Is JanLee a Big Fish in a Small Pool?

Well, that's certainly a possibility.  If Nakamura or MVL had switched to Crazyhouse at 15, where would they be now?  We simply don't know.

A super GM would crush Jann, no question. Anyone arguing otherwise is wrong. Nothing against Jann Lee, love the guy/his games, but let's be real - a super GM with a couple hours of crazyhouse practice would crush him, and anyone else, easily.

What you all underestimate a lot is the deepness of crazyhouse. It is fairly shallow and forced. Also i am pretty sure that crazyhouse is 1-0 game. Of course i can't prove it, but i can share my simple experience. When i play black against much stronger opponents i am just dead every game. While as white i often win or at least i get pretty decent positions. Of course human brain cannot compete against well developed engine, but if we are talking about humans i think Jann will win 75-80% of his white color games against any human who will ever play crazyhouse. Which means he might lose like 8-12 against a superior player but no more. Whoever believes Carlsen can crush him are far from the truth.

While of course I am far away from proving a win for White in zh, even in the "non-strict" definition of the word, I have many lines that show that Black is struggling for equality. Already, 1. e4 e5 looks quite bad for Black, perhaps, dare I say it, losing! So yeah that's an interesting consideration by Sorsi...The point is that maybe there will never actually be any crushing because of the huge White advantage.

Take atomic for example. tipau will win vs. other top 5 players, but he will be struggling for most of the game as Black, especially if someone prepared something.

ZH is far developed from this point and all of chess.coms strong players come from an already established server which dominated the variant. Sorsi is correct.. any strong player will win more often than not as white, black is what sets the masters apart. To think a super GM could come in and beat someone who has over 10 years of playing experience is absolutely asinine. Levon aronian played on FICS for a bit in bug and zh, while displaying keen positional knowledge of chess.. couldnt come much further above a 2300-2400 strength. 

Please read my original post again. Nowhere have I said that a Super GM can walk in and suddenly start beating JannLee and other top zh players left right and center.

I'm saying that if a Super GM like Carlsen devotes as much time to zh as JannLee then he can easily dominate every top zh player of today.

Still dont see the validity in the argument. If they devoted that time instead to crazyhouse, they would lack the positional knowledge that is second nature to them now in chess. It's hypothetical at best, and I do see where you are coming from. Although I think you fail to realize how much crazyhouse goes against normal chess tactics. I dont think a Super GM would be able to flip back and fourth between the two, maintaining high level play at both. Piece sacrifices yes, disregarding piece values for positional tactics? Absolutely not. This discussion is as old as the variant it is itself, perhaps I'm a little dated to be caught up in the whirlwind of being wowed by JanLee. Dont get me wrong, he is an incredible player.. taught me a lot and I've played bug and crazyhouse with him for almost a decade. He's been a shark in bigger ponds of water than this for a long time. 

 Well, you are entitled to your opinion.

The fundamental skills used in crazyhouse are simply different from the skills used in chess.  The super GMs are GMs because they happen to have remarkably good strategic understandings of chess.  This doesn't carry over to crazyhouse at all because all the strategic elements are different in importance.  JannLee is so good because his strategic understanding is better than anyone else's and that is something that can't just be learned.  Super GMs would undoubtedly make it to the top of crazyhouse because they calculate so well but it isn't at all clear that they would be the very best.

Hmm...

I think we should take sorsis opinion ( which i totally agree with9 as the most valid, since he is one of the best zh and bughouse players, i think zh is a much more deeper game than most people think, and, a super gm could of course get better than Justin, but it would take a few years and lots of games to understand this game to a sufficient extent to beat JannLee in more than 50 % of the games. Someone mentioned opperweezen and aronian, two totally different examples. If you dont know, im opperweezen started playing zh less than two years ago, and he is so good because ( at least thats what i think) because he has played very different variants and can adapt to a very different type of game quicker than most humans, but aronian, who played a few years on Fics, got to a similar strenght in more time, even though he is an extremely strong chess player, and hes also one of the strongest chess960 players. Anyway, in order to become a top zh player, one must eliminate all of their chess habits, which is quite difficult, and just look at a position like you dont know anything. There is still some similarity between both games 8 especially the tactical ideas), therefore a good chess player should become better much faster than a non chess player, but I think that being a gm or more can hurt you in some ways. jannlee is a good example, he had a fide rating of 2280 when he stopped playing chess, and he started playing zh at the age of 15. I guess that if other people started playing zh at 10 or less years and got a good coach, they would become very strong and eventually better than justin, but for now chess is still much more popular than zh, therefore this wont happen very soon. 

but guys, i dont think this is really and important topic to discuss, if all someone is concerned about is if sgms could beat jannlee in less than a few months [ highly improbable], then they should go to a doctor. We should just enjoy the game

This discussion is of great importance for all fans and masters of chess options. We are glad to see on the website of Thibaut more and more professionals. The question remains open - https://lichess.org/JeSRmj3L

As we see it was a very strong game with additional control.

Returning to the discussion, I want to note that Nakamura's rating in Crazyhouse here over 2600. Match JanLee - Nakamura would probably be one of the main events for our community. For me, it would have been the most welcome fight.

I think Yasser Seirawan is a good example of a strong GM devoted to crazyhouse (he almost only plays crazyhouse now pratically), and he is not at Jann's level yet

also consider that tactical skills and positional skills are 2 very different things, as ChessMN was saying, and crazyhouse is very tactical, while the difference in chess between a 2200 and a 2700 it's all about positional skills

For what it's worth, I think Yasser will be better than JannLee very soon if he isn't already.  In their recent matches (given a bit longer time control; I don't think Yasser likes bullet) Yasser has dominated JannLee, not only in match score, but in pretty much every position.  I'd frankly be willing to call Yasser the best zh player in the world right now, and I bet he'll keep getting better.

The Last Stream JannLee - Yearly Crazyhouse Arena - December 2017 put an end to this issue. Then with what strength and ease he destroyed all even the most dangerous players - this is recognition of him as the best player Crazyhouse of all time.

I'm sure that Jan will remain unbeaten for a long time even if the world grandmasters come into play. Maybe no one will ever surpass his level.

JannLee much more significant than any other player for another reason. There are some people who can play with him on an equal footing. But he gave motivation to dozens of people, resurrecting interest in the chess game. This is much more than just leadership. This happens in big sport.

My 2 cents. There are specific skills, like calculation, building the initiative, placing & developing pieces the right way etc., which stronger chess players do much better than others, but the game of ZH has its own dynamics that differs it a lot from chess and closes the gap between GM's and even amateurs in chess. No endgames and much less theory, as mentioned, different piece values, much more factor of initiative over material, and so on.

I assume that a titled player has much more chances to succeed in ZH at a very top level when once taking it seriously than an average one. GM Yasser Seirwan is a proof. On the other hand, not only a titled player can achieve that goal. Regarding JannLee, I believe that even if all the chess players in the world would quit chess and dedicate themselves to Crazyhouse for lets say 15 years of hard trainings&improvement, he'd be one of the best, not necessarily the the best one, but let's say top 10 in the world.