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.
pablosaraiva's user avatar
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 ... ...
Nikana Reklawyks's user avatar
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 ...
Brian Towers's user avatar
  • 94.5k
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 ...
bvaughn's user avatar
  • 256
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 ...
bvaughn's user avatar
  • 256
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 ...
Mateen Ulhaq's user avatar
  • 1,264
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 ...
Nikana Reklawyks's user avatar
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 ...
Chris's user avatar
  • 41
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 ...
Inertial Ignorance's user avatar
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 ...
Salvador Dali's user avatar
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 ...
Brian Towers's user avatar
  • 94.5k
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 ...
PhishMaster's user avatar
  • 32.4k
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. ...
Mike Jones's user avatar
  • 5,159
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.
Federico Poloni's user avatar
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 ...
Ywapom's user avatar
  • 6,111
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 (...
releseabe's user avatar
  • 753
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' ...
Tomaso Neri's user avatar
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 ...
DanishGambiter's user avatar
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 ...
Brian Towers's user avatar
  • 94.5k
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 ...
Mobeus Zoom's user avatar
  • 2,269
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 ...
MakeTheTrumpetsBlow's user avatar
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 ...
Brian Towers's user avatar
  • 94.5k
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 ...
Inertial Ignorance's user avatar
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 ...
Fabian Fichter's user avatar
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" ...
causaSui's user avatar
  • 424
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. ...
user21820's user avatar
  • 2,779
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 ...
user21820's user avatar
  • 2,779
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 ...
releseabe's user avatar
  • 753
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, ...
Kevin Ho's user avatar
  • 151
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. ...
bvaughn's user avatar
  • 256

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