com/user/HIDETCHI started producing some wonderful lessons for me to properly learn the theory of the game. I would highly recommend you check them out if you are seriously thinking of learning the game. He covers all kinds of content from the basics, etiquette, Openings (Jousekis) to advanced checkmate puzzles:

As a teenager, I became active on the European shogi servers and Hidetchi's 81-square dojo. Although I was still terrible (and still am) I enjoyed my time with shogi before my passion for chess became too strong to ignore. 

Shoji Proverbs

The Japanese have a rich culture and an even richer language filled to the brim with sayings and proverbs. In chess we have a number of principles and memorable sayings too: "Knights on the rim are dim", "Don't get your queen out too early in the opening", "don't draw games too much like like Anish Giri" - okay the last one I made up. In what I hope to be a number of blogs, I want to explore some of the great proverbs they have in shogi and see if they have any application in chess

Proverb 1# - Avoid a sitting king/ Igyoku wa sakeyo

In Shogi it is ill-advised to start an attack without ensuring your king is safe. Much like in chess, King safety is paramount, and so we are taught to avoid keeping our king in the centre and castle as soon as possible. 

Since castling does not exist in shogi, often players will engage in a number of different move set-ups for castling their king. Most often than not, the first 20 moves are both player's slowly castling! Here are a few I remember:

Yagura CastleThis is known as Yagura's castle (the fortress opening). It is one of the most solid opening set-ups that can be employed in shogi. I have highlighted the position of the kings in this opening. Here their flanks are firmly covered by two gold generals (A strong defensive piece) a silver general and a bishop. This opening set-up is an impressive 24-moves! You will never complain about learning the Sicilian defense after seeing some of the Shogi Jousekis' that they have to learn! 

Once again Hidetchi has provided an excellent video on this castling structure.

Anaguma's castle ("Bear in the hole" castle)

Much like with Yagura's castle, Anaguma's castle creates a solid fortress for the king to sit in. By sitting in corner, he is surrounded by his comrades ready to parry any on-coming attack. This castle structure sits on the extreme of over-protection but has remained a popular castling structure in professional shogi. 

Mino's castle

This is Mino's castle. This was a castle I used to play when I was a beginner due to it's simple set-up. Here the king's flank is firmly protected. Whilst this opening is easy to memorise, if the king comes under a direct assault, it may struggle to cope (unlike in the other castles I showed you). 

Castle early

Castling is normally always a good move. Unless you are plunging your king into danger through the act of castling, it is a great move to get your king off the dangerous central highway of chess (where most of the action passes through) and also develops your rooks getting them into play. One of the best players to exploit other for not castling early was Paul Morphy. Here we see him dismantle Rousseau (for whom the "Rousseau gambit" is named after) because his king sits in the middle.