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July 4th, 2007 - Geneva Bughouse Gathering 2007- ma
If you liked the Berlin Gathering or even if you missed it, use the positive energy to buy a flight and get yourself to Geneva in August. This Gathering is the oldest european traditional gathering, and its still unchallenged in terms of charme and hospitality. Find Rodolphe's invitation here.

June 26th, 2007 - Gathering is over...one year is such a loooong time.- ma
I guess it had to end eventually...anyhow, this years gathering saw a lot of changes compared to the last years, and i think it was a success. I personally enjoyed seeing many many new people, a very good tournament with a breathtaking final and worthy winners, and several very funny moments. I will immediately add the results to the tournament page, all other stuff goes on the gathering page. All participants are asked to kindly send in pictures, videos, first hand experiences/reports or whatever else material they have at hand that could help document the gathering.
It was overall so fun, that we immediately agreed on the dates for next year, which will be June 13-16 2008. The hotel and tournament location will be the same as this years. So both if you made it this year AND if you missed it, please start to plan your trip for 2008 early!

June 9th, 2007 - tournament page finally up ma
The tournament page with all informations regarding the 6th Berlin Bughouse Tournament is available here. Find expected participants, registered teams, official invitations, rules and eventually the results there.

June 6th, 2007 - Several news regarding the gathering ma
The list of confirmed participants is growing, see thetournament page. You'll also find there the official invitations, and a list of registered teams. Please check wether your team is listed there, since registration on tournament day costs 2 € more.
On the gatherings sunday, we plan a boat tour through Berlin. The capacity is limited and the thing is more or less closed. List of participants on the gathering page. Thanks to TBG for organizing this!

Sechstes Berliner Tandemschachtreffen,
22.-25. Juni 2007 in Berlin/Charlottenburg!
Alle Schach- und Tandemspieler sind herzlich eingeladen zur diesjährigen Ausgabe unseres inzwischen schon traditionellen Treffens. Wir spielen ab Freitag im Hotel Bogota, Schlüterstr. 45 in 10707 Berlin. Samstag findet jedoch das offizielle Turnier statt, siehe Ausschreibung - Voranmeldung erbeten! Kontaktdaten bei Fragen findet Ihr ebenfalls in der Ausschreibung.
Reservierungen für Übernachtungen im Bogota werden noch wenige Tage angenommen.

May 1st, 2007 - Updated Participant list and official invitation online ma
The gathering page has been updated once again. Especially to enable the eastern europeans to apply for visa, i have already put the official invitation online that includes a short summary of the tourney.

Apr 17th, 2007 - 22 reservations so far ma
As of now, we have 22 accomodation bookings from our participants. If you are one of them, please take a minute and verify your data here.

Mar 26th, 2007 - Gathering Page updated, registration form online ma
The list is growing! We already have the record number of more than fifty announcements already, and that does not include a detailed list of dutch or czech players, nor did we count in family members yet! All looks like this could really be the greatest gathering in Berlin ever, or for that matter the greatest gathering of FICS players overall. Read the details on the Gathering page, and please do not forget to submit the participant form before all rooms are taken!
In order to make it easier to contact me directly, i have set up an email address (remove nospam): here.

Jan 24th, 2007 - Gathering page online ma
the page with the informations for the upcoming 6th Berlin Bughouse Gathering is online now. Read the news as it is added here.

Nov 23rd, 2006 - 6th Berlin Bughouse Gathering Announcement ma
Yes thats right, there will be yet another bughouse gathering in Berlin. The dates are June 22-25 to fit the Berlin weather as well as the schedule of students from the USA to the Netherlands.
Negotiations regarding the accomodation are ongoing and it all looks well for us to stay in a decent neighbourhood for a change. That means that you can and should consider bringing your girlfriends and / or wives with you because this time, they will just stumble out of the Hotel and end up right in one of the best shopping/sightseeing areas of Berlin. The only thing you have to be afraid of this time is that your credit card will be abused beyond belief...stay tuned for updates!
...oh yeah there is a new video (first part) of the 2006 finals online on the gathering 2006 page. Its huge (135MB) but i decided to make it big enough so you can see the pieces. Camera work done by TheBestGirl, btw..
P.S.: due to massive spam, all bughouse.info email addresses were disabled. You can contact me on FICS.

August 30th, 2006 - Casual games before the tournament ma
Tournament games all the way until the finals (60 MB)
friendly bug right before the start of the tourney (17 MB)

August 4th, 2006 - Some videos ma
bar scene (6 MB)
friendly bug (23 MB)

June 1st, 2006 - Results, pictures and video footage available ma
Find the results of the 5th Berlin Bughouse Tournament, and a growing number of picture slideshows and videos on the gathering and the tournament page of the 2006 event! If you have any pictures from this years gathering, please contact me so we can share them.

April 14th, 2006 - New video material added ma
Check out the videos on the page of the Berlin gathering 2005! I will add more stuff over the easter vacation. For now, you will see some games from the match for 3rd place, and from the finals.

--- 5th Berlin Bughouse Gathering ---

May 25th, 2005-Thanks everyone for another nice gathering in Berlin! ma
The Berlin gathering was another nice weekend as in the past years, thanks to the many many participants from all around the world who showed the determination to solve all problems to make it to the gathering. Now please send me your videos, pictures, stories and comments so i can add them all to the gathering page for the poor souls who could not make it 8^)
For now, i put a little "preview" video here.

April 28th, 2005-Updates on gathering and tournament page, new booking list ma
A few adjustments to the lists, removed whoever told me he wouldnt come. Fixed some changes on the booking list. Please verify, and submit teams.

April 13th, 2005 -more Tournament teams, Hostel booking deadline tomorrow ma
A few teams were added to the tournament page. This year even those buggers who couldnt make it to Berlin can be in it, by betting on the outcome of the tournament! Check out our new Betting game.
Important: The Hostel booking deadline runs out tomorrow. A list of bookings and rooms as forwarded to the A&O;'s is available. Please do verify your data and in case of disagreement, immediately inform me about your concerns!

March 29th, 2005 - Site update
Finally i managed to do some updates to the site. Added participants for the gathering, set up a page for the tournament (including english and german invitations), and updated the Links page. It was about time to add links to Lievens and JamesBauds Bughouse databases, and of course Tecumsehs awesome Bughouse Book Project!!
Please notice that the signups for the A&O; Hostel rooms have to be done until April 6th. Apart from single bed rooms, there are still openings in all categories.

February 14th, 2005 - Record number of participants?
As the signup/reservation deadline approaches, more and more people show interest in joining the gathering! More than 50 people, mostly from FICS, the free internet chess server, signed up so far, some of them come with their wives / girlfriends. The single bed rooms are already booked out (in fact, 5 instead of 2 are taken so far), so if you would like to come too, you should sign up as soon as possible.

January 30th, 2005 - Signup in progress, new download section set up
A lot of signups have arrived already. Please remember that its non-committal and you wont have to buy a fridge if you fill out this form - but it will ensure that you find a decent place to sleep during the gathering! The single bed rooms are already booked out.
Starting with Fermy's amazing bpgn javaScript viewer i will make selected appropriate downloads available from the new download section. Please note that bughouse.info takes no responsibility for the content of these downloads.

January 26th, 2005 - Participant note online
With the number of announced participants in the high thirties, its about time to reserve your accomodation now. You can initiate this by filling out this form here. Remember, filling this out is absolutely noncommittal. After you finish this form, i will fill up the rooms and send the data to the hostel. You will then receive a room contract which you have to return either by snail mail or fax. Only then are you really obliged to pay for the room, unless you cancel within the agreed period (see the contract for details).

December 27th, 2004 - Gathering page set up
Check out the growing page for the 2005 gathering!

December 20th, 2004 - Berlin Bughouse Gathering - RELOADED
You probably already know the procedure. The Gathering is coming up, very soon (less than five months!) from now we will meet again, so its highest time to book your flights, take your vacation days, and start getting extra sleep that you will need here! The dates are May 13-16, 2005 (as usual, Fr. - Mo.). The place is the same, the A&O;'s Backpackers hostel in Berlin-Friedrichshain. As a sidenote, this year will see not only the Gathering (!), but also the "Turnerfest", a sport festival for youngsters from all around germany, who will book every available bed in the city during this weekend. And of course the "Karneval der Kulturen", the street festival some may remember from the last years. Nevertheless Suza managed to get a decent amount of rooms/beds for us again, however i highly recommend early booking this year as soon as the participation form is online here.
A page for the gathering, along with the signup form, will be set up very soon, so pass by frequently!

December 20th, 2004 - Finally uploaded my own pics
Unfortunately it took me quite long to get them sorted out and put into slideshows - half a year more or less. It would have taken even more if i really had commented the pics. This way, you'll have to guess who is on them - and if you really need to know someone, mail me, ok? Meanwhile, check them out: 1, 2, 3, and 4.

July 9th, 2004 - More material online
Apologies for the delay, i moved to a new apartment and my webserver wasnt operational. Find new pictures (from Danila) and a video (from Philip E.) on the gathering page and the tournament results on the tourney page!

June 5th, 2004 - Gathering is over, pictures and videos arriving
The 2004 Berlin Bughouse Gathering was another quite enjoyable event. Read about it on the gathering page! Oh and dont forget the upcoming Geneva bughouse gathering!!

May 24th, 2004 - Four days to go!
All participants have received this email. Apologies for the inconvenience but it is neccessary, as you will surely understand.

Apr 25, 2004 - More signups, closing call for hostel bookings
As the gathering day comes closer and closer (almost visible by now! :), more and more people who thought of joining, sign up for the hostel now. Some unexpected but nevertheless very welcome new players told me they would come. With all hotels and hostels being booked out over that weekend, do not miss the chance to reserve a room or bed out of our limited contingent! The hostel asked us to forward all bookings until May 4th. Please do fill out the participant form as soon as possible so we can guarantee you a place to stay during the gathering.

Apr 19, 2004 - Gathering page updated
Finally set up a working home page for the 2004 bughouse gathering and the bughouse tournament. If you were wondering why few changes happened to bughouse.info lately please accept my apologies but i have been very busy in my job lately. Regarding the gathering, we luckily can rely on Suza doing all the real work so there is no danger of anything getting stuck there.

RalfiZoller reassured me that any interested participant can contact him by email to ask for hints and ideas on how to get to berlin as cheap and comfortable as possible.
And of course do not hesitate to ask Suza or me if you have any doubts worries or just questions!

Mar 15th, 2004 - Registration form online
All interested buggers are kindly asked to fill out the participation note here. Regarding the different prices, for the two christian holidays (sat and sun) the hostel asks a bit more for single bed and double rooms.

December 11th, 2003 - 2nd Open Bavarian Bughouse Championship - read the results and a short tourney summary by Dontoemmel here!

December 11th, 2003 - Offene Bayerische Tandem-Meisterschaft 2003 Ergebnisse hier, zusammen mit einer kurzen Zusammenfassung des Turniergeschehens von DonTömmel.

December 11th, 2003 - Königsjäger Südwest - Weihnachtstandem!
Wie jedes Jahr um diese Zeit veranstalten die Königsjäger um Tilo Zepernick wieder ein hoffentlich stark besuchtes Tandemturnier am 17.12. - weiteres (Adresse usw.) hier.

October 20th, 2003 - Offene Bayerische Tandem-Meisterschaft 2003!!
Wie schon im letzten Jahr findet erneut Ende November dieser Höhepunkt der europäischen Tandemsaison in Gröbenzell statt. Ob die Titelverteidiger Morath und Hübner antreten werden, ist zur Zeit noch nicht bekannt (u.a., weil Ph. "Zola" Morath im vorgenannten Turnier in Berlin/Neukölln antreten wird); jedenfalls ist schon allein dank der erfahrenen Organisation durch Jan-Erik "Janostar" Schrader mit einem spannenden Turnier der Extraklasse zu rechnen, das keiner aus dem weiteren Einzugsbereich verpassen sollte. Alle Details findet Ihr hier in der Ausschreibung; allen Teilnehmern viel Erfolg und "Gut Holz!"

October 20th, 2003 - Root/Wiggins, the second finally online.
Lacking a really good excuse for the massive delay of more or less half a year, let me introduce you to the second part of the bughouse lessons of these two masters of bughouse and teaching. Find the lecture in the academy section, or go there directly here.

Thanks estenbri for sending me this great video with interviews of the berlin bughouse gathering 2003 participants! It was indeed worth waiting for, and its surely worth waiting for the download - its some 120MB's in size 8^) !

Soon to come: Parts II and III of the Root / Ghostshell lectures! Just have to make some board setups and there we go 8^)

1. Tandemturnier der Schachfreunde Neukölln 03 e.V. anläßlich des 100-jährigen Vereinsjubiläums
Ausnahmsweise auf deutsch: am 25. Oktober 2003 findet das erste, aber hoffentlich nicht letzte Tandemturnier in Neukölln statt. Hier die Ausschreibung. Die Regeln scheinen noch etwas unklar, zumindest für die Online-Bughousespieler, aber vielleicht kann ich die fraglichen Details noch recherchieren (zumindest scheint mir das Verfahren hinsichtlich der Bauern, Umwandlung etc. unklar). Details und Ergebnisse folgen - wäre das nicht für viele ein guter Grund, mal wieder (oder endlich mal) ein Wochenende in Berlin zu verbringen?

August 18th, 2003 - Some new stuff and great news!
Sorry for leaving the website untouched for all this time, i was busy with my new job, some fascistic FICS admins and a great bughouse gathering in Geneva (thanks, Nabla! 8^)). I put some new stuff on the gathering page of Berlin 2003, check it out yourself. There is of course still a lot more to come including a report of my view of the gathering.
And now, for something completely different. During the Geneva gathering, i had the pleasure to meet Frengo(*) who was playing a chess tournament nearby and came around to play some bughouse on friday while we were grilling at Tjeulesbetes' place (all details on Nabla's page). Francesco apparently liked the crowd so much that he decided afterwards to try and host something similiar himself, in Pisa/Italy later this year! That is of course great news for the european bughouse scene as the southern europeans had no real chance to meet the central and northern guys yet. I hope many many buggers make it there! For the time being, i have set up a message board for the gathering, just follow this link and announce your participation :).

July 4th, 2003 - Chess life article #1 online finally. - sorry for the huge delay; the first article or Dr. Alexey Root and Eric Wiggins a.k.a. GhostShell is finally available in the Essay department of the academy section. Also i've finally managed to do a DivX, in this case one little piece of the games for 3rd place from the Berlin Tournament 2003 between WhoAmI & Vigo versus Cranith and Wortel, i hope you enjoy it. And, i am of course still working on those pictures. Besides the yet-to-come report with pictures, i've decided to do a gallery of all people who were there. Its not complete yet, so don't get the idea i forgot you if you're not in yet! :)

June 21st, 2003 - Czech Open 2003 coming! - Completely forgotten in the Schedule and announcements, the biggest chess festival on earth is coming up, together with the first official Czech bughouse tournament on july 14th, 2003 run by the czech chess federation! That is an important breakthrough that the bughouse "organizations" ;^P of other nations still have to achieve. Read the details here! June 17th, 2003 - New pictures in the gatherings section - i will try to upload whatever content i can these days. Please check the gathering section frequently for an update on pictures, videos and stories! :)

June 12th, 2003 - Independance day Mini Gathering in Frankfurt/Main Germany. If you happen to be somewhere around Frankfurt, you should contact Zola who is running this neat little event - send him a mail to zola@bughouse.info.
Finished part one of the video, download it here. The old link is no longer valid. June 11th, 2003 - Gathering's over! Too bad if you didn't make it, i enjoyed it a lot. Hopefully i'll get to put material on here soon - as a little teaser, here is what came out when i played around with iMovie and a Video Camera for the first time. Redirect your suggestions and flames directly to /dev/null :)
All participants who took pictures or videos - please, send them to me by email. Contact me on fics in case your data is too big to be transmitted as email. Thanks!

May 26th, 2003 - News. Regarding the hostel, due to some rebookings and some people cancelling due to other important business, we have some spots available in the 4-Bed rooms with bath. However we are now seriously running out of time so if you intend to come, there is no more time to lose, and that means no more days.
The cool deal of last year stands courtesy of Marc Meillon, the hostel manager: if you come to the bar/reception with a chess piece, you get all drinks (beer, water, coke etc.) for one euro instead of the regular prize of - i think - 1.60. He also was not totally negative about the beach volleyball...lets see.
If you own one or more digital chess clocks, please bring them with you - as said before, we will have a standard clock for the tournament, but not for the whole gathering. Pieces and boards will be available though.
The Academy section was restructured a bit in preparation to the addition of the Chess Life articles announced earlier.

May 24th, 2003 - Hostel News, other news. The bad news first - it seems the hostel wont get that beach volleyball court ready in time as promised. We will have to replace that discipline in the triathlon, lets see what i come up with...
Just a few reminders, for the late joiners: if you decide to come, make sure to sign up here as soon as possible: participant note. To see a provisional list of players (not complete), click here. To read details about the hostel, look here. To read general information about Berlin, click here.
Also just to remind you, we were allowed by the friendly provider of DGT digital chess clocks and pieces to give them to the participants for only 75% of their regular prize. Just in case you consider buying one or two new clocks you may want to get them here.
Regarding the "Master's challenge", the planned successor to the "Quality bughouse tournament", i have received positive feedback from VABORIS, LinusO, Firefly, Bugzilla, tantheman, and Yscorpion. I've received a "Thx but not interested now" from Fudpucker; but unfortuntely i havent received any feedback from the other 25-30 people i have messaged. Hopefully they're just in vacation for the past two weeks and will answer when they returned.
Great news regarding the Academy section! You may have heard of or even received the Chess Life bughouse articles of WIM Dr. Alexey Root (who also happens to be 1989 U.S. Women’s Chess Champion) and Eric Wiggins, better known as GhostShell (or to some as Angelick ;^). They gave permission that i publish their lectures in the academy section, which will enrich that part of bughouse.info big time. Thanks a lot for that! Also, if you watch an interesting game of bughouse you would like to comment, or even just a certain position that you have thought about, please send it to me with your comments and let others share your wisdom! All others, check the Academy section frequently for updates!
Finally, some gossip: rumor has it that a certain, unnamed muppet started working on restoring the legendary ficsforum.net message board. Lets knock on wood! :)

May 18, 2003 - Hostel Reservations and other news. As the gathering time comes closer, a couple of undecided make up their mind and approach me regarding room reservation. The Hostel gave us a "grace period" until May 20th which they may extend once more for a week but that is not guaranteed. By the time this period is over they must have the signed contracts back. However you get the contract emailed to you only if you filled out the Participant's note first. Important: if you have filled out the form on this web site, but didnt receive a hostel booking number and contract yet per email, something went wrong. However i highly recommend not to contact the hostel to clarify the situation as only two people there know of us buggers; rather, send email to Suza@bughouse.info and it will be taken care of.
Regarding the players, a few of the dutch guys had to cancel due to school/work situation but others may jump in; thats still unclear. Great that we can meet cosinus again, who booked his flight from Zurich this week. ZaKrzutek tells me that a lot of polish buggers plan to come to Berlin and travel home every night (the polish border is very close). Also nonspiego is undecided and as long as Mr. LINDEGREN does not explicitly tell me he cant make it, hes on my plan. 8^)
Rule set still under construction. Tournament mode is clear so far, it will be very similar to last year just with two or three changes: we will play only 3 0 instead of the lame 5 0 games in the first round. That gives us more games, so we will play 13 round double SS instead of 9 rounds. Then we also may consider extending the final a bit (but only the very final for place 1). Stay tuned for more...
Oh yes, it was requested that i set up a corner on the message board for discussing the commented games, what i will gladly do. By the way keep up the good work and continuity guys, Fud and Linus in particular - i know you like to comment more games, let them come please! 8^)

Apr. 28, 2003 - Hostel Situation. Our contingent at the A&O; Backpackers is booked out now except for five complete four-bed-rooms without bathroom (that means, the bath and toilets are on the floor). Of course it could still be that someone else cancels another bed but i wouldnt bet on that. If you are interested in one of these beds, please reserve as soon as possible - the deadline for reservations was actually Apr. 15th so at this time there is no guarantee any longer to have these rooms under control.

Apr. 28, 2003 - First Participants List available! The provisional participants list has been uploaded to the tourney page. If you plan to play in the tourney, but you're not on the list - or if you already formed a team with someone but that team is not noted here, please mail me.

Apr. 13, 2003 - Geneva Gathering dates! Yes thats right, rumours are going around and as a usually well informed source told me, nabla will again run the original european gathering in Geneva in 2003, from August 9th to 11th. You cant miss that one, the outdoor bughouse with giant pieces is something you MUST try before you can really call yourself a bugger! I will for sure try to make it this year, it was a shame i was not able to attend in 2002 8^( To visit nabla's page which contains great bughouse resources as well as funny anecdotes and pics from previous gatherings, look here.

bpgn problems: It was reported that some people have had problems viewing the bpgn's in the academy corner. To solve that and for general convenience reasons, beuki sent me a version that can be viewed online, using fermy's cool javascript viewer - here. Great work guys!

Travel page update - the flight market is highly volatile these days, the cheap airlines are giving the established, old ones a hard time - thank god! That way, it becomes very likely that studious buggers find an opportunity to get to berlin for the worth of a bar visit. Noone knows that better than Ralf Zöller, which is why he revised and updated his travel howto. Read the news here!

2nd International Berlin BugHouse Open invitaion - thanks to Ralf, we have the "official" invitation ready now and it will be sent out to all local clubs and national chess event calendars. Read it in English or German!

Apr. 10, 2003 - Update of the Academy corner! New games from Firefly, Fudpucker and VABORIS, very enjoyable and instructive. Thanks a lot guys!
Lots of new signups for the Gathering! Its unclear yet how many people we will be, but the list keeps growing. Unfortunately there was not too much interest from america so far, that will hopefully change.

Apr. 8, 2003 - All hail Ryanair, for inventing their new cheap flight London - Berlin! For all those who consider doing the trip, check out this new connection Ryanair came up with. Nasnad, thanks for pointing me there!

Apr. 7, 2003 - Message board is back, up and running! Thanks to a security update of the programmer, we can use the Message board again for various posts. Be my guest to post there whatever you want as long as you do it in a civilized way 8^). Nevertheless i will leave the Participant's note in place as it helps with gathering the data we need to reserve the hostel accomodation. Please take the seconds to fill it out, there is NO consequence attached to it for you.

March 12, 2003 - Check out the new academy section! Soon you'll hopefully find a lot of helpful material there to learn and improve your bughouse. All strong players please help make that a worthy source of information for interested beginners and intermediates. Thanks! :)

All potential players/participants of the are asked to please fill out this form in order to make reserving rooms possible!

Looking for the cheap flight that will get you to Berlin? Ask the expert!

Message Board temporarily shut down
Due to the attack of the Euro Bugboard by some script kiddie who apparently hit it after seeking google for the program i had to shut it down temporarily. If you want to let us know that you plan to visit the Berlin Gathering or play in the 2nd Berlin Open, please send me an eMail. The programmer told me that he is about to release a new, fixed version within a few days so the problem is temporarily.

First Quality Bughouse Tournament
Finally it was played, after weeks of finding a time window that would fit 8 qualified players from 3 continents. Read all about it here!

Berlin Bughouse Gathering 2003

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