Transfer Chess

Hi Guys,

I don't know if this is possible. During down time at many Junior tournaments I used to play in, we used to play a variation of Chess we called 'Transfers'.

We used to get more excited about the transfer tournament we used to play in the analysis room between rounds then the competition games of regular chess we were competing in.

 Transfers is a game of 4 (or more players) in teams of 2 (or more) Amount of players needs to be even. 2 or 4 or 6 etc per team.

I will explain the concept with 2 players per team.

I play White against player A, My partner 'X' plays Black against player B. If player A captures any of my pieces, he is able to give them to player B who can put them on his board and use them. If I capture any of player A's pieces I can give them to X who can use them.

There are a few different rules to regular chess.

- You do not have to put the pieces your partner gets you onto the board straight away. You can save them for a time suitable to you.

- You can not put a piece on the board that checkmates your opponent.

- Pawns cannot be promoted, If they reach the 1st or 8th rank you get them back. You can then use them as per the pieces your partner gets you.

A win on any board is a win for that team.

I don't know if a game like this is possible to play online but I thought I would raise it with you.

Thanks.

Isn't this called Bug House?

I've often heard it called 'transfer' by junior players here in Australia.

So it can't have 2 names? particularly on different sides of the world?

The staff is working on it ... I'd love Live Bughouse Chess being included here, too.

Yes bughouse isn't very enjoing

I never knew about the name Transfer. That is interesting.

I also don't like the name Bughouse. It really doesn't make sense, given the rules. Transfer encapsulates the concept much better.

I learned this variant under yet a different name: Double-speed Chess. I never entirely understood that name either.

@NimzoRoy: "Bughouse" means something, yes, but not really with regard to this chess variant.

I have heard it called "doubles" and "transfer" but by far the most common name is "Bughouse."

You can play it online for free at FICS (FreeInternetChessServer), and I used to play there all the time. It's really quite cool. Normally there are 50-100 or so people online in bug room (many thousands in the normal rooms), with maybe 5 or 6 games going.

I play transfer chess, but not the same way as you, when you piece you can only place on your half, to win you have to get all the kings and you can only stomp (put on other peoples pieces) with a king, to stomp the piece you want to stomp has to be on your half.

 Is the name that important that we all have ideas about it?

I often play transfer between rounds in tournaments and the organisers would get angry because transfer usually generates a lot of noise from people asking for pieces