New bughouse puzzle site Bughouse.ca

Ten years ago. Two of my club mates and chess.com friends wrote a book called the Woodpecker Method. In that book they wrote something that was wellknown at expert level, that solving puzzles regularly is very important to improve at chess. That is even more true in bughouse, which is a tactical game and some key tactics repeats over and over. 

Try to solve this bughouse puzzle. The answer is last in the blog.

Tactic nr 1.

Bughouse.ca is a new webpage with bughouse puzzles. It is the first webpage were you can solve bughouse puzzles. Bughouse.ca works similar to regular chesspuzzles on chess.com. The puzzles gets a difficulty level, depending on how many people can solve them. You can also upvote and downvote puzzles, if you think they are good or not, to help the webpage to show the good puzzles to other people. There are over 50'000 puzzle and you can solve 3 puzzles each day for free.

There are a few special things to consider. You can see both your board and your partners board and sometimes you have to give your partner the piece he needs. 

Here it is clear that my partner needs a knight to mate, so I take it and watch him mate. With 

1.N@f7+ Kxh4 2. p@g3+ Kh3 3.Ng5 mate

In bughouse it is very important to play fast, but on Bughouse.ca there is no timer, so you can take your time and be sure you find the right move. But on Bughouse.ca you instead have to find the fastest mate, because even if you see a line were you surely will mate eventually, then you need to keep searching because you might have a shorter mate and your partner might not be able to survive for 10 moves, so instead you will have to find the quickest mate. 

Try to solve this one. Solution is last in the blog.

Tactic nr 2.

Here is a typical tactic, that comes up over and over in bughouse. 

1. Nxe5+ Kg8 2.N@e7+ Kh8 3. N@f7 mate

If e7 was covered by black, then there is another tactic that every bughouse player needs to know.  

1. Nxe5+ Kg8 2.N@h6+ (2. - Kh8 3. Nef7 mate) gxh6 3. Q@f7+ Kh8 4. p@g7 mate

But in bughouse it is important to mate quickly as one move can be decisive, so it is better to play the mate in 3 than in 4. You have to see this over and over again until you never miss it. Let the woodpecker peck these patterns into your brain.

There are also positions where your partner needs a piece to mate and you have to take it for him and he will play the mate. 
One final position where you need help from your partner, solution last in the blog.

Tactic nr 3.

Don't be afraid, let the woodpecker peck in the tactics in your brain!

Tactic nr 1. Be6+ Rxe6 (@f7 R@h8 mate) 2. R@f8 Rxf8 3. gxf8=Q mate

Tactic nr 2. 1. - Bxe4 2. Kxe4 (2.Ke2 p@f3 3. Kd1 p@c2 mate) 2. - R@e3 3.Nxe3 (3.Kxd4 Qc5 mate) Qxe3 mate

Tactic nr 3. B+ (which means bishop is good, partner take it for me), when I got the bishop I play 1. N@f6+ Ke7 2. B@d8+ Ke6 3. Qxd7 mate