Comments/Ratings for a Single Item
I am a bit worried about this paragraph that states a dropped Rook is considered virgin (and thus fit for castling). As far as I know there doesn't exist any on-line server that uses this rule, or any engine that plays by this rule. It is also a very weird rule: when you move a Rook you lose castling rights, and moving it back to a corner normally doesn't restore them. And a drop move is a move like any other.
Bughouse tournaments seem to be happening all the time now, at least in North America (especially at scholastic level) - anyone who might want to organize chess variant(s) events over-the-board could start with having bughouse games/events; here's a link that shows what happened when I Googled 2019 Bughouse tournaments USA:
Bughouse is an excellent 4 player variant that can be played with a different number of players, or (as a Bughouse variant) even a greater number of boards & sets than just two, if desired. Fwiw, I've seen on internet chat sites talk that Bughouse is hard for engines, as there are two boards & sets + drops, multiplying the possibilites compared to standard chess. If ever one of the two boards has a player sitting (refusing to move), however, the computer may then have an advantage if playing against a human on the remaining board (provided that person doesn't already have a big advantage).
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."
Here are some Bughouse variants by me: 1. Some possible turn variants (they can be played by 4 or 2 players, and it's possible to play these with GC): a. In each turn, player must move one piece on both boards (in any order), possible to make one or two drops. b. Player must chose one of boards to move or drop piece on it. c. Turn order: p1 moves/drops on b1, p2 moves/drops on b1, p2 moves/drops on b2, p1 moves/drops on b2, p1 moves/drops on b1... Turn variants, of course, have no advantage that original bughouse have: it can be solved. But even normal chess was not solved yet, and these will not be solved soon (if someone will try to solve them, of course). 2. Kings can be captured and dropped (it's still not allowed to castle trough check). Team loses when it have no kings (when it have king(s) in reserve only it also loses). 3. You gives captured pieces to opponent's teammate! In this game, there is no material advantage. Perhaps, it's better (for balance) to move black on one of boards first. 4. This variant was probably already invented before me as one of these many regional variants: pieces can be dropped only to starting squares of pieces of same kind. 5. Bughouse, combined with it's own 2-players variant Crazyhouse: after each capture, player must chose to give captured piece to teammate or leave for himself (probably, it's better to play it with shogi-like set). 6. And most unusual variant: Bughouse, combined with Alice chess! When piece moves, it appears on another board without changing sides (see Alice chess rules for details)! Of course, it's better to play this according to one of turn variants above, but it's possible to play with normal bughouse rules to: piece appears when move on corresponding board is finished, if square is occuppied, piece on that square gets captured (it's possible to capture king, and it's team loses). In Russia this variant is commonly known as Swedish chess (i don't know why, maybe, it was brought to USSR by Swedish players). Naming is, of course, not important, with one expection: i don't like name 'Siamese chess'! Siamese chess is Makruk (Makruk, of course, also can be played in Bughouse style, as almost any other chess or checkers-like game)! And who is inventor of Bughouse? Looks like, it's inventor is unknown. Interesting, did he knew about shogi when invented this?
In my high school chess club back in the 1970s we used to play this with multiples of 4 players--up to 16 players. You pass pieces to your right and the player on the right end throws them to the player on the left end. It's a great game for a whole chess team to play one fast exciting game.
This site unfortunately is getting out of date, it for example still links to my old d2d4.de page which doesn't exist anymore for years now. I have mailed months ago about this.
Bughouse has many regional rules, but most of the rules given on this page do correspond to the international and widely accepted ones. For tournaments you need to be a little more precise about the handling of some potential problems, but here I would just add that : - I never heard about 'serious' bughouse played without a clock or at a time control exceeding 5 minutes per player and per move. - Verbal communication between partners is always unrestricted, and is the absolute spirit of the game. So you can advice (or flame) your partner. And I advice everybody to keep an eye on the publishing of Georg's book, which will probably be the definite saying about bughouse !
I've been thinking of a variant expanding on the Bughouse concept that I call Team Chess (or Team Shogi). I'm envisioning six players on a team, and games taking place between two opposing teams. Two team members play a small variant, two play usual chess, and one plays a large variant; the sixth team member is the captain. All three chess variants being played should use similar armies and rules, so that it won't cause confusion if a piece gets transferred to another board -- perhaps Quickchess, usual chess, and Grand Chess. The winner of the large variant game determines the winning team. When a piece is captured, the capturing team's captain takes it in hand (it changes color) and delivers it to one of his team's five players (captain's choice) to drop at will. The captain can watch all five of the games, but no other communication takes place between the team members once play has begun. I haven't decided what should happen when one of the smaller games ends; should the captain receive all the pieces of the conquered army? None of them? Perhaps just a Prince (non-royal King)?
http://cashton.homeip.net/ubd/
3 first links at the top-right of this page (after 'See also:') are broken. The fourth one is very good, but still need to be updated to point directly to http://members.lycos.nl/bughouse/.
The way that I have always played Bughouse is that: A. Drops can only be done on your half of the board, B. No dropping as to check the king, C. First player to mate and his partner win. Rule A seems to take a little of the potency of drops away, but it's not that hard to move to the other side of the board.
I play on the freechess.org server, and I wanted to add your information is solid ecept bughouse.net and thebugboard.net are dead links as are the deepbug.html link for bdean., chess engine. I want to invite all the Las Vegas Nevada, March 20, to March 24 , 2003 at the Gold Spike Hotel 7th Floor, we are holding a bughouse gathering 24/7 on the top floor of the Downtown Hotel, rooms are just 22.00 per night it is older hotel but it serves us well and we have about 30 to 40 buggers from all over the world. log into www.freechess.org and register talk to sgs or zap about the gathering, or finger sgs for more information Nitemove rated about 1200 to 1300 on freechess.org cheers !!! ie in bughouse .... lol
Good bughouse websites are hard to find. Here's a collection of essential links for bughouse chess. Rules and General Information http://www.bughouse.net http://www.bughouse.info http://www.chessvariants.com/multiplayer.dir/tandem.html http://mujweb.atlas.cz/sport/holandany/CompleteBughouseRules.htm Strategy http://www.freechess.org/WWWhelp/bughouse_strat.html http://personal.atl.bellsouth.net/f/e/ferrantc/chess http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Metro/1324/bug-strategy.html Internet Chess Servers http://www.freechess.org (Free Internet Chess Server = FICS) http://www.jinchess.com/thief & http://www.knighttour.org/thief (Thief Interface for FICS) http://www.nettank3d.com/ubd (Ultimate Bughouse Database for FICS) http://www.mydomainnameisbiggerthanyours.com/bughouse (Records for FICS) PlayByEmail server http://www.gamerz.net/pbmserv/ BPGN viewers http://bughouse.net/ftp/bpgn21.exe (BPGN Viewer) http://bughouse.net/ftp/bugassistant02.zip (Bug Assistant) Engines http://sunsetter.sourceforge.net (Sunsetter) http://sjeng.sourceforge.net (Sjeng) http://users.wpi.edu/~bdean/deepbug.html (Deepbug) Games http://www.pathguy.com/chess/Bughouse.htm (Java) http://www.nonvi.com (Double Chess Demo) http://www.rocler.qc.ca/netblitz/index.htm (NetBlitz) Zillions of Games http://www.zillions-of-games.com/games/BughouseChess.html (Bughouse) http://www.zillions-of-games.com/games/crazyhouse.html (Crazyhouse) Discussion Board http://www.thebugboard.net Links http://home.planetinternet.be/plotpro/ http://dmoz.org/Games/Board_Games/Abstract/Battle_Games/Chess/Variants/Bughouse_Chess/
The Zillions link provided by Fergus Duniho is incorrect. It should be the following page: http://zillionsofgames.com/games/BughouseChess.html
I have recently received some emails on the possibility of implementing Bughouse for Zillions of Games. Let me say here that this is impossible. The asynchronous nature of Bughouse makes it impossible to implement Bughouse for Zillions of Games. In order to accomodate Bughouse, Zillions of Games would have to be updated to allow asynchronous communication between two separately running games. At present, it does not allow any communication between separately running games, whether synchronous or asynchronous. However, the synchronous version of Bughouse, the one that can be played by email, has been implemented by Karl Scherer as Transfer Chess. It can be found at this URL: http://www.zillions-of-games.com/games/transferchess.html
Hi! Good page, but the links are a bit outdated. Check out: thebugboard.net, bughouse.info for some good links and software to download. Also if you want to play bughouse or crazyhouse online The freechess server freechess.org is the place to be! the link http://www.bughousechess.com/ mentioned on the page does no longer exists.
The one thing I would correct is that in bughouse, you must press the clock before you pass the piece. Because your turn is not effectively completed until you press your clock you could still do something else (as is the case in blitz when touch-move is not in play). I have seen more than once what happens when in over-the-board someone takes a piece and then doesn't press his clock: the opponent may try to move but the player could claim, 'But I haven't pressed my clock yet.' Of course, in over the board play, if you press your clock you don't necessarily have to pass the piece...especially if you are playing with 5 people and the loser is out! Otherwise the page looks good! -LittleKarpov (Rated 2005 on FICS)
Very nice introduction to bughouse. For the players interested in online bughouse the Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) located at www.freechess.org is a very good starting point.
In Mexico Bughouse is known as ESPARTACO like the Roman slave. Drop a pawn in 7th rank is not permited, but the rules can vary and nobody knows how it came to Mexico, but it is really delightful specially for young people, who considers it with so much excitement.
In Australia we call it 'Transfer chess', or normally just 'Transfer'. Normally played with 5 minute time controls, no increment, and the team loses when either player loses. When a player is about to get mated they will wait until their time runs out, unless their partner's opponent has more time, in which case they will resign :) Table talk generally includes 'knight is mate' (meaning that player can give checkmate with a knight) or 'don't give him a knight!' (meaning if that player's opponent gets a knight, some kind of terrible disaster will happen), but suggestions of moves to play for your partner are frowned upon. Questions like 'Should I sac my queen for a pawn?' are also acceptable.
45 comments displayed
Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.
Oddly the wikipedia entry for Bughouse Chess (which is given there as synonymous to Tandem Chess or Siamese Chess, unlike in CVP's entry for Bughouse plus Tandem Chess [which notes some differences in rules between the two variants]) does not appear to discuss drops of captured rooks at all, unless I missed it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bughouse_chess