About Bughouse Chess online and over the real board

About Bughouse Chess online and over the real board



Here are several ways how to play, training and improving Your bughouse chess skills using internet:
FICS (only fast bughouse, no time for move implemented)
DoubleChessBoard (supports also slower bughouse (time for move) )
and from news: BICS its like FICs but improved to allow slower bughouse (time for move) and is much more liberal (multiple accounts from one pc alowed for whole family to play chess, also allowed playing rated simul bughouse chess)

Here you can read about experience with online bughouse chess (SKAcz finger notes) :
If You are new in online chess you should know that FICS is very different
compare to OTB=over the real board chess. I wish have online environment
like OTB (training same game). Where for example player is not able make
move faster than 0.5-1.0 sec. WE NEED SPECIALIZED BUGHOUSE CHESS SERVER
which allows MANY OPTIONS and IS SUPPORTING BUGHOUSE AS REGULAR CHESS
DISCIPLINE !!! What means: logging full bughouse game as BPGN icluding
lags for arbiter be easy to assists if adjourned due to lag wave ! Its why
i made first version of DoubleChessBoard miniserver multiplayer network
game f r e e software !
2: GOLDEN AGE of bughouse chess on FICS is only history: Chessty(*)(SR)(24):
many of the "old" admins believe bughouse players to be disruptive and
cause too many problems on the server so they do not wish to do much to
support bughouse
Required features of new bughouse chess server: (1) online double board
examination with pieces in hand and exact times and lags (2) some kind of
lag compensator (which will serve such way that if lag on one board will
appear,artificial lag on second board will add, this way whole game is
slowed but not disturbed) (3) allowing playing rated simul (4) bronstein
time controll to allow play thinking slower bughouse without premove &
flagging in lasts secs (5) some random starting positions like here :
http://bughousechess.wz.cz/iholandany/Iholande.htm (6) maybe more:
implementing cascade equal material flow bughouse (only the pieces of the
same value going to second board) and bughouse on more than 2 boards ..
3: Be independent on ICC, use chess miniserver D o u b l e Ch e s s B o a r d
: play with friends thru internet, on local network or training bughouse
and blitz chess with xboard engines on 1 or more PC, print games easy to
paper, Energy Board - Be close to master's thinking ! Features like lag
compensator, bronstein time control (Try it! Allowing thinking and/or
slower bughouse), alternative starting positions! Allowing view and
export BPGN as RichTEXT with automatically generated BUGHOUSE CHESS
DIAGRAMS! (also small graphic for Wap supported) And BPGN Util allows
repair games import to BugAssistant DB and in see like in ChessBase,
airdrops repairing solved. ... and more ... Wish You see how to win
against 2500+2500 fics bughouse team with 1.Na3 and 2.Nh3 SKAcz opening ?
Download DoubleChessBoard and look in .BPGN FICS stored game files
included ... :)
4: http://bughousechess.wz.cz/DoubleChessBoard
http://bughousechess.wz.cz/CompleteBughouseChessRules.htm
http://bughousechess.wz.cz/Play/Missedcheckmate.htm - improve tactics !
http://bughousechess.wz.cz/QBB - old Quality bughouse base !
http://krasabughouse.unas.cz/Software/BPGNView3 - bughouse chess base !
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Its amazing how peoples overestimates ratings without knowledge what
rating really measure; and on other side underestimate the learning from
mistakes.
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Here are 2 totally different team game styles in 2300+ bughouse
Style 1 : Try be always safe or be safe as soon as possible.
Style 2 : When u are up on time play fast chess blitz to get position into which is easy to drop pieces that will come.
I prefer look on double-position and use style 2 when its possible.

5: ELO Calculators I made in MS Excel:
http://bughousechess.wz.cz/DoublechessELOCalculator/SkaELOCalc.zip
Supports chess FIDE ELO closed tournaments tables and also matches tables
(good for bughouse team performance also) and as bonus special 5ELO system
perfect for club blitz rating!
http://bughousechess.wz.cz/DoublechessELOCalculator Calculate ELO based on
game data set in format PlayerA1,A2,B1,B2,PointsA,PointsB and starting ELO
list automatic way. Or performance without starting ELO list.
(DoubleChessELOCalc using only simple function of decomposition team
rating to single player rating - little improved FICS model - but good as
start for team rating or modifications ...)
6: ====== Only O V E R T H E REAL B O A R D its T R U E bughouse ======
CreepingDeath about FICS : otb is so much different. This is skittles ...
OTB bughouse is different world compared with (F)ICS:
1. no premove (move per 0 sec) : YOU see how opponent is moving with hand
2. full effectively voice communication : You can talk with pard fast and
meanwhile play 3. no lags (time damaged by internet) 4. no mouse races 5.
No problems with authorization and verification (Is clear You are who You
are and who is sitting over the board) 6. In OTB tournament if You are
coming You playing (no problems with connection losing). Many teams and
players are much stronger or weaker OTB because of different skills! OTB
bughouse its more like regular chess discipline. What to do for (OTB)
BUGHOUSE CHESS to have FUTURE as SPORT AS NORMAL CHESS ? The official
championships in bughouse chess and maybe The World bughouse chess
organization ! Is somebody interrested in ?
7: ----> Important OTB Events: Berlin winners 2002 Fermy with Creepingdeath
visited Czech Republic. Berlin 2004 1.Firefly+MarcusM 2.Venomous+LinusO
3.Zakrzutek+Draculla 4.Alamar+SKAcz (and after 36 swiss system games we
was on 3. place with 26 points from 36 possible before Zakrzutek from
Polland with 21 and after F+M with 29, but (similar as V+L lost match for
1st place,) we lost match for 3th place). In Berlin 2005 Fermy+Alamar
displaced 2003,2004 Berlin winners Firefly+MarcusM in finale! Czech Open
2005 1.Buchas+Maras 2.Alamar+Matejus 3.SKAcz+Xeres
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
In C z e c h Republic bughouse done steps from underground to regular
chess discipline : Czech Chess Federation ratified 1st championship of CR
in bughouse chess 14.7.2003 as Official !!!!! In 2004-6 we got financial
dotation also on regional bughouse championships of teams. We solved main
OTB problems in 2005 using bronstein time control on digital clocks.
8: We have official rules in Czech Republic. http://www.czechopen.net Fermy
with Creepingdeath was here in year 2002. 14.7 2003 was
1st_CHAMPIONSHIP_of_CZECH_Republic as part of big festival CZECH OPEN
2004 Czech Open was with 42 starting teams from 12 countries b i g e s t
bughouse tournament in E u r o p e (2.in history) and second bigest in the
world. FUTURE of OTB: Bronstein time controll can make from premove
lightning bughouse (and hands or mouse race) really interresting blitz
bughouse, in which good moves are better than fast bad (pre)moves ...
(bronstein 3sec & 1minute means that thinking time over 3s is taken from
1m reserve) Matejus+Alamar=official czech champions in bughouse
2003,2004,2005. In 2005 first time tournament winners was not from Czech
Republic, but from Lithuania. In 2005 finale was played in bronstein 3 sec
for move with 1 minute reserve and won Buchas+Maras! From 2006 year the
bronstein is also in qualification. 2006 Winners Maras+Alus. Czech
champions Cechura+Ringel. 2007 Winners Buchas+NilsSKBB 2.Czech champions Matejus+SKAcz
9: Bughouse chess is team game so we have to try measure at first rating of
teams! - so take actual FICS rating as big fun and focus on good moves!
For determining power of single player is no theory solving succesfully
decomposition of team power! (The idea of simply average=sum=simply
joining dont work, because team is much more than only sum - see theories
about organizations and synergy - how to determine rating of football
player if we know the team rating?) WITH PARTNER WHICH NOT REACHES YOUR
LEVEL SKILLS YOU simply CANNOT PLAY GOOD and interresting BUGHOUSE !
(Imagine perfect football keeper in team of newbies, such team never can
play championships and he be sure how good is ..)
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BICS : http://chess.sipay.ru new free ICS when u can play with Thief
bronstein bughouse, rated simul, fiserrandom like bug its OPEN SOURCE
http://bughousechess.wz.cz/BICS
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10: ---> Think if You playing bughouse please, log games and try look later on
it, You will discover maybe what You never did see before :) I reached
2300+ with human Zakrzutek (Polland) ! I reached 2400+, 2700+ on fics,
with sunsetter (engine developed by Ben Dean-Kawamura, Georg v.
Zimmermann) computer Krunch(C), Mobgangster(C). Here are games:
http://bughousechess.wz.cz/Play/SKAcz2300.BPGN
http://bughousechess.wz.cz/Play/SKAcz2400&2700.BPGN <--- After i made my
bughouse bests,I reprogrammed my mind back to normal, fics premove
bughouse is insane fast lightning and I personally offer to everybody to
play bronstein time control 3 sec for move with 1 minute reserve or more,
which allowing discover all double chess beauty, but in common blitz
speed. Ps. Try bronstein 3 or 5 or 10 sec for move with 10 sec or 1min or
5min reserve, with alernative starting positions, this its true
alternative chess adventure ! (Requires thinking and intuition, no
memorizing of openings or typical middle game situations).

Other:
7: Time control with lag(time lost on internet player <-> server) solutions:
(I) BUGHOUSE time inc HAND FAR DIS (far,dis is in deciseconds if You
lag other players), hand(=antipremove) = time of fastest move. If You lag>far
but less than dis,the lag minus far is taken from your clocks if You
lag>dis, the game is adjourned and has to be solved manually) FAR (command
that measures players average lag in deciseconds,so recommended minimal
far)Until this implemented only inc (kind of lag in bughouse game) can be
used to decrease lag influence. (II) Another perfect solution for any
realtime game like bughouse could be sending every 0.1s "thinking"
timestamp from player to server to know what player do in exact moment and
allowing distribute lag among all. (III) 2boards lag compensator, ie add
player lag to sitting players on second board (partially in DCB 1.55)

Complex lag algorithm for 2 boards bughouse chess solved:
The perfect algorithm exists. Simply put, in short, the lag (L:) will
'jump' to the players on the second chessboard, who stood during it, resp.
they lost time (T:) when the lag became and it wasnt in delay (D) (for 3 0
is D zero), as compensation (S:). And lagBuffer waiting for last move. Now
the lag will not damage the continuum of double chess realtime game, it
will only slow it down. See Complete lag compensator implemented by
SKAcz in 2022 on onlinea.org , onlinea.eu bughouse double(s) chess server!

Other experience:

Here are 2 kinds of bughouse double chess game :

(1) team bughouse
- players which are good, best in team bughouse,
or simply prefer team bughouse are focused to improve game style which maximizing power of only one or 2 (simply few) teams, made together with one (2, few) very good trained partners.
- focus is on realize any advantage on any board using both boards and synchronized game
- such player investing into this :
1.A discovering of strongest skills of both players in team
1.B finding game style which allows using strongest skills of both partners most and maximize such way strenght of team
1.C creating team comunication "protocol" (like army language in critical situations) and understanding and predicting in detail and fast how pard will react, and on highest level : what will team do in situation based on team strategy (unification of methods and increasing of predictability from partners view). This saving time because on higher level both pards see more and more "the same" so comunication is minimized for moments where one thinking on something and partner meanwhile can think about something else and both then fast comunicate joining of this particular thinking (again saving time).

(2) single player bughouse
- players which are good, best are able partner almost everybody to hold similar performance
- such player investing into trying be able play fast good moves independent of what pieces will came from partners board, focus is on (very playing best universal moves in drop chess with random pieces stuff coming)
- the skills in detail required are some combination of this :
2.A trying play so fast to be always up on time
2.B trying play active or attack style to kill opponents before his pard will die
2.C trying eating material and watching pard board and avoid risky situations
2.D trying be always safe and expext almost "everything" pieces can come from partners board
2.E be able fast advice to partner important move and ptell sit or +piece some way, simply comunication and most universal for most partners is prefered

What You should know about FICS rating system especially for bughouse chess

Here is one example (from many): 5 days after ChIcKeNcRoSsRoAd hit 2830 (20-Jan-2010) he is under 2400 :
22: - 2394 W 2461 LinusO [ Br 3 0] --- PW Mon Jan 25, 04:28 PST 2010
What this show about rating or "rating" system on fics, well its pretty easy : turbulences 200-400 points are something very common, with which system allowing selecting opponents has to live. FICS "rating" is uncomparable with FIDE (imagine Carlsen to have one day 2800+ and few days later under 2400 - sounds like nonsense true ?) ....

Now question : which skills measure fics rating ? How big(in real seems low) is preciseness of measured values ?
Sounds that right is this hypothesis : with accuracy X +-200 is X actual rating measured by fics. So if somebody has on fics in bughouse rating X, then his strenght (of whatever measured) is from somebody able lose with "himself" (=somebody with same rating) 0:10 to somebody able beat "himself" 10:0. So it saying almost nothing. Or we can say it is divide players into levels of 400 points groups - like 1000-1400,1400-1800,1800-2200,2200-2600 thats all, bigger accuracy is impossible with current rating.
The another question is what the best measure and what the rating from viepoint of skills measure ? Sure if rating should measure not good moves of team, but more human weakness and ability of premoves in 2 0 like time controlls, fine. This view of bughouse on fics as more or less arcade mouse game can be for some peoples fine. But it is not fine for anybody who likes exact rating system which works for FIDE and for somebody who likes measure good moves of team (human or computer or half computer doesnt matter).
I think I finally understand the view of some peoples on fics and also I am sure its something what I can accepts as arcade casino rating game, but not so far as chess skils ! And I understand why such peoples so hate computer teams, because against computer is hard to premove in 2 0 and in 1 1 u have to play good moves ! My vision of bughouse was always mostly as game of good moves in some blitz speed, what is opposite to fics with vision of fast bad pre-moves. Of course You can ignore premoves and play or 1 1 (if You will find opponents on fics) or try play it in 2 0 or 3 0, but then You can always have to count that who will be insane premover can damage game making from it last 10s premove casino gambling in which is better and in which doesnt matter if good moves are played, cos only time counts ... True hell for thinking players isnt it ? In this OTB has atleast 2 little advantages : You see opponents hands and nobody can really be much faster than anybody else. Also You can play delay like bronstein time control on Czech Open !


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* NEW CHESS SERVER without fics restrictions and limitations made !! *
* Based on open source project BICS *
* http://bughousechess.wz.cz/BICS/CzechOpen
* Extra: BughouseWars : TEAM rating, simuling, bronstein time control *
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* NEW CHESS SERVER supporting BUGHOUSE is on ! No more FICS limitations! *
* Based on original Fermy's BPGNView javascript and BICS ideas *
* 2020 we celebrating year of bughouse doubles chess, new online solutions coming *
* OnlineA.org eu node is live now
* Web browser based see http://ONLINEA.eu (big improvements 2021) *
* (or directly now on : http://77.93.202.198:36701 ) *
* Whole family/club can play from single place, any PC,tablet,smartphone *
* All players of good will are welcome !!! We do it for game !!! *
* Extra ideas: a bit slower games with bronstein (delay = time for move) *
* Doubleboard lag Compensator implemented! Team Rated,Simul,Wild bughouse*
* See on video: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTsj5AjfxsDuEUQz5X4kPyg *
**************************************************************************

Simple team rating calculating in simul logic and fact that strong player cannot use his abilities with much weaker: implemented on onlinea.eu is based on simple logic that the gained or lost rating points are divided in team more to weaker player if is much weaker than his pard, this way it motivates stronger to pard weaker and teach them without losing rating too much and if simuling it going to limit of both has about same rating in team.

Chess.com SKAcz(0) profile notes:

# Main principle of BUGHOUSE realtime DOUBLE(s) CHESS: #
# TIME determine when TO PLAY, POSITION when TO SIT (and think) ! #
# Number of moves on both boards should be about the same ! #

http://bughousechess.wz.cz

Time control 3 0 (or X 0 in general) is obsolete for bughouse doubles chess, same way as 5 0 is obsolete for standard blitz chess, where most people prefer time control with some time per/for move like 3 2 etc. It's only a matter of time before new players realize that a 3 0 bughouse is actually the same as a 1 0, plus annoying waiting, and most will stop playing the bughouse because it places it among the disciplines suitable mainly for young people fast with a computer mouse and lag-free internet. It is also no wonder that many young enthusiastic buggists later completely abandoned this game. Compare it to blitz chess, which can be entertained and promoted by all generations, whole families. This is much closer to what we in Europe call sustainable development, right?

Are You interested in higher quality of moves? Discover beauty of bughouse chess combinations in real time but not in insane speed ? See project onlinea.eu, where You can play also time controls allowing slower game, without last seconds flagging. Or play simul on both boards. With unique complete 2 boards lag compensator. All what will be never implemented here.


More about bughouse chess in general and in Czech Republic