Shogi
Rook and lance handicap
The stronger player gives up the rook on 8b and the lance on 1a — and moves first.
What is different here
Hi-kyo-ochi sits between rook odds and two-piece odds. Gote plays without the rook on 8b and without the lance on 1a, keeping the bishop.
The combination is pointed rather than merely larger. Shitate has the only rook, and the corner the missing lance used to guard is exactly the sort of place a rook likes to arrive.
About four grades, and a natural next step once rook odds have become comfortable but two-piece odds are still too much.
- Removed: gote’s rook on 8b and gote’s lance on 1a.
- Gote — uwate — moves first.
- Uwate still has a bishop, and it matters more than ever.
- Shitate’s target is usually the first file, where the lance is missing.
- All other rules are the even game’s.