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How to play Crazyhouse: rules and setup

Crazyhouse is played by 2 players on a board with 8 × 8 squares. White moves first. Captured pieces join your reserve and can return to the board on your side.

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Play Crazyhouse

Quick answer

Crazyhouse is a chess variant on the standard 8×8 board in which captured pieces change colour and join your reserve. On each turn you either make a normal move or drop a reserve piece onto an empty square. Pawns cannot be dropped on the first or last rank, and captured promoted pieces return as pawns. Checkmate wins, and drops can block or give check. This guide covers Crazyhouse. Check the movement, capture and game-ending rules below before applying rules from another variant.

Players
2
Board
8 × 8 squares
First move
White moves first.

Ruleset and sources: Crazyhouse

Setup

Game illustration
Game illustration. Follow the setup instructions to prepare a new game.

Base rules: chess, except where this guide says otherwise. Use the ordinary 8×8 chess starting position with empty reserves. White moves first.

Board
8 × 8 squares
Players
2
First move
White moves first.
Rules used here
Crazyhouse

Moves and captures

  • Legal moves

    Make a normal chess move or drop one reserve piece on an empty square. Capturing an enemy piece changes its colour and adds it to your reserve. Every move or drop must keep your king safe.

  • Using the board

    To place a reserve piece, select it and then a marked square. For a board move, select your piece and its destination. When a move has several options, such as which piece to promote to or whether to promote, choose one in the panel that opens.

Special rules

  • Pawns cannot be dropped on the first or last rank.

  • A captured promoted piece returns to the reserve as a pawn.

  • Kings are never reserve pieces.

  • A legal drop may give check or checkmate.

Winning and draws

  • Checkmate wins.

  • A legal reserve drop may block a check, so available drops count when deciding mate or stalemate.

  • Stalemate is a draw, and lack of material never ends the game.

  • A player may claim a draw after the same position occurs three times, or after 50 moves by each side without a capture or pawn move.

  • Neither rule ends the game automatically.

Example

Sources and rule verification

Ruleset covered
Crazyhouse
  1. Lichess — Crazyhouse rules
  2. Fairy-Stockfish variants (implementation reference)
  3. Fairy-Stockfish — variant definitions (43b66c8, implementation reference)

This guide describes play on ChessPlayX. Platform-specific conventions are stated in the relevant sections; tournament administration may differ.

A separate rule-review date is not recorded for this guide. The update date is not a verification date.