Bughouse and Tandem Chess

Introduction
Setup
Pieces
Rules
See also:
Bughouse page by Georg v. Zimmermann.
Comprehensive Bughouse Chess. Website with excerpts from book on Bughouse Chess. (Link.)
Bughouse.net. Extensive website on Bughouse. (Link.)
Bughouse Links

Introduction

Bughouse Chess, and its close relative Tandem Chess, are played around the world under a number of different names: Exchange Chess, Pass-On Chess, Double Bughouse, New England Double Bughouse Chess, Siamese Chess (for Tandem Chess), and Tandem Put-Back. In the Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, Pritchard estimates that Bughouse was created in the 1960s. (I remember having played Bughouse in a Dutch chess club at around 1970.) The game has since became quite popular, with tournaments being heald consistantly up to the present time. There is even a Bughouse Newsletter, but I do not know the address. (Perhaps a reader can supply this information.)

We will begin with the more popular Bughouse Chess and then discuss the rule changes that distinguish the older Tandem Chess variant.

Setup

Two Orthodox Chess boards are set up for four players as follows:

Team B
Player 3

Team A
Player 1

Team B
Player 4

Team A
Player 2

Player 1 forms a team with player 2
player 3 forms a team with player 4.

Pieces

The pieces are the same as those used in Orthodox Chess.

Rules

The game is played by two teams of two players each. This requires that two chessboards be placed side by side with partners sitting on the same side of the table (see above). For each team, one player plays with white pieces and the other plays with black.

Each pair of contestants plays an Orthodox Chess game which has a special feature: All captured pieces are given to ones partner. Once received they become reserve pieces which can be dropped onto an empty square on the board to be used as ones own. This is done in lieu of a board move. (Compare Shogi.)

There is one restriction on drops: A captured Pawn may not be placed on the 1st or the 8th rank.

A Rook dropped onto either Rook home square is considered not to have moved; so one may castle with such a Rook. A similar rule applies to a Pawn dropped onto the second rank: The Pawn inherits the two-step-move option along with the risk of en passant capture.

You may not advise your partner, but you can ask him to capture a certain piece that you need: 'Partner, I really need a Knight'.

A gentleman's rule: In an unclocked game, a player may not delay his move beyond the time that it takes for his partner to make three moves. (This rule discourages the practice of perpetually delaying one's move in the hope that one's partner will capture a much needed piece. The rule is unnecessary, however, in a clocked game, as stalling in the presence of a clock is self-defeating.)

The game may be scored in either of two ways, depending on prior agreement:

The first mate or overtime (when using clocks) decides the match.
The first mate or overtime (when using clocks) does not decide the match, and play continues on the remaining board. Captives in hand may still be dropped, but there is no way to acquire new captives. Once the remaining game is completed, points are counted as follows: 1 for a win, 1/2 for a draw, and 0 for a loss. The team with the most points wins. If teams score 1-1, the match is a draw.

Note: A check by a line piece can be voided by dropping a captive between the checking piece and the King, whereas a check by a Knight cannot.

Clock-play rules

Bughouse is best played with clocks and with little time per player (e.g., 5 minutes). Clocks should be positioned so that all four players can see them clearly.

One may not inform one's partner that his opponent's time is up (flag has fallen).

There is no proscription on exactly when you must hand your partner the captured piece; it may be done before or after you hit the clock.

Tandem Chess rules

Rules are the same as for Bughouse Chess, except for the following ammendments:

One is not allowed to give check or mate with a drop.
The match continues until both games are completed.

Bughouse per e-mail

E-mail Bughouse requires only two players (North and South), as each assumes the role of a single set of partners. The game is played as follows:

South begins by moving a white piece.
North replies by moving a black piece followed by a white piece.
South replies by moving a white piece followed by a black piece.
Etc.

This type of play gives the e-mail game a kind of 'synchronous' effect which the face-to-face version lacks. This serves to makes it yet another chess variant.

Written by Hans Bodlaender using information and text by Jay Scott for additional information and links, and by Cristobal Joseevich Junta for the `gentleman's rule'.
Edited by John William Brown for the occasion of Bughouse being selected Recognized Variant of the Month.

WWW page created: September 3, 1996. Last Modified: March 18, 2002.

The above was authored by: Hans L. Bodlaender. .
Created on: September 03, 1996. Last modified on: March 06, 2002.

Comments

Date	Name	Rating	Comment
2005-06-16	me	Good	we play htis game at lunch at my school every day. during exam week when we had a 2 hour lunch break we got 9 boards going at once. i t was crazy. the boards in the middle had more pieces available to drop than could fit on the board!! also, our rules of ending are different. you play to when the king is taken. then if your king is taken in bughouse our partner has 3 moves to mate his oponent to make it a draw not a loss. and in 3, 5, 7, 9 board etc game, when a king is captured i is passed to the middle so that if one of your partners gets maited, he can use the turn that he owuld normally have right before being taken to dtop another kind somewhere else. (those king dropping rulaes are very lax as someone once dropped their extra king to mate their opponent!!)
2005-04-15	Envite	Excellent	About pawn dropping: we have the rule that a pawn CAN drop in the first rank if agreed at start, and the fixed rule that a pawn can NOT drop on the 6th, 7th or 8th ranks. And only 'original' pawns have the 2-ranks starting movement. <p>Besides that, we also used to play four or six boards in a row. White pieces are always at the left, and pieces always move rightwards. Pieces from the last-right board used to be thrown to the first board causing curious jokes, for example about Queens' underwear while it's flying. <p>About kings, we used to end all boards when first king is checkmated.
2005-01-20	Tim	Excellent	I've played a bughouse-type game with 3 boards. The students who started playing it in the lobby of my dorm started out with about 4 or 5 people playing bughouse. This attracted attention and drew more people from the dorm in the next few days. Once there were at least 6 people, another board was brought out and they started playing 'crackhouse' (it was addicting like crack). The central board was the board for the more advanced player, and winning on this board would win the game for that team. The other way a team could win is if the 2 side boards are won for a certain team. The time limits were different for the central board than they were for the side boards. The central board was given less time, I think. But this would mean that timers were unnecessary for the side boards. I don't remember exactly how timing worked. Captured pieces from the sides moved towards the center, and captured pieces from the center went to either side depending on which player the central player decided needed the piece more. Kings were capturable (a captured king on the central board would end the game), and when a captured side king moved to the central board, the king in hand could negate a piece in hand from the opponent in the central board. Both pieces were removed from the game. This rule could be changed to something like 'king in hand can remove an opponent's piece on the board (except king), but not while in check'. The king in hand rules were not set in stone. It got pretty crazy. I played this game instead of studying for finals last year. Looking back, that was a bad decision. <p>I have to credit Nick for this game. He said that he and some friends invented it. If only I could remember his last name...
2005-01-10	Fabrice Liardet	Excellent	Bughouse has many regional rules, but most of the rules given on this page do correspond to the international and widely accepted ones. For tournaments you need to be a little more precise about the handling of some potential problems, but here I would just add that : - I never heard about 'serious' bughouse played without a clock or at a time control exceeding 5 minutes per player and per move. - Verbal communication between partners is always unrestricted, and is the absolute spirit of the game. So you can advice (or flame) your partner. And I advice everybody to keep an eye on the publishing of Georg's book, which will probably be the definite saying about bughouse !
2004-12-09	Georg v. Zimmermann	Good	<p>Please take a look at <a href='http://www.bughouse-book.com'>bughouse-book.com</a> <p>Imagine Anand,Leko, Kramnik and many of the other top chess players collaborating on one book ! Well that is what we did for bughouse chess - with many of the top internet (and European and US-gatherings) players contributing to create the first true bughouse book. <p>Coming 2005 ...