Editing Bughouse chess (section)

=== Material ===
In chess, a minor material advantage is important as when material gets exchanged, the relative advantage becomes larger. Because new pieces come in, there is no [[Chess endgame|endgame]] play in bughouse and material is therefore less important. It is common to sacrifice pieces in bughouse while attacking, defending, or hunting down a certain piece which one's partner requires.<ref name="mhtf" />

The material balance of a position can be calculated by adding up the [[Chess piece relative value|piece values]] of each player's pieces. In standard chess, a [[pawn (chess)|pawn]] equals one unit, a [[bishop (chess)|bishop]] or [[knight (chess)|knight]] is worth three, a [[rook (chess)|rook]] five and a [[queen (chess)|queen]] nine. These values are a consequence of the difference in mobility of the pieces. Bughouse piece values differ because pieces in reserve essentially have the same mobility as they can be dropped on any vacant square.<ref>von Zimmerman (2006), p. 17</ref> The pawn relatively gains importance in bughouse chess, as its very limited mobility does not handicap reserve pawns. They can, for instance, be dropped to block non-contact checks. Pawns can be dropped onto the seventh rank, one step away from promotion, which further adds to their importance. Long-range pieces like the queen or the rook lose relative value, due to the constantly changing [[pawn structure]]. They are also more likely to be hemmed in.<ref>Manson and Hoover (1992), pp. 32–33</ref> A valuation system, first suggested by the popular and one-time highest rated bughouse player [https://ratings.fide.com/profile/1702572 André Nilsson] of Sweden ("Gnejs" on [[Internet Chess Club|ICC]], [[Free Internet Chess Server|FICS]], and chess.com), often applied to bughouse is pawn=1, bishop=knight=rook=2 and queen=4.<ref>von Zimmerman (2006), p. 17. The bughouse playing program [http://sunsetter.sourceforge.net/ Sunsetter] uses the values pawn=100, bishop=195, knight=192, rook=200 and queen=390, while the engine [http://www.sjeng.org/indexold.html Sjeng] uses pawn=100, bishop=230, knight=210, rook=250 and queen=450. Accessed July 29, 2007.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Chronatog |date=2019-09-22 |title=ICS Interview – Gnejs |url=https://chronatog.com/2019/09/ics-interview-gnejs/ |access-date=2022-10-16 |website=Chronatog |language=en-US}}</ref>