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Two-piece handicap (nimai-ochi)

Both big men off one side. The classic teaching handicap, and the one where shitate finally has to learn to finish a game.

Updated

What changes

The rule set is the even game’s, unchanged: captured men go to the hand and may be dropped, nifu and the dead-drop bar and uchifuzume all apply, promotion is offered in the far three ranks and forced only where the man would be stuck, sennichite is a draw on the fourth repetition unless one side checked throughout, and impasse is settled by the twenty-four point count.

Two men are removed before play, both from gote: the rook on 8b and the bishop on 2b. Gote then moves first, since this site seats uwate as gote and shitate, with a full army, as sente.

Playing shitate

You have both big men and your opponent has none. The one principle that matters is: trade. Every exchange of equal men leaves you relatively further ahead, because the two extra pieces are a larger share of a small army than of a big one. Trade pawns to fill your hand, trade generals when the trade is even, and refuse nothing sensible.

Beyond that, the usual routine works: open a file with the rook, aim the bishop at the other side of the castle, bring a silver up, and break through with a pawn from hand. Do castle. Uwate has generals and will get men in hand from any trade, and a king sitting on 5i is still a king in the middle of the board.

Playing uwate

You cannot attack across the board and you cannot open a file. What you can do is build. Put the king in a corner, stack three or four generals in front of him, keep every pawn on your third rank defended, and make shitate find a break that works. Many do not.

Your win comes in one of two ways: shitate’s rook gets trapped and you drop it back at him, or he attacks with too few men and you take the attackers into your hand one by one and walk them up the board. Both require you to be genuinely solid first. Trading pawns to fill your own hand is worth more than it looks — a wall of generals plus a pawn to drop in front of an advancing rook is a real defence.

Sources

Everything on this page is written from scratch. These are the works it leans on, and what each one settles.

  • Nihon Shogi Renmei (Japan Shogi Association) handicap ladder

    Defines the two-piece handicap as the removal of uwate’s rook and bishop, and confirms the first move belongs to uwate at every rung of the ladder.