This game is being played under CrazyHouse960 rules. Click the 'info' tab for more information.
1. e3 e5 Clock started on 01/13/2011
2. Ng3 d5 3. d3 Nd6 4. Bc3 Ng6 5. Be2 b5 6. b3 f6 7. Bg4 b4 8. Bd2 Bf7 9. Nce2 Be7 10. Nf5 Nxf5 11. Bxf5 O-O 12. N@d7 c5 13. Nxb8 Qxb8 14. Bxg6 hxg6 15. a3 a5 16. axb4 axb4 17. N@d7 Qb7 18. Nxf8 Bxf8 19. R@a7 Black defaulted
This variant combines the swashbuckling attacking play of CrazyHouse with the randomised initial positions from Chess960.
Game rules
The initial position is randomly chosen as in Chess960. To summarize, the pawns are placed on their standard starting squares, and the other pieces are placed in random order on the first rank, subject to the following constraints:
- The king is placed somewhere between the two rooks.
- The bishops are placed on opposite-coloured squares.
- The black pieces are placed equal-and-opposite the white pieces.
Castling is allowed, the castling rules are the same as in Chess960 (after castling king and rook stay as in normal chess).
Pieces you capture become yours to use as you wish on a future turn (and vice versa for your opponent). Instead of your normal move, you can "drop" a captured piece anywhere on the board, including checking the king. Pawns cannot be dropped on the 1st or 8th rank, and if a promoted pawn is captured, it reverts back to a pawn.
Game hints
All the suggestions from the CrazyHouse article, are valid here.
In many Chess960 setups, there are weak or undefended squares on the 6th or 7th rank. Those are good candidates to be used while developing an attack, while you should be very aware of weaknesses in your own defense. This game is an extreme example of how ignoring this hint can lead to very short games.
Example games
- The Queen problem - both sides face 960-characteristic problems with queen development, then exploit weak squares around the kings while unleashing crazyhouse-style attacks,
- Exploit weaknesses - another interesting battle.
Game Page Help
The Action Bar
The Action Bar is the most important part of the game screen, this is where you interact with the game by entering moves, conditional moves, comments, draw offers, resignations, and much more (if you are not viewing one of your own games, the Action Bar is not shown). The Action Bar is in four parts, from left to right:
- The Move Input Box: where your move or conditional move is shown; it is possible to type into this box, but not recommended, you can enter your move by dragging and dropping the pieces on the board.
- The Action Selection Dropdown: this is where you select the action you want to do, for example, move, enter a comment, accept a draw offer, claim a draw, etc. Only the actions which are relevant to the current game are shown.
- The Continue Button: this button sends your action back to our server; sometimes you might see a pop-up text box before the action is sent, this is so that you can write a message to your opponent. You can set your preferences so that this box is always shown to confirm you move (under the "Chess Board" tab "Confirm moves before committing), some people find this helpful as a "blunder check".
- The Next Game button: clicking the button will take you to the next game for which it is your move.
The Game Information Panel
Under the Action Bar, you should find the Game Information Panel. This gives you more information about the game; because there is too much information to see on one screen here, it is arranged into "tab"; you can move between the various screens by clicking the buttons, from left to right:
- Game Overview: this tab shows the full history of the game, including comments (you cannot read the comments from another player's game, unless the game is marked as "public"), leave taken, etc. You can click the moves to see the position on the chess board.
- Hide Comments: this tab shows the moves of the game only, without the distraction of the comments shown on the game overview tab.
- Material Balance: this tab shows the captured pieces in the game. If you are playing CrazyHouse chess, or a similar game, you can drag pieces from here to the board to make a "drop".
- Tags: You can "tag" games, this makes it easier to come back to games, you can find the games you have tagged from the game database screen.
- Variant Information: this tab is available for some chess variants, it will show you a description of the variant.
- Opening Book: In standard chess games, this tab will show you information about the chess opening you have been playing, taken from the Game Explorer.
- Analysis Board: Opening this tab will overlay an "analysis board" on the main chess board; you can move the pieces around freely on this board to try out various ideas in the game.
- Engine Analysis: This tab allows you to analyse the game using a chess engine; because the use of engines is not allowed on SchemingMind, this tab is not available for ongoing games.
- Share: The share tab will allow you to share your game on social media (if someone becomes a member by following one of your links, you will be rewarded with a complimentary extension to your full membership); you can also download the game as either an animated GIF or in PGN format, and you can copy the current position to your clipboard in FEN format.
- Help: If you are reading this, you have already figured out what the help button does!
The Chess Board
The chess board shows the current position in your game; if it is your move, or if you can enter a conditional move, you can drag and drop the pieces on the chess board.
If you wish to castle, simply drag your king over the rook on the side you wish to castle on. When you promote a pawn, you will see a pop-up prompting you to select the promoted piece.
We have a number of different designs for chess boards and pieces, you can select the one you prefer from your personal preferences.
Under the chess board is a navigation toolbar (this toolbar looks slightly different if you are looking at the analysis board).
From left to right:
- Settings: This button will bring up your chess board and pieces display settings.
- Move to Start: This button will show the start position of the game.
- Previous Move: This button will move position shown on the board back one move.
- Next Move: This button will show the next position on the board.
- Last Move: This button will show the current position on the board.
- Flip: This button will show the board from the other player's perspective (by default you see games from White's perspective unless you are Black; you can select an option to always show the board from White's perspective in your personal preferences).
- Animate: If you are not looking at the last move in the game, this button will animate the game from the shown position to the last move.
- Stop Animation: This button will stop the animation.
View this article in the Knowledge Base.