Bughouse! The Good And Bad

 

Bughouse, the most frenetic of chess variants, is continuously growing in popularity. Most scholastic tournaments (whether local or national) offer a bughouse tournament as a side event. Such tournaments are extremely popular, and one can only expect to see more of them.

For those who are not familiar, bughouse is a variant in which two teams of two players compete against each other. Bughouse is played on two boards; one teammate takes White while the other takes Black. Normal chess rules apply. The primary novelty is that captured pieces are handed to one's partner who has the option of placing the piece on an empty square on any turn.

A typical game of bughouse in progress.

Bughouse is often beloved by students, but decried by coaches. Let's take a quick look at some of the positive and negative sides of students playing bughouse.

Positives:

  1. Social — Bughouse is a social event as the two-player teams have to communicate quickly and make split-second decisions.
  2. Tactical — Bughouse is extremely tactical! Many of the tactics focus on where to drop a certain piece onto an empty square. This can help the player develop keen and creative tactical vision.
  3. Fun! — Bughouse is extremely fun! It is a nice way for students to unwind and enjoy themselves after a weekend of serious chess games.

Negatives:

  1. Superficial Play — Just like anything, too much bughouse can lead to lazy calculation. Frequent bughouse players may begin to rely on one- or two-move tactics.
  2. Distracting — Students often like to play bughouse between rounds during a serious tournament when they might benefit from a healthy break between rounds.
  3. Addicting — Because of the speed and the social nature of bughouse, students can caught up in the variant such that they forget to work on improving their "real" chess game.

Overall, bughouse is a fun and energetic way to focus on tactical play while developing teamwork skills. Just be careful to exercise moderation, and don't let it get in the way of your students' serious chess play.