12
votes
Where to play online Bughouse Chess
Now you can play bughouse at Chess.com (for free). You can read this article to get help.
8
votes
Crazyhouse/Bughouse openings
This reddit page has plenty of good advice, and mentions a (strong player's) opening repertoire (section "My Opening Systems").
Excerpt :
For White:
Modified Catalan
Basic setup: 1. d4 ... ...
8
votes
Accepted
Are there any official rules for Bughouse?
I found two sources. For fans of the USCF they have produced their US CHESS SCHOLASTIC BUGHOUSE RULES but not a grown up version that I can find.
The rather more serious Czech federation holds an ...
7
votes
Accepted
Is 1. Nf3 good for white in bughouse?
For an opening to be good in bughouse, it needs to incorporate both boards. Timing, material trades, attack/defend all have a huge influence. On top is predictability. If you know what the ops will ...
6
votes
Is short castling dangerous in Bughouse?
Tempo is king in bug house for castling. By definition, unless your castle makes a immediate threat somehow, you have lost 1 tempo. In other words, it is at least one more move until you improve or ...
5
votes
Crazyhouse/Bughouse openings
Crazyhouse openings repertoire
See my lichess study. All moves have been cross-checked with an opening book of 2000+ rated players. Moves that the opponent is likely to play and moves that give a ...
5
votes
Accepted
Bughouse chess strategies
This reddit page has a ton of information, coming from a strong player.
Excerpts (z means "crazyhouse") :
Opening
The standard rules apply: develop your pieces, control the center, and get ...
4
votes
Formal rules for two-player bughouse without a clock
The way I've played it is an alternative. The rule is that you can't stall for more than three moves of your teammate (so if your teammate has made his third move since your last you must move before ...
4
votes
Formal rules for two-player bughouse without a clock
In bughouse, there are no formal rules, since it isn't exactly a formal game.
But from my experience, the two most common ways to deal with this are:
A player counts to 10 after moving, and his ...
4
votes
Bughouse rating formula
Yes, you take the same formula and do absolutely the same calculations. Elo formula has very little to do with chess (except of it is used to calculate rating in chess). You can take any event that ...
4
votes
What's a fun troll bughouse opening?
Sacrificing a piece on f7 (via Nf3-g5-f7 or e4, Bc4, Bxf7) creates a hole on f7 which can later be filled by a parachuting piece. This can be quite effective particularly if you have paratroopers ...
4
votes
Accepted
In Bughouse can you claim a draw if the position on the board repeated three times but the pieces available to place were different?
Not having a governing body for bughouse, the rules are a little informal.
Per the Wikipedia article:
Depending on (local) rules threefold repetition applies, in which case
the reserve of pieces ...
4
votes
Accepted
Is targeting the f7/f2 square in bughouse a good rule of thumb?
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcKXwA_lo3Zpz3_Mc-WVLtw is the YouTube channel of Helmsknight. She is a strong player who plays with Nakamura, Seirawan, and many other high rated players. ...
3
votes
Crazyhouse Chess: Playing with a real board and overall popularity?
Very boring answer: when I was at the university, we used to play it on a real board with two sets of pieces. Whenever you take a piece, you exchange it with one of the correct color.
3
votes
Accepted
What is the best way to improve Crazyhouse or Bughouse skills?
Since there isn't much material out there to study, the best way is to play with better players. Of course, studying tactic problems is great for chess and the variants. FICS (free internet chess ...
3
votes
Is short castling dangerous in Bughouse?
It is certainly believed by many that castling is a "bad" move in bughouse (and if king side castling is weak, queen side in my experience can be much worse). But I have seen world class (...
3
votes
Accepted
Bughouse rating formula
Providing that teams are not fixed, Elo (and Glicko too) does not fit your needs, because it's designed for 1-on-1 matches only.
You need something that manages both team performance and players' ...
3
votes
Crazyhouse/Bughouse openings
according to engine, the italian game is good, and the best reply to the italian is 3...d6. In crazyhouse, avoiding the fried liver is important for players of all level cause crazyhouse give white ...
2
votes
Bughouse chess strategies
I think any strategy has to be based on the strengths and weaknesses of the players in a much more pronounced way than in the 2 person game.
Here is an example strategy where one player is a strong ...
2
votes
Bughouse sitting/stalling full strategic breakdown
I will give an (impractical but I think interesting) answer to when it theoretically makes sense to stall in Bughouse, since on a mathematical level this is a definitive factor in the game.
In ...
2
votes
Accepted
Bughouse sitting/stalling full strategic breakdown
Well, since the values of pieces in bughouse chess depends severely on the position type (e.g. a queen is often useless) you may want to stall/not play immediately when you're waiting for a specific ...
2
votes
Bughouse chess tournament pairing software?
There is no pairing program which can do what you want. No program exists to change the partners every round according to the previous results. Pairing programs also try and avoid pairing players or ...
2
votes
Is targeting the f7/f2 square in bughouse a good rule of thumb?
In general it's a good idea, but to every rule there are exceptions. For example, if your opponent's king is safe (such as from castling) and he has lots of pieces around defending, sacrificing the ...
2
votes
Accepted
Hosting bughouse server for local competition?
As the question you linked indicates there is a way to run bughouse engine games via FICS using XBoard/Winboard, which I also explained in my answer to a related question.
However, if all of your ...
1
vote
Bughouse chess tournament pairing software?
Bughouse is not the only partnered game where this would be a problem worth solving.
Here is a description of what you want for Euchre tournaments; in this case they call it a "progressive" ...
1
vote
Formal rules for two-player bughouse without a clock
Here is a set of rules that works fully:
At any time exactly one board is obligated (initially the board for Team 1 White).
If both players in the same team have the turn, then one of them must move.
...
1
vote
Formal rules for two-player bughouse without a clock
Here is a rule that I think works:
Every piece you capture can be dropped by your partner only after his/her next move.
This prevents the situation you mentioned. Of course, it is still possible to ...
1
vote
Is 1. Nf3 good for white in bughouse?
I don't think nf3 is bad at all but the multiple moves to sac on f7 is using up too many tempi and also giving up a knight is different than saccing a b. i think against any team over 1500 or so a ...
1
vote
Is 1. Nf3 good for white in bughouse?
1. Nf3 is a bad move in bughouse. Nf3 intending to Ng5, Nxf7 is not good because this idea can be easily refuted.
[FEN ""]
1. Nf3 e6 2. Ne5 Qf6 3. Nxf7 Qxf7
Place the knight on g6, Qe7, ...
1
vote
Bughouse chess strategies
There is a lot of depth to the tactics and strategy. Assuming at least familiar with single board chess tactics such as a fork, pin, etc. then next up is understanding Time & Communication. ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
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