The Bughouse Diaries

Here my partop (partner's opponent) wasted a number of moves with ineffective one-move attacks.  This is how it ended.  I can sit and my partop has no recourse: Black's first attack is easily repelled.  Here he played @e4 threatening to take f3.  White would have to recapture with the g-pawn leaving a weakness on h3 or recapture Rxf3 or Qxf3 leaving his rook or the queen exposed.  White plays fxe then Bxe4, Nxe4 Bxe4, @f3: Here Black has played Nf5.  White makes the mistake of playing Qxe6 instead of the e-pawn.  Black play B@f7.  Now White cannot retreat the queen and defend the e-pawn.  Nxe6 is not serious because of the loss of the pawn, but because of the proximity of the White king: Again, White attacks instead of defending.  He plays Bxc7 and Black plays Qxd4: Black gets in @e2.  Again White fails to defend and plays Ne7+, another one-move threat: The partop plays @c3, ignoring exfQ+: Black has won a rook for a pawn and is rea...

 On the right board, White plays @h3.  This is a beginners' mistake.  When Black plays Nxf2, White wants to take the knight with something other than the king.  Some alternatives to @h3 are N@h3, OO, or Qe2: After Nxf2, Kxf2 N@e4+, Kf1, Black can easily win a exchange with N@f2: Black takes the rook and White captures the knight on e4.  Black plays Nf6 attacking the queen.  If Black gets a knight, he can play N@g3+ leading to winning the queen a knight: White trades on f6.  Black tries attacking with @h6.  It isn't a good idea in this case because the Black bishop is already on f6, and White doesn't have a supply of additional pawns.  @g5 would have been better, forcing the bishop away from f6: Bxg7 is answered by Bg7 which prepares for White's @e7, threatening the queen and rook. White might have made a defensive retreat, such as Bf4 or Be3 instead of Bxg7: Black goes about winning the queen.  Though White is threatening Black's queen, ...

 There were a number of errors in this game, but the first one is the failure of Black on the right board to play e6: Black plays Bxf3, which further weakens f3: Black tries to shore up f7 by playing @f6, not a bad idea: Black on the right board plays Nd6, hanging the d-pawn and allowing an attack of f7.  Maybe Ng5 is better with the idea of going Nd6: This is getting serious.  White takes on f7.  Black does not control e6: White plays B@b3.  When Black interposes, he takes on e5.  This is a mistake because it gives back control of e6.  If White can get a pawn, he should play @e6 instead.  If he does not get a pawn, he can play N@f4: White plays N@f4 now, which is good.  Black plays N@f3+ which is awful: Black plays @g2, another meaningless one move threat.  After Rg1, she plays e6.  So the queen is hanging.  If Nxd5 and exd5 the e6 square is opened again, this is all a result of not defending the square earlier: White plays @e...

 In this game, it seems as if all of the kings were exposed.   Actually my king (White left) is safe after I take the pawn.  Black has no good checks.  I also cannot mate my opponent without a rook. As you can see, my partner mated his opponent.  Let's see how his opponent (my partop) got his kind compromised: Here (on the right board, Black played Qe6+ and White played Be2.  I like Qe2 better, because then it is possible to break the pin.  Black played Rg8.  This seems like an innocuous threat.  It is not easy to defend, so it is ignored:  Here White plays Bb5+ instead of defending, which may be the correct choice.  B@f3 might be met by @g4 if Black gets a pawn.  B@f1 was an option: Black loses several pieces, plays B@a5+ to defend c7 and finally takes on g2: Black sacs the rook for the knight on g1.  This would do nothing if Black doesn't get a knight, but fortunately his partner sacs one on my h3: For Black (on the...

 In this game I was able to penetrate on f2.  My opponent repairs the damage, but then lets me attack on g2: My partner is trading more than I would like.  In the position below, White (on the left board) plays dxe.  This opens the line from b6 to f2.  I think he should have played c3: Here I have no follow-up check, but I have recovered my pawn and my opponent's king is on e2, so I am okay with this:  He has patched up f2, but he is now attacked on f3.  He might be wise to play Ne1 or Ng1: We trade on f3 twice leaving g2 open and I decide to threaten N@d4+:  He checks on a4 and I interpose.  I am hoping he takes my queen so that I can play N@f4+ or N@d4+: He makes a meaningless trade on c6 and plays Nxe3 which is incredibly bad, giving up the f4 and d4 squares: I play @h3.  Even though there is no check and no piece is attacked, this attack is hard to refute: He takes my queen hoping that it will win on the other board, and I am free to...