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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?
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meaning kanji verbs
How to understand 叶う here?
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.
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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_.
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Let's talk about 同訓異字： words with the same _kun_ reading but different kanji
orthographies.

As an advanced student, you undoubtedly have learned that the choice of kanji
can select different nuances of the same word. It's important to choose the
proper kanji for each context, right? But look at @naruto's quote of the
_Daijirin:_

> （多く「敵う」と書く）

Indeed, if we consult such an important reference as the _Kōjien_ , look at
how it formats its entries:

> かな・う【適う・叶う】カナフ
>
> ① ちょうどよくあう。[…]
>
> ② 望みどおりになる。[…]
>
> ③ (「敵う」とも書く) 匹敵する。及ぶ。[…]

Are you getting the implication here? _The header unifies_ 適う _and_ 叶う _under
the same entry_. What's more, sense ③ is shared with 敵う; and furthermore,
there's no separate entry for 敵う. This is the only place you'll find 敵う in the
friggin' _Kōjien_. To put it in another way, _Kōjien_ does **not** think of
words this way:

  * 適う: sense ①, "to be suited"
  * 叶う: sense ②, "to come true"
  * 敵う: sense ③, "to rival"

Instead, it thinks of words this way:

  * かなう, also written 叶う or 適う: 
    * sense ①: "to be suited"
    * sense ②: "to come true"
    * (also written 敵う) sense ③: "to rival"

Importantly, the top-level classifier is the kana reading, not the kanji
orthography. Notice that, according to the _Kōjien_ , all of かなう／叶う／適う can be
used for all three senses in any combination; while 敵う alone is restricted,
and only used for sense ③.

* * *

There's a difference between what the dictionary says, and how people actually
use kanji. Is it the case that 叶う is used in senses ①, ③ (to be suited; to
rival) in modern Japanese?

An easy source of modern Japanese is twitter:

> • 弱さで俺に叶う奴はいない！
>
> • あの存在感に叶う奴はそうはいない
>
> • #arslan おまえらに叶う相手じゃないよ(｀・ω・´)
>
> • ほのかの笑顔に叶う奴はいない
>
> • お前が叶う相手じゃ無いんだから

There's plenty more, so 叶う in senses ①, ③ is quite alive. Judging from a few
more searches, 敵う is almost always sense ③ (to rival), and 叶う is **usually**
sense ② (to come true), but not necessarily. _Kōjien_ is correct, even for
bleeding-edge Japanese.

* * *

Let's think about this phenomenon from another angle. The English language, as
you know, doesn't distinguish _oyu_ from _mizu_. Somehow they get by by
calling both "water" (when the distinction is needed, they might qualify it as
"hot water" or "cold", but often it's just unspecified). Imagine translating
an English cookbook to Japanese: for every occurrence of the word "water", you
have to decide whether it's _oyu_ or _mizu_ , and select the adequate
translation in context.

For a long time, the Japanese wrote in Chinese ( _kanbun_ ). Indeed, they
wrote in Chinese before even writing in Japanese. This fact had a huge impact
in what Japanese writing is like. Originally you have only one Japanese verb,
_kanau_ , with the three different senses. But, in early Japan, if you wanted
to write this word down, you'd have to translate it to Chinese _kanbun_ first.
And, like "water", there are several translations to choose. 敵 _dí_ is "to
rival", sense ③; 適 _shì_ is "to be appropriate" ①, and also works for "to
arrive at" → "to come true" ②. (As for 叶, its original meaning is _yè/xié_ "to
harmonize, to unite"; I think its Japanese uses are later extensions.)

Eventually they started using kanji to write Japanese, not just Chinese. By
reversing the translation process, you get an orthographic rule: when writing
_kanau_ , use 敵 if you mean "to rival", or 適 if you mean "to be suited for; to
arrive at". So a word that originally has many meanings may have each meaning
clarified by the choice of kanji (cf. あう → 会う、合う、遭う etc.).

This is a pretty neat trick, allowing greater clarity in writing. However, you
should not lose sight of the fact that, in speech as well as historically,
these are still merely nuances of the same word; because the orthographic
kanji distinctions won't always be followed to the letter. You should still
learn the dictionary recommendations so that you can write "properly" (not to
mention pass the JLPT and other exams); but, at the same time, be prepared to
find a lot of variance in the real world.
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"叶う（適う）" and "敵う" are pronounced same, but are very different in meaning, as
you understand.

"叶う" means _to match, meet, satisfy the requirement and conditions_ , as in
"夢が叶う - the dream comes true," "条件に適った家 - the house that meets my
requirement," while "敵う" means _to rival, vie with_ , as in
"奴さんはとてもお前が敵う相手ではない - He isn't a guy that you can beat."

In your quote - 初心者の私が叶うべくもない, "叶うべくもない" is mixing up the usage of "敵う" and
"叶う." It's a typo, which should be written as "敵う."
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