Chess Club has fun with Bughouse

Pawn to E4. Knight to F6. Bishop to D3. Chess pieces were flying around the board this past Friday, April 4, 2014, as the Chess Club hosted their semesterly bughouse tournament in Babbio 210.

Bughouse is an odd take on the traditional game of chess. Rather than the normal 1 on 1 competition seen in traditional chess, in bughouse, players grab a partner and face off against a pair of opponents. One person on the team plays white, while the other plays black. Every time someone captures an opponent’s piece, they hand it to their partner who can then place that piece on their own board in lieu of a normal move. To make things even more interesting, bughouse is played on a tight clock. Whereas traditional games give each player 20 to 30 minutes to make all their moves, in bughouse, games last only 10 minutes, giving each player only 5 in which to make their own moves.

Round 1 started off fairly quickly, with Brosnan losing to his opponent Shota Toraki in less than a minute. He lasted a bit longer the second game, but Toraki carried his momentum through and defeated him again to finish off the match with neither of their partners moving more than a few times each game. The other pairs in the tournament looked to be taking their time compared to Brosnan and Toraki, with their games occasionally approaching the time limit.

Maysa and Alex won their match against Ravi and Waldo in a two game series. Shouts for joy could be heard across the room when Alex captured a piece that Maysa then placed to checkmate their opponent. Suketu Shah and Al won their match against TJ O’Neill and Alexa Haracz, where the confusing bughouse rules caused some trouble for O’Neill when he found himself facing a check position due to his opponent’s placed piece.

Team dynamics are important when it comes to bughouse, unlike in traditional chess where you have only yourself to rely on. Some teams like to stack their best players board, with the lower ranked of the two players playing cautiously enough to survive while focusing on grabbing useful pieces for their partner. Other teams play a blitzkrieg style, where they focus on piece advantage, grabbing every valuable piece while trying to only give up their worse pieces. Eventually, they hope to have an overwhelming board presence on both boards, allowing them the possibility to go for a checkmate on both. Other teams rely upon making fast moves and protecting their king, aiming for their opponents to lose via running out of time, a resource players are normally short on in bughouse.

The final champions of the tournament were Shota Toraki and Mark Mirtchock, chess club’s resident powerhouses. Toraki has been playing chess for as long as he can remember, while Mirtchock has been playing for 16 years under his dad’s strict tutelage. Both players were well known in their youth for playing chess. Club President Alex Mendonez says that they will probably not be permitted to play on the same team in the future, to ensure that other players entering the tournament will have a chance to win. So next time you hear about the Chess Club’s Bughouse tournament, come out, bring a friend, and have some fun.