Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

I am very happy to have discovered that Crazyhouse exists on this site. To
my knowledge, it is the only site in ' turn-based ' which allows to play
it. One can play it directly on FICS for example, but in 'deferred',
only Chess variants propose it. The other sites in Turn-based (Gold Token
and Brainking) propose a close variant (Loop Chess or Chessgi) but, to my
opinion, Crazyhouse is more interesting.
What I regret, it is that it seems that this variant is little to play
here. Until now, I obtained only few opponents.
I am ready to receive any invitations.

              My pseudo : steph

You can also play Crazyhouse on http://www.schemingmind.com/

i do play crazyhouse at scheming mind. i have also begun playing 'dark
crazyhouse' there and i think it is probably the only site which does
it.
i have just stumbled upon a problem after taking an opponents pawn.
because
i now have a piece to drop, i can see all the empty squares, and thus
calculate my opponents moves. whereas he is still playing in the dark.

i would like to know what is the best solution for this:

1. only allow drops to squares which i can see, or,

2. similar to kriegspiel, commit to moves when dropping to dark squares.
if the square is empty, the move is played. if it isn't empty then you
get to try again.

the first option is less crazy than crazyhouse, and the second option is
less dark than dark chess. is there a satisfactory compromise?

Crazyhouse is not a recognized variant of the month?
i don't know how that could be, it shouldn't even have to be voted on,
not a hour goes by on the planet where a crazyhouse game is not being
played, and that is a conservative estimate.
you should make crazyhouse a recognized variant along with whatever other
game you recognize in a future month

http://www.chessvariants.org/multiplayer.dir/tandem.html

is the page for the (Recognized) variant pair Bughouse/Tandem Chess. 
Bughouse is insanely(!) popular in Canada - kids especially.  Crazyhouse
requires two chess sets for only two players, which is not practical at
tournaments or at small chess clubs.

i would love to vote for it, but it seems you also have to make a list in
your preference order for a lot of games, most which i don't know
anything about, so it doesn't seem fair to vote.
we do know crazyhouse is played every hour of the day, probably on icc
alone that happens. i think the trouble is, so many people have played
crazyhouse heaps, or often, but are now interested in other new variants
etc etc and don't feel inclinded to vote for it. everyone here are fans
of chess variants, and get excited about new different stuff. i reckon you
could probably pick over 5 'recognized variants' at the moment, and
crazyhouse is being played more often than all of them put together.
but whatever.

the only problem of this game is the difficulty to invent a chess set for
play. currently it can only be played on computer.
the difficulty is :
first, pieces can change color
second, when pawn promotes, say, to a queen, you need to remember this
queen is not a real one and when it is taken, it goes back to a pawn.
In shogi there are no such problems because sides are differetiated not
by
color but by the orietation it is on a board. secondly, if a piece is
promoting, there is always only one choice, not like a pawn in crazyhouse
that can promote to 4 other pieces. therefore the 2nd problem is simply
solved by flipping the piece over.

bug?
my game with je ju seems to have recorded the wrong winner for some
reason.
Crazyhouse&log=carlos-jejujeju-2006-214-320

I feel this needs some links or commentary addressing Crazyhouse strategy and tactics in order to be complete, plus:

The opening paragraph is wrong. Crazyhouse is a ONE-player version of Bughouse, not two-player.

:)

45wyt4se5t

'How popular is crazyhouse?'

Quite popular on turnbased servers, I would say.  It seems popular on SchemingMinds, and on Brain King, Loop Chess (their version of CrazyHouse) is the third most popular chess variant (391 games running) (behind DiceChess (1073) and DiceChess 10x10 (1062), but ahead of Japanese Chess (316), Massacre Chess (238), Anti Chess (165), Dark Chess (157), Chinese Chess (151) and Embassy Chess (142), to compare with other chess variants popular on that server).

A classic example of a game whose popularity exceeds its actual quality.

The addition of conversion to chess is a worthwhile pursuit, but the brainless mechanic of dropping a piece wherever you want, is the least imaginitive possible implementation.

More specifically the freedom to drop pieces produces a higher level of convergence in the game tree versus more restricted implementations, reducing strategic connotations of moves. Piece drops in Crazyhouse are always done on primitive grounds, check blocks, pawn promotion threat etc.

That it merely borrows this from Shogi is not a defense; those games are 1) somewhat aged, 2) purposely designed towards such a mechanic.

Were Chess capture performed by nonreplacement, pieces could simply be converted immediately and this would likely work well.

As it is, I believe there are two main implementations.

1. allow pieces of like colour to occupy common space with immediate conversion. This is not satisfactory as it simply allows the second player in a trade cycle to gain all the pieces.

2. my proposition. Captured piece is immediately converted, continues to occupy its cell and can be played on as usual. However it may not be captured at this point, and may not capture on its first move after conversion. 

On playtesting this idea, I further propose that converted piece must wait one turn before being played into a game-this avoids attritional cycles with little change to the board.

Crazyhouse (like Bughouse) is one of the most popular chess variants on the planet at the moment, and there has to be a reason. It's much like Shogi, but with chess pieces (and, unlike Bughouse, it's a 2 player game), making it especially popular with those who love bang-bang tactics (many or most chess players, I suppose).

{edit: below is an entry from a later post, for reference within this review:]

Fwiw, here are relative piece values for Crazyhouse that I once saw given on someone's blog:

P = 2; B = 3; N = 3.5; R = 4; Q = 6.

For comparison, and in case one might use it for Crazyhouse too, from the wiki entry on Bughouse: "A valuation system, first suggested by FICS-player Gnejs, often applied to bughouse is pawn=1, bishop=knight=rook=2 and queen=4."

Fwiw, here are relative piece values for Crazyhouse that I once saw given on someone's blog:

P = 2; B = 3; N = 3.5; R = 4; Q = 6.

For comparison, and in case one might use it for Crazyhouse too, from the wiki entry on Bughouse: "A valuation system, first suggested by FICS-player Gnejs, often applied to bughouse is pawn=1, bishop=knight=rook=2 and queen=4."