Chu Shogi Opening Systems and Development

 Today I thought I would make a list of some of the ways I've seen people play the opening in Chu Shogi. 

The most simple way to play with both High Lion and Low Lion is to push the flank pawns and develop the generals and side mover. There are two ways to do this, depending on which flank your opponent is attacking on, or is the farthest advanced on.

Of the images above, the first one shows one way to develop the flank where you are planning an attack, and the second shows a good defensive shape, with the VM on the back rank. Another way to play is to go for an attack in the center using the horses and bishops combined with the Two Dragon castle.

This is a very popular system on Lishogi as well, and I've played it quite a bit. My main problem with it is that I get careless and sometimes allow my bishops to be trapped, but otherwise, with patience and slow build up Sente can get very good attacks with this system. Of course, in Chu Shogi nothing is really a "system". You still have to pick move order, and omit some moves, to make sure that you're not just playing by yourself and taking into account your opponent's moves.

This is a fairly standard way to develop the central pieces. Notice how the silver and tiger move to make space for the queen to move back, and how the horse moves to open up a space for the silver. The horse move is just one way to develop the silver. The dragon can be moved to whatever file seems best given the position and then the silver can be developed. The idea of moving the queen (or free king, free king being a direct translation of the Japanese word) back is firstly to prevent it from being attacked as the position opens up, and secondly, when the king's rank clears a little bit, the queen will be able to move to support an attack from the back and will be very flexible. 

In a real game, you shouldn't just follow these "systems" but play the developing move that best responds to your opponent's predicted plan. For example, if your opponent is developing mainly on one side, or pushes a go-between on one side, you should prioritize defensive flank development on that side. 

Sharp Openings: GB Exchange

This is an opening mainly analyzed by dax00, a strong chu shogi player who started a Chu shogi league played via forum. This study, an overview of the Chu Shogi opening created by Wassim, dax00, and myself includes two chapters on the GB exchange, which can be divided into two separate openings, which  are both equally sharp. The first starts from this position:

Gote has allowed sente to win a chunin, but will win it back after 

4. P-8e 5. Ln-9e-9f 6. Ln-7e 7. GB-9g 8. Ln-5g, after which the line becomes very sharp. I recommend looking at the study linked above for more information on this line and it's cousin starting with 1. Ln5h.