Help For Bughouse

Introduction

Welcome to the network Bughouse server. The rules of Bughouse are below. The commands are the same for all pbmserv games.

bughouse challenge <userid1> <userid2> <userid3> <userid4> [ --totaltime=<days> ]: Bughouse is a game for four players. Two players can play if each players takes a side of each board. e.g. "bughouse challenge me me you you"
Because time plays an important part of the strategy in bughouse, there is a default time limit for each player. This can be changed in the challenge command using the --totaltime=### option. ("--totaltime=0" will disable the time limit.)

Rules of Bughouse

Bughouse is a chess game for four players, played on two boards. Actually, it is two chess games played simultaneously in teams. The black player on board 1 is partnered with the white player on board 2, and vice versa. To win, a team must win on either of their boards.

The most notable difference from normal chess is that pieces captured on one board are handed to the partner on the other board. He can drop these pieces on his board for one of his turns.

The notation for drops is similar to Shogi: P*c6.

A full description of the game is at The Chess Variant Pages on Bughouse Chess.

Opening Position

For the command "bughouse challenge player1 player2 player3 player4", players 1 and 2 will be partners, playing against 3 and 4 respectively. Here is a diagram of the positions the players will occupy:

   Black (player3)                        White (player4) TURN
   Inhand:                                Inhand: 
                BOARD 1                                BOARD 2
     a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h          h   g   f   e   d   c   b   a     
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+   
 8 |*R*|*N*|*B*|*Q*|*K*|*B*|*N*|*R*| 8  1 |:R:| N |:B:| K |:Q:| B |:N:| R | 1 
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+   
 7 |*P*|*P*|*P*|*P*|*P*|*P*|*P*|*P*| 7  2 | P |:P:| P |:P:| P |:P:| P |:P:| 2 
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+   
 6 |   |:::|   |:::|   |:::|   |:::| 6  3 |:::|   |:::|   |:::|   |:::|   | 3 
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+   
 5 |:::|   |:::|   |:::|   |:::|   | 5  4 |   |:::|   |:::|   |:::|   |:::| 4 
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+   
 4 |   |:::|   |:::|   |:::|   |:::| 4  5 |:::|   |:::|   |:::|   |:::|   | 5 
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+   
 3 |:::|   |:::|   |:::|   |:::|   | 3  6 |   |:::|   |:::|   |:::|   |:::| 6 
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+   
 2 | P |:P:| P |:P:| P |:P:| P |:P:| 2  7 |*P*|*P*|*P*|*P*|*P*|*P*|*P*|*P*| 7 
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+   
 1 |:R:| N |:B:| Q |:K:| B |:N:| R | 1  8 |*R*|*N*|*B*|*K*|*Q*|*B*|*N*|*R*| 8 
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+   
     a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h          h   g   f   e   d   c   b   a     
                                       
   White (player1) TURN                   Black (player2)     
   Inhand:                                Inhand:

PBeM Considerations

Bughouse is normally played in a speed chess setting with rather short time limits. Time is important in strategy. For example, if one player is about to lose, he can simply stop playing, in the hope that his partner can win before time runs out.

Time can still be important in PBeM Bughouse, and the default settings enforce a limited time for players to make their moves. But the varieties of timezone displacements can sometimes make this unfair, so feel free to disable the time limits (or make them longer) by including "--timelimit=0" in the challenge command.

At any time, there are always two players who can make a move. These players are indicated at the top ("Waiting for:") and also have the word "TURN" after their names. When two players are playing, they are each playing one side of two boards, so it can be ambiguous which board they are moving on. When this occurs, they will need to prefix their move with "1:" or "2:" to indicate which board they are moving on.