The Bughouse Diaries

  It's great that you can still find people who fall for this:

On the right hand board, my partner, BoxCup finds a long (for bughouse) mating sequence.  Let me know if you see a defense for Black or a faster mating sequence:  The right-hand game went 1.Rxa6+ (Note that Nc8+ doesn't work because of Rxc8+) bxa6, 2.Q@c7+ @b7, 3.Nc8+ Rhxc8, 4. B@c5+ Ka8 (if N@b6 Qxb6+)  5.Nb6+ Ka7 6.Nxc9++ Ka8 7.Nb6+ Ka7, 8. Nd7+ Ka8, 9.Qxb8#

 Black on left board to move and mate in two:

 White to move on the left board.  What move is guaranteed to win material?  My opponent responded incorrectly if I had a knight I could have mated him quickly, but since I didn't, mating him took a number of moves: I didn't get the knight until later.  The game on my board continued:  10. @f7+ Kxf7,  11. Bfxe6+ Ke7!  12. Qf7+ Kd8,   13. Qf8+ R@e8 (the knight mated here), 1 4. Qff3 Bxf2+, 15. Qxf2  Nf6,    16. N@f7+  Ke7, 17. @d6+ Kf8,  18. @e7+ Rxe7, 19A. dxe7+  Kxe7, 20. @d6+  Ke8 21. Nxh8 (always mindful of material)  B@e3, 22A. @f7+ Kf8,  23. @e7# 1-0

 White to sac their queen and mate if the opponent accepts:

 I've been getting paired a lot with lowbies the last few days.  I mean even lower than me.  Here my partner fails to take the knight so I miss out on the N@h3+ leading to mate.  I had posted my bishop on c6 especially for that purpose.  So I sac R@h1+ So my mate doesn't work because the knight on e5 controls g4.  And I almost mate my partner! So fortunately I lure the knight away and I am given another chance: So Q@f3+ mates if I get a pawn in time.   Of course my opponent should have tried stalling.  So I did play Q@f3+ and my partner blocked the check against him on the other board with B@d1.  His opponent played p@d2+ which was a check.  They used to say in the olden days, "patzer sees a check, patzer plays a check!"  So my partner played Kxd2 and I played p@g4#.  

 How can Black self-mate here?  What are the two ways he can avoid mate?