Gukesh, Keymer, Maghsoodloo, Ganguly: 6-Player Bughouse is pure chaos

by Arne Kaehler
3/20/2026 – After the Prague International Chess Festival, the top players didn't want to stop playing, so they set up three boards for 6-player bughouse. World Champion Gukesh, Keymer, Maghsoodloo, and Ganguly were joined by rising "futures" stars Clio Alessi and Lilian Schirmbeck to create absolute chaos. Keymer was basically overpowered the entire game, while Ganguly held on with everything he had. The highlight? A ridiculous loophole battery where they sacrificed 10 knights and bishops in a row. Finally, no engines, no prep. Just pure fun between some of the best chess players in the world.
In this video course, GM Surya Ganguly joins IM Sagar Shah and drawing from his colossal experience, shares some uncommon endgame wisdom. The material mostly features positions with rook against rook and a pawn, and starts by covering the fundamentals.

Gukesh, Keymer, Maghsoodloo, Ganguly

6-Player Bughouse is pure chaos

In this course GM Ganguly turns calculation into a trainable skill with a structured path for any level.
If one skill decides more games, it’s calculation. Openings fade, plans change - but seeing clearly, comparing lines, and choosing with confidence wins points. In this course GM Ganguly turns calculation into a trainable skill with a structured path for any level. You won’t just solve tactics; you’ll learn how to think: where to start, which branches to explore, when to stop, and how to keep a crystal-clear mental board under pressure.
Free video sample: Introduction
Free video sample: Forcing moves

In this two-volume course GM Ganguly turns calculation into a trainable skill with a structured path for any level.
If one skill decides more games, it’s calculation. Openings fade, plans change—but seeing clearly, comparing lines, and choosing with confidence wins points. In this two-volume course, GM Ganguly turns calculation into a trainable skill with a structured path for any level. You won’t just solve tactics; you’ll learn how to think: where to start, which branches to explore, when to stop, and how to keep a crystal-clear mental board under pressure.
Free video sample: Introduction
Free video sample: Attack & Defence

What the heck is a 6-Player bughouse?

Regular bughouse is 4 players on 2 boards, paired into 2 teams. When you capture a piece, you hand it to your teammate on the other board, and they can place it on any open square on their turn instead of making a normal move. It's fast, loud, and chaotic because you're constantly shouting at your partner for pieces.

6-player bughouse takes that to 3 boards, with 2 teams of 3. Captured pieces get passed along the chain to a teammate, so there are now more boards feeding pieces into each other. The result is exponentially more insane. Pieces are flying everywhere, coordination between three players is nearly impossible, and the whole thing devolves into beautiful madness.

With three boards feeding pieces, someone can just keep sacrificing knights and bishops because they're instantly being replenished from the other boards. It's like an infinite ammo glitch in a video game.

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Topics: Alessi, Gukesh, Parham Maghsoodloo, schirmherr, Surya Ganguly, Vincent Keymer
Arne Kaehler, a creative mind who is passionate about board games in general, was born in Hamburg and learned to play chess at a young age. By teaching chess to youth teams and creating chess-related videos on YouTube, Arne was able to expand this passion and has even created an online course for anyone who wants to learn how to play chess. Arne writes for the English and German news sites, but focuses mainly on content for the ChessBase media channels.
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