NEW Crazyhouse Team Battles - every Wednesday 6.30 pm UTC

There is a new series of crazyhouse team battles on Lichess every Wednesday at 6.30 pm UTC. All levels of players and all teams are welcome! So far we have had everyone from total beginners to intermediate players, experts, and a GM!

We are excited to have had appearances from Crazyhouse Streamer @Zaraza, 2021 Racing Kings World Champion @CyberShredder, IM @wateenellende, @GRXbullet and legendary Bughouse player FM @gnejs (@OldHas-Been)!

You need to have a minimum of ten rated crazyhouse games to play. The time control is usually 3+2 but may vary.

NEXT TEAM BATTLE - 8th QRM ZH

Please contact me QueenRosieMary to add your team.

You can join THINK ZH if you want to be notified about upcoming team battles, or if you just need a team to play for!

My vision is to make this the biggest and best Crazyhouse team battle series on Lichess!

Many thanks to @FischyVishy for helping to make this happen. Thanks are due also to my THINK ZH co-leader @Marlonc!

Finally, thanks to all my fantastic team members who have played for the team, and to all participants from the other teams, without which, we would not have a team battle!

My Crazyhouse Journey so far...

---

I don't remember when I first discovered crazyhouse, maybe about seven months ago. A friend asked me to play a few games because she liked it and it was so confusing, pieces appearing out of nowhere, and getting suddenly and unexpectedly mated by pawns appearing in awkward places! I wasn't sure about this at all, it seemed impossible to calculate. I played to be a good friend but it was painful! I was hovering around 1200 at the time and lost more than I won (I still do)!

Fast-forward a few months, and I have improved somewhat, reaching my highest rating so far today of 1658 today, a little better, but still such a long way to go to regard myself as "decent"!

The best thing about this amazing variant for me is that you get new pieces throughout the game to place where you like, as long as it's legal. The crazyhouse (zh) community is very friendly and as well as mostly being sadists and absolute savages, are generally helpful in terms of giving advice and pointing you towards learning resources.

I have fun memories of playing quite a few games late at night (time difference) with GM Yasser Seirawan (it's 10-0 to him currently) and I can't imagine any other scenario where an ordinary 1600 like me would get to play someone so legendary in the chess world, never mind ten times!

Crazyhouse should really come with a health warning though, it can be a bit addictive, can cause your heart to explode sometimes with the shock (not literally), and it is like normal chess on steroids, once you go full zh, it's hard to go back...

---

Upcoming Tournaments

8th QRM ZH 7th February 2024, 6.30 pm UTC
9th QRM ZH 14th February 2024, 6.30 pm UTC
10th QRM ZH 21st February 2024, 6.30 pm UTC
11th QRM ZH 28th February 2024, 6.30 pm UTC

---

Completed Tournaments

1st QRM ZH 22 December 2023, 9 pm UTC
2nd QRM ZH 29 December 2023, 9 pm UTC
3rd QRM ZH 5 January 2024, 9 pm UTC
4th QRM ZH 12 January2024, 9 pm UTC
5th QRM ZH 19th January 2024, 9 pm UTC
6th QRM ZH 24th January 2024, 6.30 pm UTC
7th QRM ZH 31st January 2024, 6.30 pm UTC

---

Resources and Team Links

mastertan study Light & Dark: A Visual Guide to Crazyhouse
THINK ZH the best zh team on Lichess!
Lichess Crazyhouse plenty of study material here
IM Wateenellende's blog about The Finnisher's variants sources

Chess Variants Training
THAT Hourly Crazyhouse Arena where Yasser called me out in the chat for "outing" him as a zh player to his co-commentator at the Sinquefield Cup WGM Jovanka Houska!