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Crazyhouse. A two-player version of Bughouse. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Andreas Kaufmann wrote on Mon, Jun 9, 2003 10:28 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Crazyhouse is one of my favorite chess variants. Zillions plays it not
especially strong, so you need to download Sunsetter or Sjeng, which play
really good. I even created a WinBoard adapter for Zillions (see
http://www.geocities.com/andreas_kaufmann2000/winboard_adapter.htm) to
have a convinient way to play against these engines.

Steph Qing wrote on Sun, Feb 22, 2004 05:46 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
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

Andreas Kaufmann wrote on Sun, Feb 22, 2004 10:25 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
You can also play Crazyhouse on http://www.schemingmind.com/

tommy wrote on Fri, Feb 18, 2005 01:00 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
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?

Christine Bagley-Jones wrote on Sun, Aug 7, 2005 03:54 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
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

David Paulowich wrote on Sun, Aug 7, 2005 02:33 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
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.

🕸📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Tue, Aug 9, 2005 12:44 AM UTC:
<P>Christine Bagley-Jones writes:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE> Crazyhouse is not a recognized variant of the month? </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Crazyhouse is not even a recognized variant yet. It must become a recognized variant before it becomes a recognized variant of the month. It is currently a candidate for recognized variant status.</P> <BLOCKQUOTE> i don't know how that could be, it shouldn't even have to be voted on, </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Well, it is being voted on, because that is the most reasonable way to maintain the growth of the recognized variants list. The poll for the summer addition to the list isn't over yet, and you can go vote for Crazyhouse in it.</P> <BLOCKQUOTE> not a hour goes by on the planet where a crazyhouse game is not being played, and that is a conservative estimate. </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>We have no means of measuring this. The most reliable measure we can rely on for deciding what to add to the list is voting.</P> <BLOCKQUOTE> you should make crazyhouse a recognized variant along with whatever other game you recognize in a future month </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>I will make Crazyhouse a recognized variant if it gets top ranking in the current poll. Show your support for it by voting for it.</P> <P><HREF='http://www.chessvariants.org/rcvpolls/summer2005.php'>http://www.chessvariants.org/rcvpolls/summer2005.php</A></P>

Christine Bagley-Jones wrote on Tue, Aug 9, 2005 04:42 AM UTC:
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.

🕸📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Tue, Aug 9, 2005 04:43 PM UTC:
<P>Christine Bagley-Jones writes:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE> 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. </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>The minimum number of games anyone is required to vote for in this poll is 1. If you don't want to vote for any other games, just delete the rest from the ballot.</P>

🕸📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Wed, Mar 22, 2006 01:51 AM UTC:
Since I don't know who invented Crazyhouse or when it was invented, I'm not sure whether to list it as a popular or vintage Chess variant. Does anyone know more about its origins?

Anonymous wrote on Tue, Jul 25, 2006 09:45 PM UTC:
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.

Gary Gifford wrote on Tue, Jul 25, 2006 11:30 PM UTC:
There is no need to invent a chess set for Crazyhouse. Just use a regular set as your primary game set and keep a different boxed set on the side (a different style of pieces would be nice to prevent piece mix up between sets - for example, one wood set, one plastic set). Use that second set to start off your color-changed drop pieces. This method will work.

carlos carlos wrote on Sun, Aug 6, 2006 10:25 PM UTC:
bug?
my game with je ju seems to have recorded the wrong winner for some
reason.
Crazyhouse&log=carlos-jejujeju-2006-214-320

🕸📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Sun, Aug 6, 2006 11:33 PM UTC:
Your opponent messed things up by entering an additional move. Take back his move and reenter your won move.

m.weir42 wrote on Sat, Jul 7, 2007 11:20 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
Confusing game, but fune.

Andrew wrote on Fri, Aug 3, 2007 04:56 AM UTC:

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.

:)


Jeremy Good wrote on Fri, Aug 3, 2007 08:15 AM UTC:
Andrew, well, I suspect you're right that there is a mass of valuable information being accumulated on this variant because it has gotten so well known. Can you link us to some of the sites that discuss Crazyhouse strategy?

Marco Silva wrote on Sat, Jan 17, 2009 05:17 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
Bughouse is a two-player game; an example of a one-player game would be solitaire.

🕸📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Sat, Jan 17, 2009 01:50 PM UTC:
As I understand it, Bughouse is a 4-player game.

Anonymous wrote on Tue, Feb 9, 2010 05:56 PM UTC:
45wyt4se5t

Mark Schreiber wrote on Fri, May 27, 2011 08:44 PM UTC:
How popular is crazyhouse? Is there a crazyhouse federation? Is there a world crazyhouse championship? How many people play crazyhouse? What are the state-space complexity and the game tree size of a Crazyhouse? Who is stronger in Crazyhouse, humans or computers?

mirari wrote on Wed, Jun 1, 2011 04:06 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
'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).

Johnny Luken wrote on Thu, May 7, 2015 01:37 PM UTC:Poor ★
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.

Kevin Pacey wrote on Mon, Sep 19, 2016 02:37 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

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."


Kevin Pacey wrote on Fri, Sep 1, 2017 12:55 AM UTC:

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."


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