Chess and variants
Crazyhouse
Captured pieces change sides and can be dropped back onto the board.
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What you can do here
- Bots from Novice to Club player, or friends at the same device
- A short course on the rules, task by task on the board
- Over 2,200 puzzles that adapt to your level
- Drop pieces from your pocket with a click or by dragging them onto the board
How Crazyhouse is played
Crazyhouse is chess where captured pieces come back. The pieces move as you know them, and every capture strengthens the side that made it.
The pocket
A piece you capture changes sides and goes into your pocket, which your player bar shows in place of the captured pieces. Your opponent’s captures go into theirs.
Dropping
Instead of a move you may drop one piece from your pocket onto any empty square. Click it in your bar and then a square, or drag it onto the board. A drop may give check and even mate.
Pawns
A pawn may not be dropped on the first or the last rank. A pawn dropped on its second rank may still make its double step.
Promoted pieces
A piece that came from a promotion goes back into the pocket as a pawn when it is captured.
Winning and draws
Checkmate wins. Stalemate, the same position three times and fifty moves each without a capture or a pawn move are draws. Material never leaves the game, so the safety of the kings decides: any piece in hand can land next to one.
More games
Chess and variants
- Chess · Classic chess or Chess960 with a shuffled back rank, against a bot.
- Chess960 · Fischer random chess: the back rank starts in one of 960 setups.
- Antichess · Losing chess: give away all your pieces, captures are compulsory.
- Atomic chess · Every capture is an explosion that clears the pieces around it.
- Duck chess · After every move you move the duck, which blocks everyone. No check.
- Fog of War · You only see where your pieces can move. Capture the king to win.
- Friendly Chess · Nothing is captured: pieces unite and set off chain reactions.
The chess family
- Chaturanga · India’s ancient chess, the root of the family: take the king to win.
- Shatranj · The medieval ancestor of chess, with a weak ferz and a jumping alfil.
- Makruk · Thai chess: a slow, strategic game with a counting rule.
- Ouk Chatrang · Cambodian chess: Makruk with a leap for the king and the met.
- Sittuyin · Burmese chess: set up your pieces, then promote on the diagonals.
- Xiangqi · Chinese chess: a river, palaces and a cannon that jumps to capture.
- Janggi · Korean chess: no river, palace diagonals and a cannon that always jumps.
- Shogi · Japanese chess: captured pieces return to the board on your side.
- Minishogi · Shogi on a 5 × 5 board: six pieces a side, short and sharp games.
More players
- Chaturaji · India’s four-handed chess: kings can be captured, captures score.
- Four Seasons Chess · Alfonso X’s chess for four from 1283: four seasons, the last king wins.
- Three-player chess · Three armies on a hexagonal board: you against two bots.
- Four-player chess · Four armies on a cross-shaped board: in teams or all against all.
- Eight-player chess · Eight armies on a board of 516 squares: all against all, in pairs or four against four.