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Castles 囲い
Step through how each castle is built, one move at a time. Only the builder's moves are shown — the opponent stands still — so you can see the shape form. In a real game you play these between your opponent's moves, and the order bends to what they do.
Use the arrows, the ← → keys, or swipe the board.
Left Mino 左美濃
hidari mino · Mino, mirrored
The Mino castle built on the left by a static-rook player, usually against ranging rook.
- Strong
- Much sturdier than the Boat against a ranging-rook attack from the side.
- Weak
- The bishop has to move first, and the castle is weak against a direct attack down the h-file.
Builds on the — its first moves are the same.
Move order
- Open the bishop's diagonal.
- The bishop moves up to g3 so the king can use h2.
- King walks left…
- …
- …to h2.
- Silver up beside the king.
- Right gold to e2. The left gold stays on f1: a Mino, mirrored.
Why castles matter and how to choose one: the castles lesson · see which castles players here actually reach in the opening explorer.