Bughouse chess
Last updated on Thu, 12/06/2007 at 7:34pm.
Bughouse (also reffered as tagteam and siamese chess) is played with two teams of two, using two sets. Each player on the team plays a different color than their partner. It begans as normal blitz chess, but every piece a player captures, he/she can pass it to his/her partner, who will be allowed to drop the piece any unoccupied space on the board (with the exceptions of pawns, which can only be dropped within the middle six rows), creating new twists to the game. The goal is to checkmate either of your opponents, gaining the win for your team. But when this game is played on clock, a player has the choice to stall until a piece is gained to counter the mate.
Tactics
-Sacking : Sacking is a powerful strategy, often used to break the pawn structure near an enemy king. F2/F7 pawns are the most common targets of sacking.
-Not castling: It is easy to get smothered in bughouse, so castling is actually not a useful move.
-Not dropping like crazy: Dropping is fun, but be sure to leave a few pieces in reserve. Every piece you keep in your hand is worth double than those on the board. Holding them all in is not a good plan either, if your opponent is holding a lot of pieces, you need to launch a strike to lure them out.
-Contact checks: Checking directly next to the king, like with pawns and knights. This forces the king to capture or move away, so the opponent will not be allowed to drop pieces. This type of checkmate is typically the only way to gurantee victory.
-Pawns: Pawns are the ultimate factor in this game. Break your pawn structure means enemy pieces being dropped there.
-Stalling:If you have excess time, do it. Buy time to get pieces, but make sure you have a good upcoming attack to back it up.
-Opening: You will often see king pawn, kingside knight, followed by kingside bishop to attack the F pawn. You will see it often. Get ready.
Software/Servers
DoubleChessBoard - Bughouse software with Sjeng bughouse chess engine incorporated in.
Net Blitz II - basic bughouse software. No computers for it though
FICS/ICS - bughouse servers
