Bughouse games are extremely dynamic. The position never simplifies since captured pieces are constantly being recycled. Draws are unheard of. Many of the strategies used in the japanese form of chess, shogi, apply:
Bughouse chess is known by many names and has many of its own "special" terms and strategies, just as regular chess does. Before attempting to play bughouse, you should attempt to learn a fair bit of both. Just like real chess, it is better to learn through study than by experience!
Terminology
Please note that some of this may not be especially common in real life, but is used quite often here on FICS.
The above should at least ensure that you aren't completely confused when you start bughouse and your opponents start kibitzing at you. Now we move on to general strategy, followed by opening theory.
Advanced Strategy
The above tips will get you started. Here are some advanced tips on bughouse strategy.
Another element of stalling is if you know your opponent needs a certain piece to mate you, and your partner tells you that it will come to your opponent next move. It is good strategy to tell your partner not to move until your opponent moves, so that your opponent will be forced to move without that piece. Again, unless your partner has more time than your opponent, this will not work, as your partner will flag.
Please note that there is currently a bug in timeseal that affects bughouse: you cannot flag someone with timeseal until they move, so theoretically, they can stall forever and not be flagged. "Sealsitting" is unethical and frustrating. If you have timeseal and are trying to stall, once you are out of time, the accepted practice is to move or resign. Not doing so will cause a great deal of ill will. However, it is not currently considered abuse.
Q=10, N=7, R=4, B=2, P=1
The knight and queen rule the bughouse chessboard. The queen often can be placed into a position with mate. The knight is useful as well because it can check from a distance and not be blocked. Many bughouse mating attacks begin with a sacrifice on KB7 followed by a knight check. For example, after 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.Bc4 Bc5 5.Bxf7+ Kxf7 6.Ng5+ all white needs is a queen for f7 and black will get mated. The bishops value is seriously diminished, as it often performs no better than a pawn, and sometimes not even as well. The pawns promotion abilities may in some positions be worth significantly more than a bishop.
These rules are obviously meant to be general. However, understanding and utilizing them will help you play much better bughouse chess!
White - White generally positions his pieces to attack the kingside, and especially the square f7. This may involve Bc4, Ng5, Ne5 or any similar methods. A common development scheme used is e4, d4, Bc4, Be3, Nf3, Nbd2, Qe2, known by some as the "Mongolian Attack". Please notice that white does not castle in this line. In fact, castling is generally bad in bughouse. It restrains your king to one side of the board, thus restricting it's ability to escape from enemy pieces. This rule also applies to black. White may also play for massive central pawn advances, attempting black to either open the position so that white can attack, or force black to lock the pawn chain in the center so that white can build a long pawn chain into the center and into blacks position. This would work best against a fianchetto. For example, 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.e5 and white attempts to place pawns on f6, g7 and inject black badly.
Black - I have seen several defenses for black. I will list them by the names I have seen them referred to on FICS, although serious bughouse players may know them by other names in real life.
Federkevic defense: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 b6 - Black attempts to keep his pieces out of the center, where they may be rolled back by white pawns. He also leaves the dpawn on d7, where it may support e6, preventing sacrifices. The drawback is that black may get injected along the queenside light squares.
Barbeau Counter Attack: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 Qh4 - Black pressures e4 and attempts to force white to adopt an awkward development to protect the e4 pawn. For example, after 2.Nc3, 2...Bb4! exchanges a bishop for a knight. The drawback is that white often munches blacks queen in the opening.
Fortress Defense: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d6 - Black attempts to simply huddle in the center behind a wall of pieces and pawns. By far the most common bughouse opening. The drawback is that black will be cramped, but black is always cramped in bughouse, so this is probably your best bet!
Conclusion
Bughouse is much more informal than regular chess and all four players generally kibitz about both games while they are on. Oftentimes, observers watch and kibitz along with the games. However, come into channel 24 and see for yourself. A good way to see some of the principles above put into action is to ask in channel 24 if anyone is playing, and then watch their games. Only then will you get a sense of what fun bughouse is! Happy bugging!
[Strategy written by IanO; Advanced strategy written by dogdog; editted by Friar - December 17, 1995]
See also: bughouse