Crazyhouse Chess | Rules and Basics
Crazyhouse is a popular chess variant similar to bughouse, but you only need two players to play. The basic premise of crazyhouse is that pieces which you capture from your opponent can be dropped on empty squares on your turn.
"Dropping" captured pieces back into play adds an explosive dynamic to crazyhouse chess!
Rules: The standard rules of chess apply to crazyhouse with these additions.
- When you capture an opponent's piece, it is placed in your "pool" of pieces and you can "drop" it on an empty square on your turn.
- Pieces may only be dropped on empty squares.
- You may drop a piece to give check or checkmate.
- Pawns may not be dropped on the first or eighth ranks.
Notation: In order to record drops in crazyhouse the @ symbol is used. An example would be N@g3 which means a "knight is dropped from the pool to the square g3."
The next two diagrams shows crazyhouse in action. You can see that the white king has been chased off the back rank to the h3-square. Black "drops" a rook on h4, and it is immediately checkmate!
The white king has been chased out to h3.
Black "drops" the rook on h4, and the game is over!
Crazyhouse is an extremely fun chess variant that allows you to be creative and put your tactical vision to the test! To play crazyhouse on Chess.com simply:
- Go to the "Play Live" tab.
- Click on the chessboard icon and...
- Choose crazyhouse!
Play crazyhouse today on Chess.com!
Want to see crazyhouse in action? Watch the 2018 Chess.com Crazyhouse Championship with GM Yasser Seirawan and IM Daniel Rensch!
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