Double the Bugs

Double The Bugs!

Chess is usually an individual game that is played between two people. However, there is a variant that requires teamwork between two players to win the game. On chess.com, this is called doubles bughouse. It is similar to bughouse, where you get to place pieces that you've captuerd from your opponent onto your side, but the pieces you capture go to your partner's game. This adds an extra layer of fun but also a risk of how well your partner plays because if one of you loses, both of you lose. 

Game 1

In this game, I was playing the black pieces against a 894 from Poland, while my partner was a 665 from Italy against a 889 from Japan. The time control was 3 minutes for both sides with no bonus. 

My opponent begins the game with d4, while I counter with Nf6. We get a Grunfeld set up, and we exchange knights in the center. Nothing too crazy. At this point in the game, my opponent still hasn't played their first move as white. 

Now, even I don't know why I  didn't defend my e pawn at all. I think I was trying to gain tempo by hitting his queen. But I missed that my b pawn is left undefended and leaves a lot of my pieces vulnerable. My partner still hasn't made a move, but this is actually a tactic used by players facing a stronger opponent to try and see if their partner is able to get them more pieces to place on the board. 

So after the queen took, I developed my knight to protect my rook, and white would wait a while to allow for his partner to make moves and force my partner to make the first move. 

After a few seconds, we would both receive one knight. My opponent would place his knight in a very nice spot that attacked my queen and threatened a fork if I moved my queen to c8. So I placed my knight to get some time to think, forking my opponent's king and rook. But I had to move my queen, so I moved it to e8, but my opponent is still able to take on e7. I think bishop may have been slightly better, as it traps my rook, but knight is able to capture my bishop and cut off my knight's defense. 

I would lose my knight, as my opponent was able to take out the defender with a nice fork, leaving my knight for the taking. In the meantime, my opponent was able to keep the game fairly even as he was able to trade off knight a second time, leaving my opponent and me with the a knight again. We were all fairly even on time as well.

I continued by placing my knight down on d6 to hit my opponent's queen. White would retreat, but I would reroute my knights to take a more active position. Additionally, I began moving in my queen, checking my opponent. But he would easily block, but Qa5 is looking down on the diagonal to attack white's king. My partner is also waiting and the position hasn't changed. 

Now, to prevent queen infiltration, the knight on e4 has to be traded, so when white doesn't trade but takes on c7, I saw an opportunity and began my attack. Can you find the mate in two?

 My opponent waits a while here for his partner to do something. 

In the end, I deliver checkmate with Nc3.

Game 2

 In this game, I was playing against a 428 from Vietnam with the white pieces. And I know that you're thinking of the giant rating gap, but my partner was a 1213 from Turkey with the black pieces against an 1841 from Germany. 

I start the game off with c4, the English, while black decides to develop both of his knight and lash out early with d5. We trade, and he decides to recapture with knight. I fianchetto my bishop, and he decides to retreat his knight. This is not a great move since it takes time to retreat, and it probably is better to just capture my knight on c6 to quickly trade pieces and not lose momentum. 

The game continues with my opponent developing his bishop, preparing to castle, and potentially fianchettoing his bishop. I develop my knight and castle short. But then my opponent places his knight on the side of the board and lunges his second knight forward. This is fairly risky, as there are no other pieces supporting the knight and no central control. 

I am able to pick up black's hanging b pawn, and we have a trade of bishops. However, I wait a little while after this bishop trade to see if my partner is able to bring any new pieces onto the board. 

My partner was holding off well and was able to get a fair trade of a knight and bishop, so both my opponent and I had a knight and bishop. Thus, I replaced my fianchettoed bishop, and hit his knight again. He tried to escape, but was kicked around and blundered by putting his knight on d5. But I waited a bit more to see if my partner could get a bishop because I saw my opponent's king could be cut off from a single diagonal. 

My partner was definitely starting to get cornered, but he was able to deliver and got a bishop. Unfortunately, I forgot that my opponent had a pawn that he placed to block my bishop's check. But I was able to win the knight, and I decided to sacrifice my extra bishop to expose my opponent's king. 

I waited a bit, and my partner was able to pull off a queen trade. I was able to place my queen down with check, and i was hoping to continue forcing checks and moves so that my opponent wouldn't be able to have a move, where he could place his second queen on the board. 

I would place my bishop down to continue the checks and force the king to e7, where I placed my knight for the continued sequence and forcing Kd6. Can you find the final move?

So by forcing checks with the pieces that I got from my partner, I was able to deliver one of the weirdest checkmates ever with bishops of the same color, 3 knights, and 2 queens.

 
But what do you think about these games? Do you like playing double bughouse? Should I try to get a higher rating? Let me know!