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Play Crazyhouse chess online against the computer. It is a full game of chess with one extra rule: a piece you capture changes colour and goes into your hand, and on any turn you may drop a piece from your hand onto an empty square instead of moving. Material never leaves the board for good, so attacks come fast, a king that looked safe can be mated by a knight that appears from nowhere, and a pawn you won three moves ago can come back as the piece that blocks a check. Drag or tap to move and to drop, see both players’ hands beside the board, and pick one of five computer levels from Beginner to Expert. It is free in your browser, with no download and no sign-up.
How to play Crazyhouse Chess
- Choose the computer level and whether you play White, Black or alternate colours, then press Start game. The board starts from the normal chess setup and every chess rule applies: how the pieces move, castling, en passant, promotion, check and checkmate.
- When you capture a piece it does not leave the game. It changes colour and goes into your hand, shown in the row of pieces below the board (on a wide screen, beside it). The computer’s hand sits on the other side, so you can always see what it can drop.
- On your turn you may either move a piece on the board or drop one piece from your hand onto any empty square. Tap the piece in your hand and then a square, or drag it straight onto the board. On a keyboard, press P, N, B, R or Q to pick up a pawn, knight, bishop, rook or queen, move the cursor with the arrow keys and press Enter.
- Pawns may not be dropped on the first or last rank. A pawn dropped on its own second rank can still move two squares on its first move. Any piece may be dropped to give check, to block a check, or to deliver checkmate.
- A piece that was promoted goes back to being a pawn when it is captured, so a queen made from a pawn arrives in the other player’s hand as a pawn.
- Win by checkmate. Stalemate and threefold repetition, which counts the pieces in hand as well as the board, are draws; there is no fifty-move rule, because no material is ever lost. Hint and Undo are there when you want them, but a game that uses either becomes practice and is left out of your record for that level.
Tips
- Count both hands before every move. A piece in your opponent’s hand can land anywhere, so a square next to your king that nothing of yours defends is a square they can drop onto.
- Trades are not neutral in Crazyhouse. Swapping a knight for a knight hands each of you a knight to drop, so trade when the drop helps you more than it helps them, usually when their king is the less sheltered one.
- Keep your king behind pawns and a few defenders and think twice before pushing the pawns in front of it. Every hole you create is a landing square.
- Knights are the strongest drops early on: they cannot be blocked, and a knight dropped with check often forks the king and a big piece at once.
- A pawn in hand is worth more than a pawn on the board. Dropped onto the seventh rank it threatens to promote at once; dropped next to the enemy king it can take away the last escape square.
- When you are attacked, look for a defensive drop before you move the king: a pawn or piece dropped between the checker and your king can stop the attack and stay there as a guard.
FAQ
What is Crazyhouse chess?
Crazyhouse is a chess variant where captured pieces change sides. When you take a piece it goes into your hand in your own colour, and on any later turn you may drop it onto an empty square instead of making a normal move. Everything else is standard chess. The rules here are the ones Lichess plays and Wikipedia’s Crazyhouse article describes; this site is not affiliated with either.
Can you drop a piece to give checkmate in Crazyhouse?
Yes. Any piece may be dropped to give check or checkmate, including a pawn. Drops can also block a check. The only restrictions are that a drop must land on an empty square, a pawn may not be dropped on the first or last rank, and a drop may not leave your own king in check — so when you are in double check, no drop can help and the king must move.
What happens when a promoted piece is captured?
It goes into the capturer’s hand as a pawn, not as the piece it had become. A pawn that promoted to a queen and was then taken arrives in the other player’s hand as a pawn. A small gold dot in the corner of its square marks every promoted piece, so you can tell which queen is really a pawn.
How do you win, and how can a game be drawn?
You win by checkmating the other king. A game is drawn by stalemate or by threefold repetition, where the same position, with the same pieces in each hand and the same player to move, appears three times. There is no fifty-move rule and no draw for insufficient material, because captured pieces always stay in play.
How strong is the computer?
There are five levels, and each one is clearly stronger than the one before. Played from both sides of the same openings, Novice won 38 of 40 games against Beginner, Casual 32 of 40 against Novice, Club 28 of 32 against Casual and Expert 20 of 24 against Club. Beginner won all 40 of its games against a player making random moves. Every level runs on your own device and plays the same moves on a phone as on a computer. Moving first counts for more than in ordinary chess: when two Club players met, White won 14 games of 20.
Is Crazyhouse free, and does it work on mobile?
Yes. It is free with no download, sign-up or in-game purchases, and it works in the browser on phones, tablets and computers. You can tap a piece and then a square, or drag pieces and pieces in hand with a finger. On a phone held upright the hands sit above and below the board; held sideways, beside it. A game in progress is saved on your device, so you can close the page and carry on later.
Is Crazyhouse the same as Bughouse?
No, but they are related. Bughouse is played by four people on two boards, and the pieces you capture are passed to your partner on the other board. Crazyhouse is the two-player version: the pieces you capture come straight back to you. This game is Crazyhouse, played one against one with the computer.
How is this different from the other chess games here?
Chess vs Computer is standard chess, where a captured piece is gone for good, and Chess960 shuffles the starting back rank but keeps the normal rules. Crazyhouse starts from the normal setup and changes what a capture means: material only ever changes hands, so games are faster and far more tactical, and king safety matters from the first move.