How to play Bughouse
- When a player captures a piece, he must pass it to his partner. For example: if a team's White player captures his opponent's rook (a black piece), he must pass it to his partner, who is playing Black. If a pawn promotes and is then captured, it reverts back to being a pawn when it is passed.
- On each player's turn, he may choose to either make a regular chess move on the board, or place one of the pieces his partner has passed to him on the board. There are no restrictions on where pieces may be placed, with the exception that pawns cannot be placed on the first or eighth ranks.
- The game ends when any player is checkmated or runs out of time on either board. That player's team loses the game. Keep in mind that a player is not checkmated if he has the potential to block a check by placing a piece there, even if he doesn't have a piece "in hand" yet; the possibility of his partner passing something to him is enough to keep the game going.
Bughouse strategy is quite complex, but there are a few key points to remember:
- Material values are much closer between the various pieces in bughouse than in chess. Queens are still the most valuable pieces, but since every piece can be dropped just about anywhere on the board at any time, everything is dangerous! One popular "point" system for bughouse rates a pawn as 1 point, knights, bishops and rooks as 2, and a queen as 4.
- Keeping a secure king is critical, as holes and unprotected squares around the king can quickly become occupied by enemy pieces. Once an opponent is placing pieces with check (especially knights), it can become impossible to use your own pieces in hand, leaving you virtually helpless to stop the onslaught.
- Communication is key! Teammates are allowed and encouraged to talk strategy during the game. This can help players understand whether or not they should make trades, of if they should be willing to sacrifice material to get a certain critical piece for their partner.
- Sometimes the best move in bughouse is no move at all. With an advantage on the clocks, a team may want to stall on one board in order to force their opponents to make a move on the other. The potential of the stall forces fast action during the game, as both sides struggle to maintain an advantage on the board and on the clock.