BUGHOUSE

***** BUGHOUSE *****

Bughouse (Siamese chess or double speed chess) is a chess variant with
four players and two chess sets.  Players partner up in teams of two,
and then two teams play each other.  When your partner captures pieces
on her board, she passes them to you.  On your turn, you may either make
an ordinary chess move, OR place a piece your partner has given you on
any empty square (except no pawns on the first or eighth rank.)  Ending
the game on one board (by flag or checkmate), ends the game for the
other board too.

Bughouse on ICC is wild variant 24.  Use channel 24 and "bugwho" to
search for prospective partners and opponents.  Use the "partner"
command to form a team (see the example below.)  To place a piece, type
"piece"@"square", e.g. N@h5 (case is not important.)  If you are using
BlitzIn, your reserve pieces will appear on the side of the board.  To
place them, simply click and drag the appropriate piece onto the square
you want.

An example of how to play bughouse on ICC:  suppose Alice and Bob want
to be partners.  Alice should type "partner Bob", and likewise Bob
should type "partner Alice".  Alice types "bugwho" to list the current
bughouse teams and sees that Carol and David are a team too.  Alice can
then issue

                   match Carol 5 0 bughouse

and if Carol accepts, a bughouse game begins; Alice plays Carol on one
board, and Bob plays David on the other.

Prior to the game, each player should probably "follow" their partner
and "set unobserve 0" so that they can observe their partner's game as
well.

Notes:
- Bughouse matches can be rated if all participants are registered.
- Piece-drops with check (or even checkmate) ARE allowed.
- It's not checkmate when there's the possibility of interposition.
- Repetition draws are disabled; you can draw only by agreement.
- Takeback and adjourn are disabled.
- If you disconnect during a bughouse game, your team forfeits.
- "ptell" can be used to talk to your partner.
- "prefresh" displays your partner's board.
- "say" will go to the other 3 players involved.
- "kib" will go to all 4 players, plus anyone observing either board.
- "bugwho" lists individuals, teams and games
- Promoted pawns revert to pawns upon being captured.
- Bughouse half-games can be examined, with piece holdings not shown.
- "best bughouse" lists the players with the highest active bughouse ratings.
- Bughouse ratings are adjusted based on all four players' records.
   The rating formula compares the average rating of each team.
- "wildrank" shows your rank on the wild and bughouse rating lists.
- If your client can display two boards at once, you might want to
  "follow" your partner, and "set unobserve 0".
- It is abuse to gain an advantage by deliberately creating lag.

See also: bug-pointers, Kriegspiel, wild