From: Larry Kaufman WIZARD NET> Date: 26 may 1998 Subject: Gold is better than silver. Gold is better than silver - the secret of four piece handicap. For some fifteen years now, my pet topic under the umbrella of shogi has been how to play four piece handicap (white removes rook, bishop, and both lances, and moves first) shogi for both sides. I am writing this article now for several reasons: 1. There is a need for more instructional material in shogi-L. 2. I imagine that a rather high percentage of shogi-L subscribers are in the low kyu range (say 1-4 kyu), which means that they would be offered four piece handicap by any visiting pros. I would like to impress any such pros with the level of western shogi by enabling western players to defeat pros at this handicap, which they generally cannot do. 3. I have made a major discovery which I hope will ultimately become recognized as the "true" Joseki (ideal opening play) of this handicap. 4. Four piece handicap is fascinating, because it looks so simple, yet is replete with surprising twists and turns. It is the largest handicap that is worthy of serious study (six piece handicap is really quite simple). 5. I have studied every book, article, and published game at this handicap, and although I am only Amateur 5 dan in shogi, my knowledge of four piece handicap is recognized as on a par with professionals, and I can generally give four piece handicap to the same players as most pros do, and in fact am even generally successful at this handicap against 1 dan opponents. I would like to share my knowledge with the shogi world. First some background. There are three basic systems recommended for black in various books, all seemingly leading to a clear win for black. The problem is that the books generally do not give the best or trickiest moves for white. My interest in the matter started when I heard the claims of the late Nada Rensho, professional 9 dan, who devoted much of the last decade of his life to four piece handicap shogi. He stated that 1: All the literature on this handicap was rubbish 2: The most widely recommended system for black, the climbing silver, was no good. 3: Any amateur who could defeat Nada in a series of games at four piece deserved to be ranked four dan, a boast that the backed up by winning nearly every game in a series published in "Shogi Magazine" against players in the 1-3 Dan range. As a 3 dan about fifteen years ago, I won 2 out of 3 from Nada at four piece, and the next year promoted to 4 dan. Unfortunately Nada never revealed how black should play the handicap, and died prematurely (age 58 I believe). This never made sense to me. In general, if a pro is playing a serious, head-to-head game with an amateur at two piece, the amateur needs to be about 3 dan to be favored to win. Surely four piece handicap should be much easier to win than two piece, yet Nada's results (and also those of a few other handicap specialists) contradict this. Of course black can just adopt two piece strategy (an approach recommended in one book by Naito 9 dan) at four piece, hoping to benefit from the absence of white's right lance, but the absence of the left lance may actually help white, as it is sometimes a target for the bishop. It seems to me that if black has to resort to this, he might as well just play at two piece. A proper four piece strategy should allow players to win who lack the strength to win at two piece. The published lines purport to do this, but fail. The three main strategies are the Knight attack (featuring N-1g-2e), the retreating bishop (featuring P-5f, S-7h, and B-7i), and the climbing silver (featuring exchanging off the 2 pawn, then climbing the silver from 3i-3h-2g-3f-2e). The knight attack is rather complicated, and the published lines overlook a brilliant resource for white that traps black's rook. Moreover white has several ways to thwart the published lines and confuse black. The retreating bishop can be met by S-6b-5c-4d, P-3d, and a timely ...P-3e to block the bishop's diagonal at a crucial moment. So most books advocate the climbing silver. However Nada showed that if white adopts the setup K on 3b, S on 2b, G on 3c, and S on 4d, black has no simple or clean way to break through. Moreover other pros (Iida Hiroyuki, Kato Hifumi, and the late Hanamura Motoji come to mind) have found other methods to make life difficult for the climbing silver player, and I even have my own pet system against this for white. I invented several alternate systems for black which I wrote about in the '80s in the British magazine "Shogi", but in every case I ultimately found ways for white to complicate the game and avoid a clear win for black. At last I believe I have found the best way for black to play at four piece. The solution is surprisingly simple. Instead of climbing the silver, climb the gold instead! The idea of climbing the gold ("Bokin" in Japanese) is well known in even games, but to my knowledge has never been suggested in handicap play. The greater agility of the gold makes all the difference, invalidating many defenses that are based on the silver's inability to move sideways or backwards. Also important is that after taking a pawn on 1d, the silver when attacked must retreat to 2e, while a gold will retreat to 1e. The difference is that with 2e open, black can bring up his knight to that square if it is needed. The only drawback is that when the gold is eventually exchanged off, white gets a slightly more valuable piece, but curiously in critical lines white is better off with a silver, as it ends up on 2c and needs to move diagonally backward to take black's pawn on 1b! To be perfectly candid, black's own defense of his king is slightly weaker with a silver left behind instead of a gold, but if black handles the breakthru properly his own king should never come under serious attack. In the remainder of this article, I will give sample lines showing how black has problems with the climbing silver and how climbing the gold instead solves these problems. Many of these lines have been tested in games with my son Raymond, whom I can no longer defeat at four piece since teaching him the climbing gold. I hope that Japanese professionals or top level amateurs will review my analysis and send me any comments, criticisms, or corrections. If I am wrong, I want to know it, and if I am right I hope that Japanese pros will accept the climbing gold as the true Joseki of yon-mae-ochi (four piece handicap) and begin to teach it instead of the climbing silver. (To be continued...)