Introduction to your defense unit
It even happens to me. That feeling you need to attack first. It would be nice if you can attack first, but you better move your King to safety before you commence your attack.

This diagram shows Sente's(先手） bogin attack. Gote(後手) just dropped a pawn at ３四.   Can Sente(先手）　do ２四歩? 

It usually does work. However, in this particular example, Sente's King is in a wrong place.
What happens if you exange the Pawns and Silvers and let the opponent play his Bishop in 15? Check...

oops...o.o

Opponent's Bishop forked your King and Rook!

This is called outte bisha(王手飛車). Most players hate this.  Some people even resign right here. As for me, maybe I do too.
Obviously, you now know that the King has to be well protected before attacking.  You don't want your King to get trucked in the first few moves.
This brings us to the discussion of how you can protect your king. You need to move your king out of harm's way. Let's review some of those formations.


The diagram here shows the two Kings both in tight defense. Mino gakoi(美濃 囲い=Mino Castle) is the one on top, and Funa gakoi is (舟囲い=boat castle)the one on the bottom. Each castle (gakoi) has their own strengths and weaknesses, but for now, please get used to these forms of defense.
You can rewind the board to see how these castles were constructed. You have a freedom on the sequence of movements. Just watch opponent's move to ensure there will be no weak spot created by your move.
 
Here are some examples of different castles.

 

All of these four  Kakoi strategies shown  here are Yagura (矢倉)variations. You can use rewind buttons to check how these castles are built. Again, these are just example of moves. In real game, you have more pieces to move.

Note that location of the opponent Rook. These castle are for Sitting Rook (I-Bisya or 居飛車) strategies.

This means you are castling your King to your left, while your Rook is at your right.

Also note the Gold general at 7八　and 3二 with the exception of Kata-Yagura. It is more natural to protect 8七 and 2三 postion with the Gold rather than with King.


You have already seen Mino (Black) and how it was built, but you still haven't seen Taka Mino(高美濃=Elevated Mino )! ...which is only a few moves more than mino (White's formation)

If you click this board and advance moves, you can see Sente's Mino morphs into Takamino at move #3, and Gote's Takamino morphs into a castle called Gin Kammuri(銀冠) in move #6.

Note that in order to get to Gin Kammuri, you will have a moment Silver and Gold are not connected (Move #5 for Gote and Move #9 for　Sente)

Again, you need to be aware of what your opponent is doing. If you feel he is about to attack you, You dont have time to do this.

Mino castle and its variants are companion to Ranging Rook Strategies. So its Rook and attack force is at your camps left flank.

So, Mino gakoi can morph into Takamino, which can morph into Gin Kanmuri.  Hmm. I have a feeling we are talking about Pokemon or something.

Finally, this diagram shows two forms of Anaguma (穴熊=Bear in a cave) gakoi.  There is no way you get a stray bullett hit your King with this Kakoi. Drawback of this kakoi is that it takes many moves to build it.  Also, The King has nowhere to escape once the Kakoi is compromised.

Again, your Rook is on other side of the castle. Remember to always move your king to other side of the Rook.

There are many other forms of Kakoi (or castling) It will be beyond the scope of this site to cover them all.  See here for a collection of Kakoi (This is a Japanese site. There is a list on the left frame. You can click any item to see the different form of Kakoi - I will be adding how to navigate this site in the future)
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UpdatedThis page was originally created 13 years, 10 months ago and last updated 3 weeks, 1 day ago