Introduction

Chess has its origins in the Muslim game of Shatranj, which derives from the Indian game of Chaturanga. It is also related to Xiangqi in China, to Janggi in Korea, and to Shogi in Japan. Besides these and various other historical and regional relatives, many other games have been inspired by or based on Chess and its relatives. All of these games are similar to Chess yet also different from it in various ways. Thanks to computers and the internet, it is now possible to play several of these Chess variants without physical boards and pieces. This website – The Chess Variant Pages – is here for cataloging, discussing, and playing the many games that are based on, related to, or similar enough to Chess.

House of Staunton Chess Variant Kits — House of Staunton
Chess Variant Kits

What's New?

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Last Game Courier move entered 23 minutes ago.
Last Game Courier open invitation made 2 DAYS ago.
Last Game Courier game finished 10 hours ago.
Last kibbitz comment entered 8 DAYS ago.
Last Chess Variant problem added 799 DAYS ago.
Last comment or rating entered 22 minutes ago.
Last game review entered 9 DAYS ago.

Week ending May 12, 2018

Tim's 3D Chess. On a 5x5x5 board with two kings per player. Author: Kevin Pacey. Inventor: Tim O'Lena.
Losing Chess. Updated to mention that white wins with optimal play, beginning 1.e3. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!) Author: Hans L. Bodlaender and Antoine Fourrière.
Simplified chess. Simple subset of the chess rules. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Michiel Tas.
Choiss. First place your squares, then your pawns, then your pieces, then move. Author: Ben M Reiniger. Inventor: Peter A. Victor.

Week ending May 05, 2018

GoshawkChess. Variant of Capablanca Chess with two Goshawks per side replacing the Archbishop and Chancellor. By James Zuercher.
LeaperChess. Variant of Capablanca Chess with two extra Knights per side replacing the Archbishop and Chancellor. By James Zuercher.
SliderChess. Variant of Capablanca Chess with two extra Bishops per side replacing the Archbishop and Chancellor. By James Zuercher.
PantherChess. Variant of Capablanca Chess with two Panthers per side replacing the Archbishop and Chancellor. By James Zuercher.

Week ending Apr 28, 2018

Palace Shogi. A complicated hybrid of Shogi, Xiang Qi, and Chess. By Silvia Hollinshead.
Granlem Shatranj. Added larger short-range variant with a 4-move/turn option. By Joe Joyce.
CHESSAGON. CHESSAGON® is like traditional Chess, but with Triangles, with one new additional piece named the Duke. By Kerry Langford.

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10 'Game' entries listed	1 'Play by mail item' entry listed
1 'Three dimensional' entry listed	3 'Large board' entries listed
1 'Three or more players' entry listed	2 'Unorthodox shaped board' entries listed
1 'Board with hexagonal shaped cells' entry listed	3 'In a category all its own' entries listed
2 'Sold commercially' entries listed	1 'Xiangqi, or Xiangqi-based' entry listed
1 'Shogi, or Shogi-based' entry listed

Total items listed: 11

Next: between 30 and 60 days old

Comments

Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Missing description

Kevin Pacey wrote on 2018-03-21 EDT

On the CVP Home Page, under What's New, the Game Courier (last) move made and (last) finished game are starting to show a negative number (indicated as for 'seconds') at the moment.

Fergus Duniho wrote on 2017-12-06 EST

We do not sell article space on this site. If your article is related to Chess variants in some way, and it is not simply an advertisement for some product or site, it may be added without change. See the Advertising page for further details on advertising.

anto desouza wrote on 2017-12-05 EST

Hey ,

I see website www.chessvariants.com and its impressive.I wonder if the content or banners advertising options available on your site ?

What will be the price if we would like to put an article on your site?

Cheers
anto desouza

Aurelian Florea wrote on 2017-11-05 EST

@ HG

I see!

H. G. Muller wrote on 2017-11-05 EST

Well, I don't know if there are enough engines to make this interesting. Of course the configurable engines Fairy-Max, Nebiyu and Sjaak II will be able to play it, but that only makes three. In addition, Alpaca Chess seems to be a version of Musketeer Chess, where you have to decide in advance where to introduce the piece. That add extra game state, which WinBoard/XBoard currently does not support. Playing a version of Seirawn Chess with an Alpaca (where you can gate at any back-rank square, rather than just a pre-determined one) would be possible, though.

Number of ratings: 29, Average rating: Good, Number of comments: 269