The Feb 10 8th round finally
finished the final “make up” game. Work schedules, health issues and weather
delayed some games. But sportsmanship prevailed and people waited until their
opponents could play the game without distraction – rather than take a forfeit
win.
 |
| Lots of analysis and discussion this Monday! |
The
League leading Rabid Squirrels lost their first match of the year to the hard –
charging 49’ers.
This
closed the gap to the Squirrels in the standings to 3 points (teams get 2
points for a won match) with 3 rounds to go! It also bunched the rest of the
league together.
That
leaves the Flames as the only undefeated team. They have SEVEN drawn matches,
but no losses.
Here are the standings:
Rabid
Squirrels – 12 points
Flames – 9 points
Tigers
– 8 points
Sonics – 8 points
49’ers – 8 points
Thunder
– 3 points
It is
safe to assume that the entire rest of the league will be rooting for the
Thunder next week when they play the Squirrels! Can a thunderbolt shake a
squirrel off the top branch? We shall see.
The
Flames play the Sonics and the Tigers have the 49’ers. Very exciting stuff.
Be at
LCCC next Monday - March 10 - for the exciting chess league action.
Meanwhile,
LCCC welcomed a new member Ted G tonight. He got some chess lessons in with
Mike N. and a game or two in with Zack R. Welcome Ted.
Club Treasurer Vince V also was giving
instruction to LCCC’s youngest members - Layla W and Rachel P. Good job Vince!
There
were quite a few casual games going on also.
But what was that they were playing over there on
Table 4?
It’s called BUGHOUSE CHESS!
This
is a chess variant where two players play as a team against two other players
on two boards at once. Normal chess rules apply with each side has a player
playing white and black. Except, the captured pieces on one board are passed to
your teammate on the other board! And then the teammate has the option of
putting this piece on his board.
This
game is usually played in a fast time limit with a clock used for each board –
usually 15 minutes or less – but I’m sure any agreed to time limit is fine.
Clocks are placed on the outside so all players can see all clock readings.
Also, the touch move rule is usually not used
in Bughouse, but clock move is. When you hit your clock button, then your move
is final.
Partners
are allowed to talk, suggest moves, ask for certain pieces or instruct to hold
certain pieces, and even to delay moving, but they cannot make moves themselves
on the other board.
The
usual suspects were involved in this event; Aaron J, Scott M, Tim R, Ken T and
Luke S. It looked like they had fun giving this spin on the old game a try.
Hope
to see you Thursday at Teekos or back at the Hartland
Senior Center
Not quite right... bughouse is most definitely played at a time limit of 5 minutes. Believe it or not, the time difference between diagonally opposite players is more important than the difference between direct opponents. The reason is that you can win by "time zugzwang" wherein one side may lose if he actually plays his move but he has more time than his teammate's opponent. When diagonal opponents both wait this is called a "sitzkrieg" (ostensibly a pun on the German "blitzkrieg" that means "sitting war"). The relative time between the diagonal opponents will eventually force one of them to move. If you set the game time too long, this can lead to waiting for the diagonal opponents time to expire. When one of the diagonal pairs has an insurmountable time advantage, it's customary for the opposite team to resign since they will inevitably lose "on time". In summary, bughouse is not meant to be played slowly. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Jason! You da man!
ReplyDeleteI walked by and watched for a short time. I noticed there was 7+ minutes on the clocks.
I knew it had to be a faster time limit but I didn't know it is normally played at 5 minutes.