Bughouse chess and random to the casual onlooker; hence the name bughouse, which is slang for mental hospital. The game is traditionally played as a diversion from regular chess both over the board and online. Yearly, several dedicated bughouse tournaments are organised on a national and an international level. Bughouse is a chess variant played on two chessboards by four players in teams of two. Each team member faces one opponent of the other team. Partners sit next to each other and one player has black, while the other has white. Each player plays the opponent as in a standard chess game,
Game of the Three Friends Game of the Three Friends Game of the Three Friends (Chinese: , "Sān-yǒu-qí" ; also called Sanyou Qi or Three Friends Chess) is a three-player variant of the game xiangqi ("Chinese chess"). It was invented by Zheng Jinde (Chinese: , "Zhèng Jìndé") during the Qing Dynasty (1661–1722 AD). The game symbolizes the Three Kingdoms period war (221–264 AD) between the rival states Wei, Shu, and Wu, each vying for control of China after the fall of the Han Dynasty. The Three Friends are represented by colors blue, red, and green, respectively. Each player controls all the standard xiangqi pieces, with