Kakugawari, also known as Bishop Exchange, is a Ibisha v Ibisha (Double Static Rook) opening characterized by a early bishop exchange. It's currently (2024) the most popular strategy in professional shogi. That said, neither player can force kakugawari to happen and both sides can avoid kakugawari if they want to. In this study I'm going to highlight some of the main ways both Sente and [...]1P-262P-842.P-343.P-25This is a way for sente of trying to get into kakugawari against players that start with P-34.4.B-335.P-766.S-426.P-44This is the most popular response and avoids a kakugawari.7.G-788.P-849.Bx33+10.Sx333P-253.P-764.G-325.G-785.P-25Transposes into the main variation.6.P-857.B-778.P-349.S-6810.Bx77+11.Sx77Another variation of kakugawari, sometimes called the Delayed Rook Pawn variation, where the pawn remains at 26. Used to be the most popular variation at some point, nowadays it compromises less than 10% of all kakugawari.4.P-855.B-775.P-256.G-32Transposes into the main variation.6.P-347.S-688.Bx77+9.Sx774P-855P-766G-327B-778P-349S-689.S-88S-88 used to be the main way of defending the Bishop, but S-68 is more popular nowadays. That said, both of them reach the same position the vast majority of the time, as a bishop exchange is almost unavoidable from this position.10Bx77+10.B-3311.Bx33+11.P-66Very rare, but this transposes into Gangi. Awkward if bishop is on 88.12.Gx3313.S-77You see this variation ocasionally at professional level.11Sx77This is the most popular way of reaching kakugawari nowadays. There's a lot of theory after this position, but we won't concern ourselves with what happen after the bishops are successfully exchanged.12S-22