Crazyhouse
Captured pieces switch sides and can be dropped back in.
Crazyhouse borrows the drop mechanic from shogi. Nothing ever really leaves the board, so material never simplifies and attacks almost never run out of pieces. It is widely considered the sharpest two-player chess variant.
- Players
- 2
- Difficulty
- Hard
- Changes
- Capture rules
- Where to play
- Lichess, Chess.com
Crazyhouse rules
- 01
Capture an enemy piece and it goes into your reserve, changing colour.
- 02
Instead of moving, you may drop one reserve piece onto any empty square. That is your whole turn.
- 03
Pawns may not be dropped on the first or eighth rank.
- 04
A promoted pawn that is captured returns to the reserve as a pawn, not as the promoted piece.
- 05
You may drop a piece to give check or checkmate, and you may drop a piece to block a check — but a drop can never capture, so it cannot remove the checking piece.
How it changes your play
King safety dominates everything. A single hole near your king can be filled with a dropped knight, and there is no 'safe' pawn shield when the attacker holds a reserve.
Material is fluid. Sacrificing a queen to open a file can be correct, because the opponent's captured pieces feed your reserve just as yours feed theirs.
Getting started
Count the reserves, not just the board. The pieces in hand are the real evaluation.
Avoid opening lines that hand your opponent a knight early — dropped knights are the deadliest attacking piece in the variant.
Questions about Crazyhouse
- Is Crazyhouse the same as Bughouse?
- No. Crazyhouse is a two-player game where you keep the pieces you capture. Bughouse is a four-player, two-board team game where you pass captured pieces to your partner.
- Can I drop a pawn to promote next move?
- You can drop a pawn on ranks 2 through 7 and push it, but never directly onto the promotion rank.
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