Bughouse for Beginners: Early Sacrifices
Beginning bughouse players often find themselves tempted to go in for an early kill in bughouse. There are two fairly common ways this is attempted.
At this stage, white may liberally sprinkle the chat with partner tells such as "trade material", "Queen", and "Knight", or even more ambitiously, "Queen and Knight". What's wrong with this? There are several obvious points. The material white has sacrificed is going to be used against their partner. Secondly, the c4 Bishop is no longer on the board, and white is a piece down. But there is more to it than this.
White doesn't control the d5 square, or the c4 square. In bughouse, pieces not only control the squares that they can move to, as in classical chess, but they also control the squares that they occupy, since a piece can only be dropped on an empty square. Sacrificing the bishop on the f7 square means that the c4 is empty. The c4 square being empty is not particularly problematic at this stage, but it does mean that White is surrendering control of the board.
On the partner's board, being down in material makes it harder to control the flow of trades. Also, given the role that time plays in bughouse, White's partner hasn't had much time to get the trades necessary to keep White's attack going.
White hasn't moved his d pawn or any of his queenside pieces. White will likely be relying on trades from their partner. But suppose that White continues with d4, opening up some lines...
This is a little better. The f4 square is protected by the c1 Bishop, which means that a black knight drop at f4 is no longer as difficult deal with. But White still has other problems. Something like the following is likely to happen...
Black is developing their Rook to an active square. Just as in chess, rooks enjoy open files. White's King's Rook remains on f1. Black has also developed their King. This may sound like an odd thing to hear, but it is important. Black's King is quite safe on f7. A lot of material can make Black uncomfortable at most. But since Black has good development, there is little danger.
If Black's partner gives Queen and Knight before Black can play Rf8, Black will be mated. But this is unlikely to happen. Also, Black doesn't have to play Nf6. He could play Qe7, keeping f7 covered. Most importantly, since Black is so well developed, an attack on White will flow more naturally. Whether or not White has castled, Black will have an easier time of it.
White trying to mate in this sort of way is really the bughouse equivalent of this sort of game in classical chess...
In other words, it isn't going to get you very far in bughouse. Let's consider another common line.
