Bughouse chess
Encyclopedia
Bughouse chess is a popular chess variant
played on two chessboard
s by four players in teams of two. Normal chess
rules apply, except that captured pieces on one board are passed on to the players of the other board, who then have the option of putting these pieces on their board.
The game is usually played at a fast time control
; this, together with the passing and dropping of pieces, can make the game look chaotic and random to the casual onlooker; hence the name bughouse
, which is slang
for mental hospital. The game is traditionally played as a diversion from regular chess both over the board and online
. Yearly, several dedicated bughouse tournament
s are organised on a national and an international level.
played on two chessboard
s by four players in teams of two. Each team member faces one opponent of the other team. Partners sit next to each other and one player has black, while the other has white. Each player plays the opponent as in a standard chess
game, with the exception of the rules specified below.
immediately passes that piece to the partner. The partner keeps these pieces in reserve and may, instead of playing a regular move, place one of these pieces on the board (as in shogi
and crazyhouse
). Pieces in reserve or on deck may be placed on any vacant square, including squares where the piece delivers check or checkmate. However pawns
may not be dropped on the first and last rank. Dropped pawns may promote
, but all promoted pawns convert back to pawns when captured. In play over the board, a promoted pawn can be put on its side to indicate promotion. A pawn placed on the second rank may move two squares on its first move. Each player must keep the reserve or stock pieces on the table in front of the board, always visible to all players of the game.
for a piece. Clocks are placed on the outside so that each player can see both clocks. At the
start of the game, the players with the black pieces start the clocks simultaneously.
Bughouse is usually played using clock move, which allows touching of pieces. A move is completed only when the clock is pressed. Touch move is practiced to a lesser extent. When used, it applies to pieces in reserve as well; they are considered dropped after contact has been made with an empty square.
Bughouse can be played without a clock, but then there is usually a rule preventing a player waiting for pieces (stalling or sitting) indefinitely. One rule states that players may not delay their move beyond the time that it takes for their partner to make three moves.
gets checkmate
d, resigns, forfeits on time or when an illegal move
is made in which the offending side is caught. The match can be drawn by agreement
or when two players run out of time or are checkmated simultaneously. Depending on (local) rules threefold repetition
applies, in which case the reserve of pieces is not taken into account.
Alternatively, when one board finishes, play can continue on the other board. In this case, pieces in reserve can still be dropped, but no new pieces are coming in. The outcome of the match is then decided by adding the score of the two boards.
It is possible to play the game with just two players (one per team) by having each player move on two boards. Analogous to simultaneous chess, this way of playing the game is referred to as simultaneous bughouse. It can also be played with just one clock
by playing the boards in a specific order (WhiteA, WhiteB, BlackB, BlackA) and pressing the clock after each move. This variation is suitable for play by mail
.
Bughouse can be played with three or more boards. The game is played in exactly the same way as normal bughouse with boards placed with alternating colours and two players and one clock per board. On capturing a piece however, the player has to decide which player of the team will get that piece. In three board bughouse chess the middle player is the key since he gets material from two boards, but has to decide how to divide the captured pieces. The middle board also commonly becomes very cramped due to having twice the number of pieces available.
A scoring system to evaluate material is to add up the piece values of the material on the board. In chess, when a pawn
equals one unit, a bishop
or knight
is worth three, a rook
five and a queen
nine. These values are a consequence of the difference in mobility of the pieces. In bughouse piece values differ because pieces in reserve essentially have the same mobility as they can be dropped on any vacant square. The pawn relatively gains importance in bughouse chess, its very limited mobility does not handicap reserve pawns. They can for instance be dropped to block non-contact checks. Pawns can be dropped onto the seventh rank, one step away from promotion, which again adds to their importance. Long range pieces like the queen or the rook lose relative value, due to the constantly changing pawn structure
. They are also more likely to be cornered in. A valuation system often applied to bughouse is pawn=1, bishop=knight=rook=2 and queen=4.
Another common situation in the interplay between the two boards is a player not moving, also called sitting or stalling. This can happen in anticipation of a certain piece or at the request of the partner. Suppose a player is under heavy attack, and an additional pawn would mate him. When the partner cannot prevent giving up a pawn on the next move, sitting is the only strategy. It would of course be perfectly logical for the attacker to sit as well, waiting for a pawn to come. The situation, where diagonal opponents sit at the same time is known as a "sitzkrieg" (literally "sitting war" in German, and a pun on "blitzkrieg
"). The difference in time between the diagonal opponents will eventually force one party to move. This diagonal time advantage is more important than the difference on the clock between opponents on the same board.
Apart from this active communication, a good bughouse player tries to coordinate silently by keeping an eye on the other board and adapting moves accordingly. This can mean as little as glancing at the other board before trading queens, or as much as playing an opening adapted to the other board.
It is common to sacrifice material to build up, or sustain an attack. Characteristic for attacks is the so-called "piece storm", where a player drops piece after piece with check. Contact checks or knight checks, which force the king to move as opposed to dropping pieces, are especially important. They can be used to drive the king into the open, away from its defenders, while they prevent the opponent from putting new material on the board.
Partner communication is essential in a good defense. When one partner is under attack, the other partner should be aware of which pieces hurt most. Sitting strategies might be necessary, and it is therefore important to play the defense fast. Accepting a sacrifice can be lethal. On the other hand, it results in the attacker having a piece less to play with, with the defender's partner having a piece more. Sacrifices therefore give the partner of the defender an opportunity to take initiative.
s. Many chess openings create weaknesses which can be easily exploited in bughouse. It is for instance not recommended to move pawns other than the d and e pawn. Bughouse openings are generally geared towards dominating vital squares and fast development. Captured pieces become available after the first few moves and it is important to develop at this stage as there is often not enough time to do so later. Development also helps to defend against early piece drop attacks.
The algebraic chess notation
for chess
can be used to record moves in bughouse games.
Different notations for piece drops are possible. The internet chess servers FICS
and Internet Chess Club
use the at-sign @, as in N@f1 (knight drop at f1), Q@e6+ (queen drop with check at e6) or P@h7 (pawn drop at h7).
Because of the fast pace at which the game is played, bughouse games are rarely recorded
in games played over the board. With the arrival of online chess it has become possible to systematically record games. The format in which this is done is the bughouse portable game notation (BPGN), an extension of the Portable Game Notation
for chess. Software, such as BPGN viewer can be used to replay and analyse bughouse games. Below is an example bughouse game in the BPGN format.
[Event "rated bughouse match"]
[Site "chess server X"]
[Date "2004.04.12"]
[WhiteA "WA"][WhiteAElo "1970"]
[BlackA "BA"][BlackAElo "2368"]
[WhiteB "WB"][WhiteBElo "1962"]
[BlackB "BB"][BlackBElo "2008"]
[TimeControl "180+0"]
[Result "0-1"]
1A. e4 {180} 1a. Nc6 {180} 1B. d4 {179} 2A. Nc3 {179}
1b. Nf6 {178} 2a. Nf6 {178} 2B. d5 {178} 3A. d4 {177}
2b. e6 {177} 3a. d5 {177} 3B. dxe6 {176} 4A. e5 {176}
3b. dxe6 {176} 4B. Qxd8+ {175} 4a. Ne4 {175}
4b. Kxd8 {175} 5B. Bg5 {174} 5A. Nxe4 {174}
5a. dxe4 {173} 5b. Be7 {173} 6A. Nh3 {173}
6B. Nc3 {172} 6a. Bxh3 {171} 6b. N@d4 {171}
7A. gxh3 {171} 7a. Nxd4 {170} 7B. O-O-O {169}
8A. P@e6 {168} 7b. Nbc6 {168} 8B. Bxf6 {166}
8a. N@f3+ {165} 9A. Qxf3 {165} 8b. Bxf6 {164}
9a. Nxf3+ {164} 10A. Ke2 {164} 9B. e3 {164}
10a. Q@d2+ {164} 11A. Bxd2 {164} 11a. Qxd2+ {164}
{WA checkmated} 0-1
, Joel Benjamin
, Yasser Seirawan, Andy Soltis, John Nunn
, Jon Speelman
, Sergey Karjakin
, Michael Adams, Emil Sutovsky
and Michael Rohde
have been known to play the game.
With the absence of an International Federation, competitive over the board bughouse is very much in its infancy. There is also no world championship
. A few countries do organize bughouse tournaments within the national chess federation. Examples include:
Other tournaments are organized privately:
and ICC
since 1995. FICS is currently the most active server for bughouse, attracting the world's best players like Levon Aronian
.
The game is played online in the same way as over the board, but some aspects are unique to online bughouse. In games over the board, communication is heard by all players, while in online bughouse it is usually done via private messages between two partners. This makes communication a more powerful weapon. It is also easier to coordinate as the second board is more visible on the screen than over the board. The time aspect is altered due to existence of premove
and lag. The latter can influence the diagonal time difference significantly, and it is good sportsmanship to restart the game when this difference gets too large.
ICS
compatible interfaces particularly suitable for bughouse include Thief and BabasChess. They have the ability to display both boards at the same time and store played or observed games, they also have partner communication buttons and a lag indicator. Special Xboard compatible engines have been written that support bughouse, examples are Sunsetter, Sjeng and TJchess. Although much faster than humans, they lack in positional understanding and especially in coordination and communication, an essential skill in this team game.
: "If your children want to play bughouse for fun, it is OK. But just remember that it is not chess and it has no positive value for chess. In fact, I absolutely recommend no bughouse during a tournament." One argument supporting this view is that bughouse distorts the typical pattern recognition used in chess. Another argument is that bughouse neglects positional values due to its highly tactical game play. On the other hand, there is no evidence that bughouse would hurt experienced chess players. In the words of Levon Aronian
: "Bughouse is good for players who know chess well already. ... I started to play bug when I was already at master level, [you] see, and I think bughouse is good for the imagination, to develop new ideas."
Chess variant
A chess variant is a game related to, derived from or inspired by chess. The difference from chess might include one or more of the following:...
played on two chessboard
Chessboard
A chessboard is the type of checkerboard used in the board game chess, and consists of 64 squares arranged in two alternating colors...
s by four players in teams of two. Normal chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
rules apply, except that captured pieces on one board are passed on to the players of the other board, who then have the option of putting these pieces on their board.
The game is usually played at a fast time control
Time control
A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. Time controls are typically enforced by means of a game clock...
; this, together with the passing and dropping of pieces, can make the game look chaotic and random to the casual onlooker; hence the name bughouse
Bughouse
Bughouse can refer to several things:* A psychiatric hospital* Bughouse chess* Operation Bughouse, an alternate name for the fictional Battle of Klendathu in Robert A. Heinlein's novel Starship Troopers...
, which is slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
for mental hospital. The game is traditionally played as a diversion from regular chess both over the board and online
Internet chess server
An Internet chess server is an external server that provides the facility to play, discuss, and view the board game of chess over the Internet...
. Yearly, several dedicated bughouse tournament
Tournament
A tournament is a competition involving a relatively large number of competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:...
s are organised on a national and an international level.
Rules
Bughouse is a chess variantChess variant
A chess variant is a game related to, derived from or inspired by chess. The difference from chess might include one or more of the following:...
played on two chessboard
Chessboard
A chessboard is the type of checkerboard used in the board game chess, and consists of 64 squares arranged in two alternating colors...
s by four players in teams of two. Each team member faces one opponent of the other team. Partners sit next to each other and one player has black, while the other has white. Each player plays the opponent as in a standard chess
Rules of chess
The rules of chess are rules governing the play of the game of chess. While the exact origins of chess are unclear, modern rules first took form during the Middle Ages. The rules continued to be slightly modified until the early 19th century, when they reached essentially their current form. The...
game, with the exception of the rules specified below.
Captured pieces
A player capturing a pieceChess piece
Chess pieces or chessmen are the pieces deployed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. The pieces vary in abilities, giving them different values in the game...
immediately passes that piece to the partner. The partner keeps these pieces in reserve and may, instead of playing a regular move, place one of these pieces on the board (as in shogi
Shogi
, also known as Japanese chess, is a two-player board game in the same family as Western chess, chaturanga, and Chinese Xiangqi, and is the most popular of a family of chess variants native to Japan...
and crazyhouse
Crazyhouse
Crazyhouse is a chess variant similar to bughouse chess, but with only two players. It effectively incorporates a rule in shogi , in which a player can introduce a captured piece back to the board as his own....
). Pieces in reserve or on deck may be placed on any vacant square, including squares where the piece delivers check or checkmate. However pawns
Pawn (chess)
The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...
may not be dropped on the first and last rank. Dropped pawns may promote
Promotion (chess)
Promotion is a chess rule describing the transformation of a pawn that reaches its eighth rank into the player's choice of a queen, knight, rook, or bishop of the same color . The new piece replaces the pawn on the same square and is part of the move. Promotion is not limited to pieces that have...
, but all promoted pawns convert back to pawns when captured. In play over the board, a promoted pawn can be put on its side to indicate promotion. A pawn placed on the second rank may move two squares on its first move. Each player must keep the reserve or stock pieces on the table in front of the board, always visible to all players of the game.
Clock and completion of a move
Bughouse chess is usually played with chess clocks to prevent players from waiting indefinitelyfor a piece. Clocks are placed on the outside so that each player can see both clocks. At the
start of the game, the players with the black pieces start the clocks simultaneously.
Bughouse is usually played using clock move, which allows touching of pieces. A move is completed only when the clock is pressed. Touch move is practiced to a lesser extent. When used, it applies to pieces in reserve as well; they are considered dropped after contact has been made with an empty square.
Bughouse can be played without a clock, but then there is usually a rule preventing a player waiting for pieces (stalling or sitting) indefinitely. One rule states that players may not delay their move beyond the time that it takes for their partner to make three moves.
End of the game
The match ends when either of the games on the two boards ends. A game is won when one playergets checkmate
Checkmate
Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...
d, resigns, forfeits on time or when an illegal move
is made in which the offending side is caught. The match can be drawn by agreement
Draw by agreement
In chess, a draw by agreement is the outcome of a game due to the agreement of both players to a draw. A player may offer a draw to his opponent at any stage of a game; if the opponent accepts, the game is a draw. The relevant portion of the FIDE laws of chess is article 9.1...
or when two players run out of time or are checkmated simultaneously. Depending on (local) rules threefold repetition
Threefold repetition
In chess and some other abstract strategy games, the threefold repetition rule states that a player can claim a draw if the same position occurs three times, or will occur after their next move, with the same player to move. The repeated positions need not occur in succession...
applies, in which case the reserve of pieces is not taken into account.
Alternatively, when one board finishes, play can continue on the other board. In this case, pieces in reserve can still be dropped, but no new pieces are coming in. The outcome of the match is then decided by adding the score of the two boards.
Communication
Partners are normally allowed to talk to each other during the game. They can for instance ask for a specific piece, for more trades, ask to hold a piece, suggest moves or ask their partner to stall. Shouts like "Knight mates!" or "Give me pieces!" are common, and can lead to seemingly absurd sacrificial captures on the other board. Partners are not allowed to physically act on the other board.Variations
Bughouse comes in many variants, especially in the way drops are handled. Examples include:- Pieces cannot be dropped with check and/or checkmateCheckmateCheckmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...
. This variation is common in Europe and is sometimes referred to as tandem chess. - Pieces can only be placed on the player's half of the board.
- Pieces may only be placed on the third, fourth, fifth and sixth rank (the four middle ranks).
- Play continues until both games are complete.
- Kings are not subject to check; the game ends when one player's king is captured, even though there might have been an escape.
- Kings can be captured and the game continues until one team has all kings on the board.
- Pawns cannot be dropped on seventh (and sometimes sixth) rank.
- Pawns never promote, when they reach the eighth rank they remain pawns. This was a common variation in Australia in the 1980s which saves having to find extra pieces.
- Pawns may be dropped on the first rank.
- Promoted pawns carry their promotion over after a capture.
It is possible to play the game with just two players (one per team) by having each player move on two boards. Analogous to simultaneous chess, this way of playing the game is referred to as simultaneous bughouse. It can also be played with just one clock
Game clock
A game clock consists of two adjacent clocks and buttons to stop one clock while starting the other, such that the two component clocks never run simultaneously. Game clocks are used in two-player games where the players move in turn...
by playing the boards in a specific order (WhiteA, WhiteB, BlackB, BlackA) and pressing the clock after each move. This variation is suitable for play by mail
Correspondence chess
Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, usually through a correspondence chess server, through email or by the postal system; less common methods which have been employed include fax and homing pigeon...
.
Bughouse can be played with three or more boards. The game is played in exactly the same way as normal bughouse with boards placed with alternating colours and two players and one clock per board. On capturing a piece however, the player has to decide which player of the team will get that piece. In three board bughouse chess the middle player is the key since he gets material from two boards, but has to decide how to divide the captured pieces. The middle board also commonly becomes very cramped due to having twice the number of pieces available.
Material
In chess a minor material advantage is important as when material gets exchanged, the relative advantage becomes larger. Because new pieces come in, there is no endgame play in bughouse and material is therefore less important. It is common to sacrifice pieces in bughouse while attacking, defending or hunting down a certain piece which the partner requires.A scoring system to evaluate material is to add up the piece values of the material on the board. In chess, when a pawn
Pawn (chess)
The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...
equals one unit, a bishop
Bishop (chess)
A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...
or knight
Knight (chess)
The knight is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight . It is normally represented by a horse's head and neck. Each player starts with two knights, which begin on the row closest to the player, one square from the corner...
is worth three, a rook
Rook (chess)
A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes...
five and a queen
Queen (chess)
The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. With the chessboard oriented correctly, the white queen starts...
nine. These values are a consequence of the difference in mobility of the pieces. In bughouse piece values differ because pieces in reserve essentially have the same mobility as they can be dropped on any vacant square. The pawn relatively gains importance in bughouse chess, its very limited mobility does not handicap reserve pawns. They can for instance be dropped to block non-contact checks. Pawns can be dropped onto the seventh rank, one step away from promotion, which again adds to their importance. Long range pieces like the queen or the rook lose relative value, due to the constantly changing pawn structure
Pawn structure
In chess, the pawn structure is the configuration of pawns on the chessboard. Since pawns are the least mobile of the chess pieces, the pawn structure is relatively static and thus largely determines the strategic nature of the position.-General observations:Weaknesses in the pawn structure, such...
. They are also more likely to be cornered in. A valuation system often applied to bughouse is pawn=1, bishop=knight=rook=2 and queen=4.
Coordination
Captured pieces are passed on and thus what happens on one board influences what happens on the other board. It is therefore natural for team members to communicate during game play. A common request of an attacking player would be "trades are good", while players in trouble would ask their partner to hold trades with "trades are bad". Equally a player can request a piece e.g. "knight wins a queen" or ask to hold a piece e.g. "rook mates me".Another common situation in the interplay between the two boards is a player not moving, also called sitting or stalling. This can happen in anticipation of a certain piece or at the request of the partner. Suppose a player is under heavy attack, and an additional pawn would mate him. When the partner cannot prevent giving up a pawn on the next move, sitting is the only strategy. It would of course be perfectly logical for the attacker to sit as well, waiting for a pawn to come. The situation, where diagonal opponents sit at the same time is known as a "sitzkrieg" (literally "sitting war" in German, and a pun on "blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg
For other uses of the word, see: Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg is an anglicized word describing all-motorised force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken,...
"). The difference in time between the diagonal opponents will eventually force one party to move. This diagonal time advantage is more important than the difference on the clock between opponents on the same board.
Apart from this active communication, a good bughouse player tries to coordinate silently by keeping an eye on the other board and adapting moves accordingly. This can mean as little as glancing at the other board before trading queens, or as much as playing an opening adapted to the other board.
Attack and defense
Attacking the king can mean checking the opponent but also controlling vital squares around the king. It is an essential part of bughouse gameplay. From a player's perspective, attacking the king has important advantages as opposed to defending or attempting to win material:- Because of the possibility of dropping pieces, attacks in bughouse can quickly lead to checkmate.
- The attacking player has the initiative, he is the one who controls the board, while the opponent is left to react. This has also important consequences for the other board.
- It is easier to attack than to defend. A defending mistake can have bigger consequences than an attacking mistake. Thus, the defender needs to be more precise, which in turn can lead to a time advantage for the attacker.
It is common to sacrifice material to build up, or sustain an attack. Characteristic for attacks is the so-called "piece storm", where a player drops piece after piece with check. Contact checks or knight checks, which force the king to move as opposed to dropping pieces, are especially important. They can be used to drive the king into the open, away from its defenders, while they prevent the opponent from putting new material on the board.
Partner communication is essential in a good defense. When one partner is under attack, the other partner should be aware of which pieces hurt most. Sitting strategies might be necessary, and it is therefore important to play the defense fast. Accepting a sacrifice can be lethal. On the other hand, it results in the attacker having a piece less to play with, with the defender's partner having a piece more. Sacrifices therefore give the partner of the defender an opportunity to take initiative.
Opening
There are significantly fewer bughouse openings than there are chess openingChess opening
A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...
s. Many chess openings create weaknesses which can be easily exploited in bughouse. It is for instance not recommended to move pawns other than the d and e pawn. Bughouse openings are generally geared towards dominating vital squares and fast development. Captured pieces become available after the first few moves and it is important to develop at this stage as there is often not enough time to do so later. Development also helps to defend against early piece drop attacks.
Notation and sample game
Algebraic chess notation
Algebraic notation is a method for recording and describing the moves in a game of chess. It is now standard among all chess organizations and most books, magazines, and newspapers...
for chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
can be used to record moves in bughouse games.
Different notations for piece drops are possible. The internet chess servers FICS
Free Internet Chess Server
The Free Internet Chess Server is a volunteer-run Internet chess server. It was organised as a free alternative to the Internet Chess Club , after that site began charging for membership.-History:...
and Internet Chess Club
Internet Chess Club
The Internet Chess Club is a commercial Internet chess server devoted to the play and discussion of chess and chess variants. ICC currently has over 30,000 subscribing members...
use the at-sign @, as in N@f1 (knight drop at f1), Q@e6+ (queen drop with check at e6) or P@h7 (pawn drop at h7).
Because of the fast pace at which the game is played, bughouse games are rarely recorded
in games played over the board. With the arrival of online chess it has become possible to systematically record games. The format in which this is done is the bughouse portable game notation (BPGN), an extension of the Portable Game Notation
Portable Game Notation
Portable Game Notation is a computer-processible format for recording chess games ; many chess programs recognize this extremely popular format due to its being stored in plain text.-History:...
for chess. Software, such as BPGN viewer can be used to replay and analyse bughouse games. Below is an example bughouse game in the BPGN format.
[Event "rated bughouse match"]
[Site "chess server X"]
[Date "2004.04.12"]
[WhiteA "WA"][WhiteAElo "1970"]
[BlackA "BA"][BlackAElo "2368"]
[WhiteB "WB"][WhiteBElo "1962"]
[BlackB "BB"][BlackBElo "2008"]
[TimeControl "180+0"]
[Result "0-1"]
1A. e4 {180} 1a. Nc6 {180} 1B. d4 {179} 2A. Nc3 {179}
1b. Nf6 {178} 2a. Nf6 {178} 2B. d5 {178} 3A. d4 {177}
2b. e6 {177} 3a. d5 {177} 3B. dxe6 {176} 4A. e5 {176}
3b. dxe6 {176} 4B. Qxd8+ {175} 4a. Ne4 {175}
4b. Kxd8 {175} 5B. Bg5 {174} 5A. Nxe4 {174}
5a. dxe4 {173} 5b. Be7 {173} 6A. Nh3 {173}
6B. Nc3 {172} 6a. Bxh3 {171} 6b. N@d4 {171}
7A. gxh3 {171} 7a. Nxd4 {170} 7B. O-O-O {169}
8A. P@e6 {168} 7b. Nbc6 {168} 8B. Bxf6 {166}
8a. N@f3+ {165} 9A. Qxf3 {165} 8b. Bxf6 {164}
9a. Nxf3+ {164} 10A. Ke2 {164} 9B. e3 {164}
10a. Q@d2+ {164} 11A. Bxd2 {164} 11a. Qxd2+ {164}
{WA checkmated} 0-1
Over the board
Little is known on the history of bughouse, but it seems to have developed in the early 1960s. It is now quite popular as a diversion of regular chess in local chess clubs throughout Europe and the US. Grandmasters such as Levon AronianLevon Aronian
Levon Grigor Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2807, making him number three in the world and Armenia's number one...
, Joel Benjamin
Joel Benjamin
Joel Benjamin is an American chess Grandmaster. In 1998, he was voted "Grandmaster of the Year" by the U.S. Chess Federation. , his Elo rating was 2576, making him the No. 12 player in the U.S. and the 214th-highest rated player in the world.-Life and career:Benjamin is a native of Brooklyn, New...
, Yasser Seirawan, Andy Soltis, John Nunn
John Nunn
John Denis Martin Nunn is one of England's strongest chess players and once belonged to the world's top ten. He is also a three times world champion in chess problem solving, a chess writer and publisher, and a mathematician....
, Jon Speelman
Jon Speelman
Jonathan Simon "Jon" Speelman is an English Grandmaster chess player, mathematician and chess writer.-Early life and education:He was educated at Worcester College, Oxford, where he studied mathematics, earning a doctorate.-Career:...
, Sergey Karjakin
Sergey Karjakin
Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was a chess prodigy and holds the record for both the youngest International Master, eleven years and eleven months, and grandmaster in history, at the age of twelve years and seven months...
, Michael Adams, Emil Sutovsky
Emil Sutovsky
Emil Sutovsky is an Israeli chess Grandmaster. He is one of the several top chess grandmasters who were born in Baku, Azerbaijan .-Successes:...
and Michael Rohde
Michael Rohde (chess player)
Michael Rohde is an American chess grandmaster.Rohde got his master rating at the age of thirteen, and gained the International Master title in 1976, followed by that of Grandmaster in 1988....
have been known to play the game.
With the absence of an International Federation, competitive over the board bughouse is very much in its infancy. There is also no world championship
World championship
A world championship is the top achievement for any sport or contest. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best nation, team, individual in the world in a particular field. Certain sports do not have a world championship, instead...
. A few countries do organize bughouse tournaments within the national chess federation. Examples include:
- The yearly international chess festival Czech Open in July features the Czech republic bughouse championship.
- Yearly, USCFUnited States Chess FederationThe United States Chess Federation is a non-profit organization, the governing chess organization within the United States, and one of the federations of the FIDE. The USCF was founded in 1939 from the merger of two regional chess organizations, and grew gradually until 1972, when membership...
organizes bughouse tournaments as part of the National Junior High (K-9) Championship and the National High School (K-12) Championship.
Other tournaments are organized privately:
- One of the largest international bughouse tournaments is the yearly tournament in Berlin. Going into its sixth edition, it is popular among top players from FICSFree Internet Chess ServerThe Free Internet Chess Server is a volunteer-run Internet chess server. It was organised as a free alternative to the Internet Chess Club , after that site began charging for membership.-History:...
. Grandmaster Levon AronianLevon AronianLevon Grigor Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2807, making him number three in the world and Armenia's number one...
took part in the 2005 edition of the tournament and took the second place with his teammate Vasiliy Shakov. - Since 2000 there has been an annual bughouse tournament in Geneva, attracting the best European players.
Online
Bughouse can be played online at chess servers such as FICSFree Internet Chess Server
The Free Internet Chess Server is a volunteer-run Internet chess server. It was organised as a free alternative to the Internet Chess Club , after that site began charging for membership.-History:...
and ICC
Internet Chess Club
The Internet Chess Club is a commercial Internet chess server devoted to the play and discussion of chess and chess variants. ICC currently has over 30,000 subscribing members...
since 1995. FICS is currently the most active server for bughouse, attracting the world's best players like Levon Aronian
Levon Aronian
Levon Grigor Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2807, making him number three in the world and Armenia's number one...
.
The game is played online in the same way as over the board, but some aspects are unique to online bughouse. In games over the board, communication is heard by all players, while in online bughouse it is usually done via private messages between two partners. This makes communication a more powerful weapon. It is also easier to coordinate as the second board is more visible on the screen than over the board. The time aspect is altered due to existence of premove
Premove
Premove, in internet chess, refers to the act of a player making a move before it is their turn to move. This option is available on chess websites such as the Internet Chess Club and the Free Internet Chess Server.-Description:...
and lag. The latter can influence the diagonal time difference significantly, and it is good sportsmanship to restart the game when this difference gets too large.
ICS
Internet chess server
An Internet chess server is an external server that provides the facility to play, discuss, and view the board game of chess over the Internet...
compatible interfaces particularly suitable for bughouse include Thief and BabasChess. They have the ability to display both boards at the same time and store played or observed games, they also have partner communication buttons and a lag indicator. Special Xboard compatible engines have been written that support bughouse, examples are Sunsetter, Sjeng and TJchess. Although much faster than humans, they lack in positional understanding and especially in coordination and communication, an essential skill in this team game.
Controversy
Bughouse chess is controversial among scholastic chess teachers. The majority view is that it does not have a positive effect on novice chess players. In the words of Susan PolgarSusan Polgar
Susan Polgar is a Hungarian-American chess Grandmaster...
: "If your children want to play bughouse for fun, it is OK. But just remember that it is not chess and it has no positive value for chess. In fact, I absolutely recommend no bughouse during a tournament." One argument supporting this view is that bughouse distorts the typical pattern recognition used in chess. Another argument is that bughouse neglects positional values due to its highly tactical game play. On the other hand, there is no evidence that bughouse would hurt experienced chess players. In the words of Levon Aronian
Levon Aronian
Levon Grigor Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2807, making him number three in the world and Armenia's number one...
: "Bughouse is good for players who know chess well already. ... I started to play bug when I was already at master level, [you] see, and I think bughouse is good for the imagination, to develop new ideas."
External links
- Bughouse Chess
- Explanation of BugHouse Chess by FM Gulamali and NM Stewart
- Bughouse on the ChessVariants pages
- Errant Fischer's Bughouse Page
- The Bug Board - Forum and software
- bughouse-db.org - FICS bughouse database
- bughousedb.com - Another bughouse database
- bughouse.be - Database and links
- Bughouse live on XBOX