[Shogi Strategy] ”棒銀” Climbing Silver part1

 [Shogi Opening] Climbing Silver Guide For 4-Kyu, 2-Kyu, and 1-Dan

• What is "Climbing Silver" (Bogin) in Shogi?

In the world of Shogi, it is widely known as a very simple strategy, perfect for beginners and novice players. It is arguably the most famous first strategy for any player to learn.However, it is important to understand that being "beginner-friendly" simply means the amount of theory you need to memorize is significantly less than other openings. It has nothing to do with the actual strength of the strategy.

Despite its simplicity, this strategy has the advantage of being highly practical and having very few flaws—so much so that it is frequently used in professional play.It requires very little memorization, it is used by professionals, and it has very few flaws. In short, it is easy to master and incredibly powerful.That is why it is considered the first strategy everyone should learn. After all, when you are starting out, winning is everything

• What is the goal of Climbing Silver?

 It is to create a Dragon (Promoted Rook). So, how do you actually make a Dragon? Let's look at the specific steps.

将棋盤

　0手

As you can see in the final diagram, a Dragon has been created. Let’s break down the flow of how this happened.

1. Advance the pawn in front of the Rook.
2. Move the Silver up to the 5th rank.
3. Push the pawn to exchange it, then advance the Silver to the 4th rank.
4. Promote the Silver, and you win!

That’s all there is to it—just these four steps. By remembering this, you can create a Dragon. Simple, isn't it?

   

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So, why were we able to create a Dragon? Let’s take a look at the diagram from step ③.

In this position, we have two pieces attacking 2三, while the opponent only has one piece defending 2三. Because of this, we can play 2三銀成 to initiate an exchange and successfully create a Dragon. This is the plan.

This is the most basic and simplest way to play Climbing Silver. (In my experience, this knowledge is roughly equivalent to a 4th-kyu level.) If you are just starting out, I recommend memorizing steps ① through ④ and trying them in real games. Specifically, if you use this strategy in online Shogi or against Piyo Shogi Lv. 4 (https://www.studiok-i.net/ps/), you can win quite easily. Against Piyo Lv. 4, I’d say they fall for this about 3 out of 10 times. It may seem like a lot of text, but the core points are only four lines long, so it’s easy to learn.

That being said, as you keep using it, you will eventually encounter situations where things don’t go this smoothly. I will explain how to handle those cases in the next post.

• Summary

1. Climbing Silver (Bogin) is a strong, simple strategy with very little to memorize.
2. There are only four steps to remember: Advance the pawn, move the Silver up, exchange the pawns, and promote the Silver.
3. Try out what you’ve learned in online Shogi or against Piyo Shogi Lv. 4.
4. As your opponents get stronger, you will need to learn other variations. I will cover those in the next post.