Bughouse and Me

 I got the urge to write about bughouse today.  I was inspired by watching some games by top players at chess.com.   Going forward, I would like to show some of the checkmates that occur in my games.  

Last summer I was thinking about writing a book with analysis of games between intermediate players.  These days I don't have time.

I've been playing bughouse for a long time, but I don't think anyone is interested in the history lesson.  But I will use this post to say something about my history in bughouse.  The main thing I would like to say is that I'm glad it caught on somewhat.

Was one of the first people to write about bughouse, having edited Bughouse Newsletter for a year or two in the early 90s.  I was pretty conscientious about my analysis and would often have it checked by stronger players.

I was also one of the first people to have a bughouse rating system, somewhat before Internet Chess Server.  I took over the rating system from Alan Kantor and Peter Cullen and rated about 100 people.

Won several tournaments with partners Bruce Bowyer and Ron Young.   I'm not saying I was one of the best in the day.  The best were some of the top young chess players.  They took chess very seriously, and the idea of a bughouse tournament didn't particularly appeal to them.

I've won several games against one or more of the contemporary top players.  I don't think that I have their speed or tactical ability, but I like to think that some of my strategical ideas are valid.

Now for a checkmate:

This checkmate was not easy to get by any means.  My opponent played f4 and while he was able to run with his king, I was able to chase him. There were many trades on the other board in the middle of the game.  My opponent failed to checkmate me, and he actually lost two queens.  My partner also survived his opponent's attack.  While my opponent lost his attacking pieces, I did not, and eventually I amassed enough material to execute checkmate.