How to understand 叶う here?


The following is copied verbatim from a JLPT prep book:

> 将棋歴30年のベテランに、初心者の私が叶うべくもない

I read it as,

> A beginner as myself should be no match for a _shougi_ veteran with 30 years
> of expertise.

But I would have expected かなう to be written as 敵う. Do I understand the
sentence right or am I mistaken? Why かなう is written as 叶う?




I agree with @chocolate's comment that says it is a serious mistake as
[叶う](http://jisho.org/search/%E5%8F%B6%E3%81%86) usually means to match when
it is written in kana as the Jisho link indicates:

> to match (implies competition); to rival; to bear (e.g. I can't bear the
> heat) Usually written **using kana alone** , esp. 敵う, usu. with neg. verb

I think your sentence could be better translated to

> A beginner as myself cannot possibly be a match for a veteran with 30 years
> of experience in Shogi (Japanese chess).

or

> I, a beginner as myself, cannot even think about competing with a veteran
> with 30 years of experience in Shogi.

[[歴]{れき}](http://jisho.org/search/%E6%AD%B4) usually implies experience or
history. It doesn't necessarily mean _expertise_.




I agree that this かなう is almost always written as 敵う in kanji in _modern_
Japanese. According to 大辞林:

> ④（ **多く「敵う」と書く** ）対抗できるほどである。匹敵する。打ち消し表現を伴って用いる。 「二人でかかっても－・う相手ではない」
> 〔「かなえる」に対する自動詞〕 → かなわない ・ かなわぬ

However 適う, 叶う, and 敵う [share the same base meaning ("to
match")](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/26257/5010), and the kanji
choice was differentiated and standardized relatively recently. So I would say
it's very close to an error by today's standards, but it's not entirely an
error. I somehow feel 叶 most retains the base meaning of かなう (also see the
example in the link), so I wouldn't be too surprised if some novelists
intentionally chose to use 叶う in this case.

