Bughouse Chess - Variations

Variations

Bughouse comes in many variants, especially in the way drops are handled. Examples include:

• Pieces cannot be dropped with check and/or checkmate. 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 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.