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The rating system currently appears unsound. I'm not certain, because I don't know exactly what it's doing, but I recently took a big hit to my rating in a game where I was paired with a ~600 player against two players that I think were about 1100. My partner got himself killed pretty quickly, which is no surprise for a 600 player up against an 1100 player.I'm guessing it took the fact that I was playing against someone rated below me, and scored it as a loss against someone rated below me. Thus, my rating took a pretty big hit. I would expect that if I lose to someone rated below me.However, I didn't lose to someone rated below me. My team lost to a team with a higher average rating. Given that my partner was about ~600, we were actually pretty out-rated.Since my win probability is determined by the strength of all four players, not just the two on my particular board, my rating adjustment should be driven by the rating of all four players, not just the two on my particular board. A 1200 and a 2000 against a 1400 and an 1800 is a roughly fair fight, and should be scored as such; a 1200 and a 2000 against two 1400s is not, and the rating adjustment should consider the 1200/2000 team to be strong favourites.It's possible this is already being done in some fashion. However, based on the adjustments I've gotten, it seems like the rating difference on my particular board has a bigger impact than the average rating difference between the two teams.

While playing Bughouse on random, I'm matched with a player at about my own skill level (~1300), against a team who are ~1100 and 480. I know the exact 480 because it was my opponent's rating. When I play with or against someone in the ~1100 range, ain't no big thing. But playing against someone who has a 480 rating... it's just jacked for me to NOT say something. And so I remind my opponent: "Those pieces to the side of your board, you can drag and drop them onto the board." My opponent says: "I know, I forget." About the same time, I drop a free queen... could have been taken. I was freaking out, because this could have screwed my team member had either of our opponents been much better or seen this glaring mistake. I don't lose the queen, but, upon the next move, not taking mercy, but because it was the right thing to do, I say: "After my next move, drop a piece to protect your King." When you're in this kind of situation, such as in my ranting range against someone in the ~2000 range... it's no fun to just get crushed into oblivion. On the other hand, I also understand the game. You can't ask someone to dumb themselves down. I didn't dumb myself down. I just took the time, and made a mistake, and then decided to help the other player (my opponent), rather than worry about the loss of a whole 16 points with having nothing (0) to gain. While Chess IS a "sport," and Bughouse is even more a sport than standard chess since you play on a team... sometimes that "competitive" spirt doesn't matter. (Like putting-in 3rd-string players when you're up by enough points that you're going to win. You give your opponent the experience, and you allow your secondary or tertiary players who might not usually have the chance to play to gain experience and develop.) While I'm a bit of a trash talker and take my beatings when I can't live-up-to my words... here it is for you big-shots who crush people and then laugh about it or start resigning games because you don't want to play. Here's your reason for playing and helping others outside of exercising your own ego muscles. If it's so easy for you, do what I do at my lowly rating and help those of lower rating come along instead of resign games because it's no fun.

What's your favorite Bughouse music? Let's say, opposed to traditional blitz chess. If you listen to music to concentrate while playing? The other night I was playing a game, and, I was listening to a playlist on random. Could have been anything from Mushroom Jazz (Mark Farina) to ... whatever. In this instance, it was "Sugar" by Maroon 5. Someone said: "What do you need?" My reply: "For you to resign." And then Sugar cut-out... and NIN's Broken album started playing. And I'm like... WTF? Oh, wait, that guy is on my team. (Playing Bughouse on random, like my playlist.) Typing furiously: "NO! Don't do that. My bad, you're on my team. Don't resign." You can obviously tell how great a chess player I am from lacking attention to this minor Bughouse detail. I kill me. Sometimes I don't wonder if I should be doing self-deprecating humor routines and trying to live on beer thrown at me on stage. That said, one of the members of the other team (JLandham) joins-in on the merriment at my expense... so I ask: "Landham, do you want to resign?" -- Or something along these lines. The answer is obviously: "NO." And then the other team loses (Landham's teammate) -- by game abandonment. (Effective resignation.) I'm sitting here reflecting on this, and my random playlist's choice of NIN's "Broken" -- irony, at best. But I can remember one game in my past where I lost due to chortling beer through my nose while giggling at such odd circumstances. In the moment, as I write this, preparing to Bugout, Filter's "Hey, Man, Nice Shot" is playing... (fearing I'm going to shoot myself in the foot again). Next-up... "[The] Mark Has Been Made" -- NIN. And then "My Own Summer (Shove It)" -- Deftones. Bughouse is a vicious game, requires vicious music. That sweet stuff just doesn't cut it.

Hey guys, When I'm reviewing bughouse games, it would be awesome if I could actually review them the way they occurred: First of all, I don't want to have to click a button "To view partner's game." I want to be able to see the game in a window next to my game - similar to how I can view my partner's board when I'm playing a bug game. I guess this is the hardest feature to implement from a programming standpoint because I assume chess.com would have to change the way it handles game viewing (so that you can actually view two games in one game). However, it would be an awesome feature! Furthermore, what's really annoying is that I can't see what pieces I had in hand at, let's say, move 20! How am I to properly review the game if I am ignorant of such knowledge? Just my 2 cents .

I want to watch bughouse games but in live chess they're hard to find. Is a new window or search function possible for this? If there is one enlighten me deary buggers. If not, what are your thoughts about this kind of thing?

With the introduction of Bughouse on Chess.com, first it has to gain an audience. (Thanks for the club to start the process!) I've also learned to play KoH and Crazyhouse. (Thanks for these options, too. They are extremely helpful learning tools and games.) On the other hand, trying to start these games, sometimes you have to wait (for an audience or other players). That's okay. Minor irritation. Takes time. (Be understanding.) However, a little while ago, I was playing one Bughouse game, and, another started. The tabs to the right to show simultaneous games-in-progress is helpful. BUT, it seems that if you're actively searching and waiting... when a game starts, other searches are generally cancelled. Or are other searches cancelled? I was actively playing one bughouse game, and another started. (My screen switched / flipped to a blank board with other players.) If I try to start searches manually, it doesn't appear that I can create two searches for the same game on the same time-control simultaneously. I've been trying to figure out how to use the "Rematch" button with Bughouse... sometimes you get a re-match, sometimes other players sit-down. Best guess: Those actively paired stay together, versus purely "random" searches. Sometimes I hit "Rematch" and "New X-minute Round" buttons -- and both appear searching (right tab) when I close the room if it takes more than a few seconds for a re-match. I've noticed that if I close the room, sometimes starting a new Bughouse search from scratch works right away. (Probably others doing the same instead of hitting "Rematch." Same players, sometimes re-arranged.) It would be nice / helpful for Chess.com to detail the matching logic used for Bughouse games. We could contribute / help with this process. Also, where's the Private chat? Or, do we have to go into our primary settings and allow anyone to message us to create a private Bughouse chat with someone who is not in our friends list? I object to "private chat" -- because OTB, Bughouse players can hear each other. But, I don't object too much -- I understand technology and progress. It just doesn't seem as fun if you're getting pounded and beat by two friends who collaborate and coordinate matches, other people disable chat by default (I disabled this setting for Bughouse fun), and people who prohibit messages from people who aren't friend's can't have a private chat (such as an NM, CM or IM asking me the other day). But, IRL... you have two boards the same-size next to each other, and you can hear the other team's communications, see their prompts, etc... Secondary to everything above, sometimes I go to another part of the Chess.com website, make moves in Daily Chess, then click on "Live Chess" and the last live game I played is presented, and I have to close that tab again... WHY? (Especially if it's already been closed -- the same as if a "rematch" or another live game starts, when you click the "X" to close a tab, that tab should remain closed... this leads me to believe there are "matching" issues as it pertains to what live chess thinks a player is doing, or where a player is at in the UI, versus where they actually are or expect to be.) So, in summary: Exit Live Chess, or click the "X" on a live game (completed)... live chess probably shouldn't be taking you back to the last game played if you've closed it out. And, if you can't create two manual searches for the same game on the same time-control... there's no reason a Simul should appear, or other open seeks should be closed... barring the traditional... manual game going, and tournament games start (what I'm familiar with from the Classic Chess.com interface.) Minor Aside: When you click the "X" on either the other board, or the move list for a Bughouse game -- it should have the exact same effect... it should close the game. (Period. End of story. (Live, last game) Should not reappear when hitting refresh or coming back to Live from other portions of the Chess.com website if someone clicked the X -- this should update the local JavaScript cache to the same effect as a new game starting. We should be able to get back to our games for review from our list of games we've played against other players in respective places in either Live or Chess.com sections of the website.) I've noticed a few other minor issues. But above is most often what's on my mind. I don't understand what the deal is with matching and rooms and pairs and games, etc... and it would be helpful if some UI and/or Logic issues were clarified for the community. Otherwise, the other obvious factor is rating range (and settings) for not just one, but the different Chess variants, alongside other settings, etc... Right now it appears that if you constrain settings for one, you constrain them for all. (And this is not a good introduction to a variant. Settings should be per-variant, not global, else it takes that much more time to setup a new "custom" match... and with new games, waiting for a growing audience to catch-on... slows progress.) That said, I'm ultimately extremely grateful and appreciative of the ability to play Bughouse online. Thanks for this!

Over the last couple of days I have been feeling more and more like the bughouse rating system is just not fair. The system seems to award rating points equity across both players on a team. While that seems fine, in practice, it just doesn't work out well. Pairing with somebody significantly weaker than you will wreck havoc on your rating. -- Like wise, pairing with somebody better than you will give you in artificially high rating. Anyone else notice this? Opinions?

When my browser receives a standard correspondence chess update -- the browser tab starts blinking to let me know "YOUR MOVE!" -- That's standard day-to-day correspondence chess, instead of live chess. On the other hand, with live chess, and especially with bughouse being new and not having a lot of players yet, seeks can take some time. Sit and stare at my screen for 5 minutes, waiting, look away for a moment, game has started, and time-out to start playing has passed. And I have to start-over. (Not to mention the classic live chess interface would ding you with a warning about "fair play" policies if this happened too often. So now we have to worry about those kind of rate limits despite waiting for 5+ minutes, or longer, for a game to start if we turn away, blink, look away, etc.) So, pretty much, you sit and stare and wait (sometimes for a very long time), else if you blink or doze-off while waiting, there's no notification. No blinking tab, etc... even though "live" chess sounds like it should alert players more rapidly than standard day-to-day correspondence chess.

I have had a lot of trouble getting matched up for a bughouse game, and I know I'm not the only one. If you watch the chatroom for this group, there have been times when several of us have had an un-teamed 3|0 seek open, and yet we haven't been matched up together, it mostly just sits waiting.It does seem to help to find a partner and create a teamed 3|0 seek. However, even there we sometimes just sit waiting for an opposing team.It doesn't seem fully broken. I have gotten a few games. But unless people were lying about having a 3|0 seek open, it seems to not do a very good job of matching us up together.And for the feedback:It would be nice to be able to see what seeks are open. So far I've only done 3|0, as it's new, the number of players is limited, and that's the default. But I would prefer 3|2 or 5|0. If we could see what seeks were open, we could create one with our preferred time control, and others could see it and join it instead of independently having to decide they want the exact same time control.Also, it would be nice to be able to watch other people's bughouse matches.