Check out Symmetric Chess, our featured variant for March, 2024.


[ Help | Earliest Comments | Latest Comments ]
[ List All Subjects of Discussion | Create New Subject of Discussion ]
[ List Earliest Comments Only For Pages | Games | Rated Pages | Rated Games | Subjects of Discussion ]

Rated Comments for a Single Item

Earlier Reverse Order Later
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.

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

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.

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."


11 comments displayed

Earlier Reverse Order Later

Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.