Check out Symmetric Chess, our featured variant for March, 2024.


[ Help | Earliest Comments | Latest Comments ]
[ List All Subjects of Discussion | Create New Subject of Discussion ]
[ List Earliest Comments Only For Pages | Games | Rated Pages | Rated Games | Subjects of Discussion ]

Game Reviews (and other rated comments on Game pages)

EarliestEarlier Reverse Order LaterLatest
Robber-Baron. Which of the seven robbers is the robber-baron? (7x7, Cells: 39) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Daniil Frolov wrote on Mon, Feb 24, 2020 12:56 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I have to comment it for having simple yet original rules, promising a good entertainment, perhaps even well commercially-sold.


Euchess. Grand chess variant on 10 by 10 board. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Anthony Viens wrote on Sun, Mar 1, 2020 02:52 AM UTC:Poor ★

In my opinion, this is not a very good Grand Chess variant.

Grand Chess is built upon two main ideas; getting rid of castling by freeing the Rooks in the back rank, and introducing the two 'missing' compounds to be additional high-value pieces--the Cardinal & Marshall.

Euchess moves the Rooks back and re-introduces castling, and then doubles the number of Cardinals & Marshalls--but, inconsistently, keeps one Queen.

Ignoring the lack of numerical consistency, this is really bad from a playable perspective--the sheer number of power pieces diminished the value of Knights & Bishops significantly.

Euchess is much too top-heavy, power wise, and significantly dimishes the point of the open back row. (Marshalls, with their Knight move, don't need the room to be developed.)

I think there is room for some interesting variants of Grand Chess, but this isn't one of them.


Rotary. On a 9 by 9 board with rotating pieces. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
KelvinFox wrote on Mon, Mar 2, 2020 12:54 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

Today played a game of Rotary with a set of pieces I made myself. It is a very nice game. The rotational element adds a nice layer of tactics. Only thing that feels weird is the promotion rule 


Deception Chess. Each piece has two identities, Cloak and concealed Base.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Anthony Viens wrote on Tue, Mar 3, 2020 03:07 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

This is a really good idea, the only problem being it really needs a custom Chess set.

I'm guessing it would require similar bluffing strategy like Stratego. I can see myself thinking "hummm, that faux Pawn can't be anything valuable, it's too exposed.... unless that's what he wants me to think....or, he could be counting on me to think that's what he wants me to think...."

:-)

This actually has a decent chance of commercial success, in my opinion. It's got 'wow' factor, but close enough to normal Chess to feel familiar.

Great idea.


Xhess. Decimal variant with Nightriders and Cannons. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Anthony Viens wrote on Thu, Mar 5, 2020 01:03 AM UTC:Average ★★★

This looks like a decent 10x10 variant; it has the basic Chess pieces--with more mobile Pawns-- and well-known Knightriders & XiangQi Cannons.

The King game-winning 'promotion' rule could liven up the endgames without totally changing the game.

However, I am confused as to the logic behind the apparently abitrary initial setup. The Rooks have an open rank (like Grand Chess) which is fine.  But the Horsemen (modified Pawns) are more mobile--but start very close to each other.  So close, in fact, they can't use their forward most moves initially without being captured.   Except the Horsemen on the far ends; they start one rank farther back for no discernable reason. 

The forward pawn lines leave a bunch of space to the rear; considering the vast area there aren't very many other pieces.

Also, the Knights are back a rank from the Horsemen, consequently they cannot move forward as the first move. They are protecting Horsemen, but it seems like there ought to be another way to do this.

Xhess is quite playable, but I'm left with the impression the starting setup could use an overhaul.


Elevator. Three-dimensional chess variant with moving elevators and walking, vaulting and flying pieces. (4x(8x8), Cells: 192) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Anthony Viens wrote on Wed, Mar 11, 2020 03:14 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

Very good, well-thought out game, with pieces which compliment the board--some require elevator movement, some use the empty shafts, and the ox can use them to capture. Nicely done.

I will say the rules allowing the flying pieces to go 'up, through an elevator trapdoor' feel very unintuitive; especially if playing with a physical set. It makes more sense to me to allow flying pieces to go either up or down through the empty shafts only; this would also make it impossible to threaten an identical piece without also being in danger.

Still, a very good variant!


Wizard's War. Game with piece-creating Wizards and a board divided into arena and enchanted sections. (10x10, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Anthony Viens wrote on Thu, Mar 26, 2020 02:29 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

Well hey, apparently I never commented on this!

I quite like it! The interplay between needing pieces on the arena/safer on the enchanted squares is quite unusual.

Creating your own army is fun, and ensures no game start will be quite the same.

This is a very cohesive & well thought out variant.


Sac Chess. Game with 60 pieces. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Sun, Apr 5, 2020 01:35 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I can't believe this game hasn't been reviewed yet. This is the best game I've played that includes an Amazon. I normally leave the Amazon out of my games, because it has the power to force checkmate by itself, and that has the potential to wreak a game. However, that hasn't been a problem with this game. This game includes several other weaker compound pieces that help make it unsafe to move the Amazons out too early. To get to the point where you could use an Amazon to force checkmate against a King, you have to do lots of maneuvering of other pieces. Furthermore, the potential of the Amazon getting a bead on the King means that position is sometimes more important than material advantage. You can't count on winning just because you are ahead materially. If you find that you can't stop your opponent's Amazon, you may lose even if you're materially ahead. This makes the game more dynamic and exciting.


Spartan Chess. A game with unequal armies. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Cannon wrote on Wed, Apr 8, 2020 02:10 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I don't usually like games with different armies, but this is an exception. You've put a lot of thought into making a game whose different armies are not unevenly matched. For sure, the Spartan side lacks a Queen and its army appears to be slightly less powerful, but that is compensated for by the presence of two kings, both of which must be checkmated/captured. 


Sho Shogi. Historic predecessor of shogi. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jean-Louis Cazaux wrote on Mon, Apr 13, 2020 09:36 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Very good information! What is not clear for me at the moment if that Asakura shogi is a reconstruction of a possible step in the evolution of shogi, or if that form of game is really asserted and supported by historical proofs. I may ask a specialist that   I know. Thank you again.


Metamachy. Large game with a variety of regular fairy pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Jean-Louis Cazaux wrote on Wed, Apr 15, 2020 09:34 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

Thanks a lot. I didn't know about Lioness, very good.


Bishops Chess. Chess with two light-squared and two dark-squared Bishops on each side.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Thu, Apr 23, 2020 09:58 PM UTC:Average ★★★

I think this game is OK, but I do not care for the promotion rules.  The game does not have a queen, so promotion to queen would already be the strongest piece.  The amazon seems excessive and most games that feature that piece are not very good IMO.  The amazon attacks in 16 directions while the next strongest piece - the rook - only attacks four.


Zanzibar-XL. Further step after Metamachy. 80 pieces of 19 different pieces, with historical lineage.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Apr 25, 2020 11:19 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

Pieces are never attacking friendly pieces or I miss something

That is the answer to my question. So if a virgin King is on h1, a black Bishop on h2, and a black Knight on g4, the King can move to h3. If his own Bishop was on h2 instead, he could not.

Some people would say pieces can attack the square a friendly piece is on. They obviously cannot capture it, but that doesn't necessarily mean the same thing as being attacked. E.g. when my King stands next to an enemy Pawn that is protected, does he attack that Pawn?

Personally this rule strikes me as quite illogical; to pass through a square it should be empty, and if you don't pass through it but jump over it, you shouldn't have to worry if you are attacked there. And I wonder how much this rule actually affects the game; it seems very hard to attack any squares next to the enemy King before he moves away to safety, as he starts buried behind 2 or 3 ranks of pieces. Especially if he can jump.

In general I like your variants a lot, because you do not only feature super-strong pieces (much stronger that Rook), but also Knight-class pieces. Most variants suffer from an over-abudance of Queen-class pieces. The middle of the strength spectrum is still a bit under-populated, though: almost none of the pieces is close to a Rook in value.


💡📝Jean-Louis Cazaux wrote on Mon, May 11, 2020 11:22 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Thank you very much. I have been able to upload all diagrams and the process was very lean. 

Yesterday, it was my mistake for the size limit. Instead of uploading the jpg diagrams I have made for my own website, I uploaded instead the source images coming from the board painting tool, which are much heavier. Thank you for your help.


Chess+. Players choose when and where to place their pieces behind the pawns.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Cannon wrote on Wed, May 27, 2020 05:52 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Great idea. I have always loved Fischerrandom Chess, but I really don't like the way it gives players no control over where their pieces start. I also consider Fischer's castling rule to be cludgy and it's hard to believe that a man of his genius came up with that. Your project fixes those shortcomings. 

One tweak I'd make if it were up to me is to require both players to enter ALL their pieces before making any other moves. White would enter a piece, followed by black, and they'd take it in turns to enter pieces, one at a time, until the first and eighth ranks were full. Of course, Bishops must be required to be on different coloured squares. 


Brouhaha. Like Chess, but it really brings the ruckus! (8x8, Cells: 72) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jean-Louis Cazaux wrote on Wed, Jul 1, 2020 08:34 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

I have 2 questions about the brouhaha squares:

1) What is the advantage of allowing a capture on a brouhaha square? Spontaneously, I find this strange: I understood that such a square hosts a piece until it is activated and enter into play, then the square disapears. Then, this square is not part of the play area really. So, I wouldn't have allowed a capture on it at all. Maybe there is something I don't see.

2) Why this name of "brouhaha" square? At least in French a brouhaha is a surrounding noise. Those squares are more like a fog, brouillard in French. Brouhaha/brouillard, is there a linguistic confusion there? 


Shatranj Kamil (64). Modern Shatranj based variant on 8 by 8 board with new pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Sun, Jul 12, 2020 12:06 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I've made several updates to this page. The HTML had a number of issues, (unclosed tags and the like), although they mostly weren't obvious to readers. I also reformatted it to better resemble our typical game descriptions and edited the text to be clearer. The Computer Play and Equipment sections have also been updated to reflect what is (and is not) currently available.

I will try to post a more in-depth review when I have some time to write one, but for now, suffice it to say this game plays very well and I do not hesitate to rate it Excellent.


Victorian Chess. Capablanca variant with the most powerful pieces starting on the outside. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
📝Greg Strong wrote on Mon, Jul 13, 2020 04:42 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

I updated this page heavily...

  • Added graphic of setup (was just ASCII)
  • Updated intro to provide detail about chronology of invention
  • Changed format to be more consistent with other game description pages
  • Added information about Game Courier play/computer play
  • Added interactive diagram

Diagonal Chess. Board turned 45 degrees. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Brian Wagner wrote on Wed, Sep 23, 2020 03:39 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Very similar to Wagner Chess: https://github.com/brianthetall/wagnerChess


Shako_Balbo. Game with Diamond Shape Board.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Sep 25, 2020 09:13 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

This is an excellent chess variant, and is one of my favorites. I think it plays better than either of the games from which it is derived. The starting position is carefully considered, allowing a wide variety of different openings.

The rook should still be worth slightly more than the bishop on this board but it is very close. I performed the mobility calculation. With a 30% board occcupancy, the rook's average mobility is 9.8 whereas the bishop's is 9.2. And the mobility of the rook increases faster than that of the bishop as the board clears out.


Haynie's high power fairy chess 64. With orthodox chess set but different stronger movements for most pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Oct 9, 2020 01:20 AM UTC:Poor ★

The design of this game makes no sense to me. The Rook is upgraded to a Dragon King. The Knight is upgraded all the way to an Amazon. The Queen is upgraded to the most powerful piece I have ever heard of. But the poor Bishop is downgraded to a Wazir - a piece that moves only one step horizontally or vertically. One problem is that the board has so much power that it will be a tactical smash-fest. Another problem is that the Wazirs will never move. I cannot imagine any circumstance in which a player would waste a move on them, except possibly to get them out of the way to allow castling, and probably not even then. With all the nightriders, castling will likely be impossible anyway.


Royal Court. On 8 by 10 board with crowned knights: can move like king or knight. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Kevin Pacey wrote on Sun, Oct 11, 2020 03:00 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

I once had a CV of my invention (Wide Chess) gently criticized for my adding to the standard chess army of each side (on a 12x8 board) 4 pawns, plus two pairs of leapers that were somewhat similar to each other, in that they both had an alfil movement as part of their powers. Namely, it was thought said leapers weren't divergent enough from each other.

In the case of (10x8) Royal Court, a pair of leapers plus 2 pawns is added to the army of each side. The leapers have the same movement powers as knights, plus they can also move like a man (often called the Centaur compound). So, I can see how this addition of leapers to the standard chess army might be gently criticized, too (at least they are very powerful leapers, which might relieve any perception of slight redundancy).

Recently I had a couple of ideas of my own about adding pair(s) of fairly knight-like minor pieces to the FIDE army, although I may have rejected these ideas too quickly, partly due to the previous critique (of my Wide Chess). Namely the ideas involved adding either a pair of fibnifs and/or a pair of horse(mao)-wazir compound pieces (depending on the board size I would use). Besides Wide Chess not yet proving popular on Game Courier, I'd add another inhibition I have is that I've seen very few examples on this website of the FIDE army plus pair(s) of pieces added to them, where the pair(s) were not strikingly divergent in some way from other piece type(s) used in the chosen armies. Indeed, Wide Chess and Royal Court are more or less the only counter-examples I've noticed.

https://www.chessvariants.com/piececlopedia.dir/fibnif.html

https://www.chessvariants.com/piececlopedia.dir/mao.html


Flying Chess. Some pieces can fly. (2x(8x8), Cells: 128) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Matthew Mowbray wrote on Thu, Nov 5, 2020 03:02 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

This is a fantastic game and one that I regularly enjoy playing both with friends or on my own. When playing on my own I change clothes after each move, speak in a different accent and have a different personality/backstory to give the appearance of separate players. Anyway I digress, a fantastic game, enjoy.


Renaissance chess. a game played with the same board and set but with different rules. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
chessboards wrote on Sat, Nov 14, 2020 06:15 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

very interesting have noticed this when i was collating material on renaissance chess some time ago , didn't realise there's an actual different version of chess, thank you for the page Renaissance Chess


4 Kings Quasi-Shatranj. Each side has 4 Kings, all pieces are short range. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Erik Lerouge wrote on Sun, Dec 13, 2020 10:49 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

I like very much short-ranges games, even with not very strong pieces, and this game falls into this category. Here the piece set (only of max 2-square range) is logical and works well, and the presence of 4 Kings, of which one must be checkmated (with the consequence of a unstoppable fork on several Kings being a checkmate), is here to help the outcome of the game. However, even with the 4 Kings, the game seems to take a very long time to finish; the two games in this website that had been led to a conclusion took 85 and (for the game that ended with checkmate) more than 110 turns, which seems too much for a game of that type. And I am a little bit sceptical concerning the mating potential: when most pieces have been exchanged, the four Kings can more easily prevent the Pawns to promote.

One solution would have been stronger 2-square range pieces, in a game closer to a short-range version of Sac Chess, with a KNAD being the strongest piece (or at least Centaurs, or KADs). The presence of the KNAD, able to force checkmate without assistance, would obviously make the game faster and more decisive, but in the same time maybe less balanced and tactically interesting. (In Metamachy, the power of the KNAD/Lion is well balanced by powerful long-range pieces.) And I wouldn’t suggest a change in the piece set of this game; it works well as it is, and a like it.

Another idea is making a game with 2 moves per turn. With the same pieces and victory condition, not only this would make the game shorter, but also the attacks more dangerous and less easy to counter (and the possibility of double check with two pieces). This solution seems to me more interesting, while keeping the character and the concept of the game, than to have stronger pieces.


Shatranj of Troy. A Shatranj variant with Shogi-like drops, a Trojan Horse (with 6 pieces inside),. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Daniel Zacharias wrote on Tue, Dec 22, 2020 02:30 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

This looks like an amazing game! It combines shogi drops with a beautifully simple setup and set of pieces.

Reading the rules makes me want to play it; and also to design something similar, but it seems impossible to make anything quite as elegant as this.


Metamachy. Large game with a variety of regular fairy pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Daniel Zacharias wrote on Tue, Dec 29, 2020 10:29 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Metamachy is fun. The historical pieces are all interesting to play with, and the fast pawns keep the game from slowing down too much.


Showdown Chess. No draws permitted. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Benjamin Silversten wrote on Sat, Jan 2, 2021 01:17 AM UTC:Poor ★

Really? Insufficient material? What if the opponent has insufficient material?


Horseman's Chess. Game where pieces mount and dismount.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Daniel Zacharias wrote on Wed, Jan 6, 2021 07:48 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

This looks fun


Apothecary Chess-Classic. Large board variant obtained through tinkering with known games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Daniel Zacharias wrote on Tue, Jan 12, 2021 04:51 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

This is a very good game. Everything fits together well. The random setup provides variety without being completely chaotic. The brouhaha squares are a great way to add more pieces without making the board so big it feels empty. The promotion rule encourages more variety in promotion, which is something I look for particularly; and I like the auxiliary pieces used here. The Mameluk especially is fun.

I think I might slightly prefer the Modern Apothecary game, for it's Dragon and Griffin, which to me are more interesting than the Chancellor and Archbishop, but I like the Siege Elephant and Mameluk as auxiliaries, so it's hard to choose one game over the other. I don't know if I'd agree with the statement that the Joker can't defend well. It seems to me that it's ability to mimic an attacker's move makes it particularly good at defending and more difficult to use aggressively. I'm not great at chess (in any form), though, so I could be wrong about that.

I'm interested to see what the next games in this series will be like!


Thinktank Chess. Frank Maus' game where most pieces move differently when capturing from how they move without capturing.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jean-Louis Cazaux wrote on Sun, Jan 24, 2021 08:02 PM UTC:Poor ★

The table in the center of this page has several mistakes in the description column


Masonic Chess. Game played on a Masonic tile board.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Spencer Reed wrote on Mon, Feb 1, 2021 01:38 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
I dig this board. I tried writing a Zillions of Games .zrt for Masonic Chess last night.  I think it's about finished, but I can't seem to get through debugging to try it out.  Anyone here still messing with Zillions .zrt files?

CHESSAGON. CHESSAGON® is like traditional Chess, but with Triangles, with one new additional piece named the Duke.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Cannon wrote on Tue, Feb 9, 2021 04:57 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I'm pleased to see this game! One correction : it is a trigonal, not hexaxonal, chess variant. The cells are triangles, not hexagons.

That said, I think this is an excellent contribution to the much under-explored trigonal tiling. Apart from a couple of games contributed by Graeme Neatham and Christian Freeling, along with a couple of my own, I think this is a little-used tiling which has lots of interesting possibilities for play.


Darkness Chess. You have only limited information on where your opponents pieces are. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Long Term Future wrote on Mon, Feb 22, 2021 06:50 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Here's an animation of the game:

First game of dark chess ever played

https://lichess.org/study/WjUgZzpG

I like black's idea on the final move (Rh2! hoping to provoke Kg1), however white called the bluff.


Tiraspol chess. Variant in which pieces capture as the piece whose starting file they're in.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jörg Knappen wrote on Sun, Mar 7, 2021 08:30 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

An interesting and very playable game. The figures are divergent pieces moving as the nominal piece and capturing as Querquisites.


Congo. Animals fight on 7 by 7 board. (7x7, Cells: 49) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Sam T wrote on Mon, Mar 15, 2021 10:19 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I have, as per Freeling’s comment, made a number of variants to Congo to address the issues brought up:

  • To address the fact Congo looks drawish, I have adopted the “Ko Rule” in my variant: Someone who repeats a previous position in a game loses. This eliminates draws.
  • To address the issue with river drownings making attacks harder, I have made the A, B, F, and G files of the rivers have “islands”: While the crocodile can move like normal on these squares, other pieces will not drown.
  • I have made the pawns stronger: A pawn can not retreat until it is promoted on the 7th rank; on the other hand, pawns across the river can now move and capture sideways. A promoted pawn is more powerful: It can move or capture to any space one or two squares away (like Chess, a promoted pawn should win unless it can be recaptured quickly)
  • I have made the elephants able to move forward like a Shogi Lance. They can also only move backwards one square.
  • I have changed the opening setup from GMELECZ to ZCELECZ, removing the Monkey and Giraffe, and having a second Zebra (Knight) and Crocodile. This way, the game can be played with an ordinary chess board and pieces.

In my Zillions-vs-Zillions testing, the games are never draws, and Black wins more often once we give Zillions 30 or more seconds to think through a move.

My changes can be seen here: https://github.com/samboy/ChessVariantResearch

Look in the folder “Congo”. Full rules for this variant, along with multiple possible opening setups, is here:

https://github.com/samboy/ChessVariantResearch/blob/master/Congo/EBW-1.md

Out of respect for the copyright included with the Zillions implementation of Congo, I am not distributing a modified version of the Congo zrf. Instead, I am distributing the original version, along with a Linux/Cygwin script to change Congo to have another .zrf with the modified rules. I have also made from scratch board artwork representing the new river with islands.

(Admin: This is Sam Trenholme. If you have a chance, please update my email address to be “pbm” in the domain “samiam.org” so I can reset my password).


Quadlevel 3D Chess. Four level 3d chess. (4x(4x8), Cells: 128) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
robert koernke wrote on Thu, Mar 18, 2021 08:17 PM UTC in reply to Charles Gilman from Sun Feb 16 2003 11:30 AM:Excellent ★★★★★

You only need to checkmate/fork one King. In the standard-Rules version. Game play tends to be the same length as regular-chess.

Its one of the least complicated 3D-Games. Simply set-up 2-sets of chess-men.

The hardest part to explain is why its frowned upon to go on side-ways diagonals (in 3D) or that knights should not go in L-shapes without advancing or retreating from the opponent. I say frowned-upon, because of course you can change to non-standard rules. But you may find the game much longer, and knights to be as powerful as queens. Stalemates to be more attainable...


Chess with Mixed Pawns. Four normal and four Berolina pawns per player. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Stephen Tavener wrote on Wed, Mar 24, 2021 08:44 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

Fun idea! Might I suggest the name ChiMPs?


Grande Acedrex. A large variant from 13th century Europe. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Daniel Zacharias wrote on Mon, Jun 14, 2021 12:56 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I wish this game were more popular. It seems like an excellent design. The piece selection seems strange at first but after thinking about it I can see the beauty of it.

I imagine the aanca could have originated as an enhanced ferz, to go with the bigger board. Then the knights could have become unicorns by gaining a diagonal slide after their leap to complement the aanca. The crocodile is a fairly obvious addition. The giraffe and Lion both make knight-like leaps, suitable for the large board, and the Lion includes and extra 3,0 leap which removes it's color binding and forms a nice looking pattern.

The result of all that is eight pieces with a nice range of power and an aesthetically consistent set of moves. There are all of the 2,1 3,1 and 3,2 leaping moves, the rook and bishop moves, and bent rook and bishop moves (unicorn and aanca). The leaping pieces are differentiated in power by some of them having additional movements, but they don't ever feel like arbitrary combinations.

The initial setup is also elegant. The Pawns start as far apart as they do on the 8x8 board, and the pieces are all on the back rank. The promotion rule fits well with this setup and is another great innovation.

I think the main weak points, if there are any, would be the pawns and the king's leap. It seems unlikely that the king would benefit much from a 2 square leap on such a big board with so much empty space; and perhaps modern pawns would be better. But overall this variant appears to be carefully designed.


Palace. 7x7 board with a 3x3 Palace at the centre, where King promotes to Queen.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Simon Jepps wrote on Fri, Jul 2, 2021 02:08 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I like this, it brings out a rural realm to the game. Well done!


Yangsi. A very playable chess variant with 12 different pieces on a 10x10 board.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Eric Silverman wrote on Fri, Jul 2, 2021 11:41 AM UTC in reply to A. M. DeWitt from Fri Jan 11 2019 10:54 PM:Excellent ★★★★★

Having implemented this variant in Ai Ai and having played it a bunch of times, I really enjoy this game. Being a large Shogi fanatic, the higher piece density of Yangsi doesn't bother me in the slightest :)

For me this game is an improvement on something like Sac Chess, as the pieces in Yangsi are more interesting to use. In fact I was inspired by this game to make what I called 'Heavy Shako', an extension of Shako that fills in all the gaps in the back rank with other pieces used in the larger variants by Jean-Louis Cazaux. The original concept was much improved by some excellent advice from Jean-Louis, and the resulting game has been a lot of fun.

I'd enjoy seeing an extension of Yangsi to 12x12 with a high-density setup, too.


Maasai Chess. Large CV with 48 pieces per side, of 20 types including both regular and rapid Pawns.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Eric Silverman wrote on Wed, Jul 7, 2021 02:03 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I have played this game extensively in the Ai Ai software package since adding it, and I feel it may be the best iteration so far of Jean-Louis Cazaux's series of 12x12 variants. The piece density and variety generate very interesting interactions on the board. The various Pawn- and Pawn-like pieces in the 3rd/4th ranks create a nice sense of progression, leading the board to gradually open up and allow more powerful pieces to enter the fray.

In a sense, the game reminds me slightly of a Chess equivalent to Dai Dai Shogi, which has a long opening phase that gradually expands into a delightfully complex middlegame. As a fanatic for large Shogi I consider this a plus :)

In any case, I highly recommend this game for fans of larger variants. In the future I hope Maasai might generate some similar developments of Gigachess and Terachess as well. I have experimented a bit myself with adding the two ranks of mixed Pawns to those games and the results were quite enjoyable.


Pandemonium (Surajang修羅場). Capablanca chess + Crazyhouse.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Michael Nelson wrote on Sat, Jul 24, 2021 03:55 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

A very well thought and pleasing out blend of a Capablanca's Chess and Shogi. I am curious about the rule against having identical promoted pieces other than promoted Pawns. I consider it a small wart on a otherwise perfect design.


The Starbound Sliders. A Chess With Different Armies team featuring rook-inspired sliders.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Simon Jepps wrote on Fri, Aug 13, 2021 02:12 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I like the Stars, they present a naturally digestible identity, in keeping with the elementary makeup of Classical pieces. I would have invented a more relatable name for them, perhaps 'Sheriffs' or, something you know, that has a real life character, but nevertheless I praise you for their design.

Nice work.


Hex Shogi 91. A hexagonal Shogi variant on a 91-space board. (Cells: 91) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Daniel Zacharias wrote on Wed, Aug 18, 2021 12:03 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I've only played this once, but it feels right somehow. The hexagonal board, oriented horizontally like this, gives a distinct chess experience that square boards generally lack. It feels more natural than square shogi to me.


Dou Shou Qi: The Battle of Animals - The Jungle Game. Simulated conflict between animal kingdoms. (7x9, Cells: 63) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
📝Jean-Louis Cazaux wrote on Fri, Aug 20, 2021 07:23 PM UTC:Poor ★

I came on this page by accident. After so many years, the name of this game is still wrong. It is Doushouqi, not Shou Dou Qi at all. And the comment about jaguar for leopard is absolutely right. The solution to avoid a L is to call this piece a Panther, panther or leopard is the same animal.


ChessXp. 10x10 Chess, strictly derived from the 8x8 architecture.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Andrew L Smith wrote on Mon, Aug 23, 2021 10:05 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

This seems like a nice variant. I especially like the 32221111Q movement of the pawns. The falcons/bison are also fun to play with, their long leaps make for nice tactics.

Pretty much the only thing I'd change is that castling leaves the King too close to the middle. Instead, I would make it so that castling results in the King and the Rook swapping places (White king can go to b1 or i1, black king can go to b10 or i10; rook always goes to the f file) as this gets the King 1 space away from the corner. This would also fix one of the gripes I have with regular chess: queenside castling is usually terrible. Opposite side castling often leads to fun games, so making it happen more often seems like it would be desirable. Also, it would allow players to castle by moving the Rook first, as the ambiguity between O-O and Rg1 is removed.


Two Move Chess. Designed to alleviate the first move advantage for White using double moves, while retaining the tactics of international chess.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Aug 27, 2021 12:23 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

This is an interesting and logical approach to tackling how to have a double-move variant addresses pesky rules like check and en passant.  They always require special-case rules to address, and how it is addressed here "feels" right to me.  Marseillais Chess handles the check thing fine, but falls down on how en passant is handled.  You seem to have neatly solved that, too.  I also like how you are limited to one capture per move and cannot move the same piece twice.  This also helps to preserve the strategical similarity to orthodox chess. I guess Marseillais is more of a "let's make double moves and we'll end up with an interesting but totally different game."  Originally, it wasn't even "balanced" (white started with two moves.)  This is an ambitious attempt to add the property of double moves games being "balanced" while changing as little else about the game as possible.

Extra Move Chess also provides similar benefits.  You can make a second move, but don't have to, as long as it doesn't capture or move a piece that just moved.  If you make a second move, it can be a two-space pawn move (which a first move can't, except for white's first move of the game.)  This also neatly solves check and en passant.

I'd like to add this to ChessV.  I think it's doable but I need to think some things through.  The thing I see that most concerns me is this:

Each position created by a two move turn is included in the count toward a draw by threefold repetition, or toward a draw by the Fifty move rule (or the Seventy-five move rule)

If I understand this, it would be difficult to implement and doesn't make a lot of sense to me.  Are you saying that any move in a single move turn or responsive move turn should not count towards the 50-move rule, nor should they be counted toward any potential repetition?


Beautiful Beasts. A new team for Chess with Different Armies based on the Roc.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Andrew L Smith wrote on Sat, Aug 28, 2021 01:16 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

This is a great concept for an army! I like how the Vouivre encourages tactical play with its forking capabilities and ability to do nasty smothered mates, while the Geese are more focused on strategic pawn play in the endgame; similar to how the tactical Knights and the strategic Rooks provide a variety of viable playstyles in the Fabulous FIDEs.

In your opening line, 2.Vg5 doesn't work because of Qxg5.

PS: If you're willing to upload this army to ChessCraft, I'd be happy to playtest them alongside my own Starbound Sliders.

Edit: Upon closer inspection, this army is actually very weak.

  • Ouroboros: 2x5pts Although the Ouroboros is about Rook strength, it's the only one that's as strong as its claimed to be.
  • Roc: 2x3pts+0.5pts colorbound pair bonus The Roc is colorbound and has limited range, making it weak and finnicky even by minor piece standards. Complicated maneuvres are less viable when the board is full of pawns, which further highlights the Roc's difficulty in movement. It is definitely not as strong as a Rook, though its ability to reach 12 squares means it may be slightly stronger than a Knight.
  • Flying Goose: 2x1.5pts The Flying Goose has very little value, and also gives the Beautiful Beasts the very annoying trait that they can't castle without moving one of the three Pawns that will be in front of the King (unless they castle queenside and mave the a pawn). Granted, the Flying Goose is little more than a slightly stronger pawn anyway, but still.
  • Vouvire: 9pts The Vouvire is reasonably strong for a Queen equivalent and it's great for tactical play, the problem is that there's nothing to play tactically against. Knights are fun to use because they're the weakest piece in the army (so when they fork something, you're in business!) while the Vouvire is the strongest piece so it can't fork anything that's protected. Also, it can't go to any of the 8 adjacent squares, which makes maneuvering on a crowded board surprisingly difficult.
  • Total: 28.5pts CwDA armies typically range from 31.5 (Fabulous FIDEs) to 33.5 (Nutty Knights) with more complicated armies needing more value.

Bear Chess. A popular Russian game; bears leap to second perimeter.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Kevin Pacey wrote on Fri, Oct 22, 2021 03:10 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

This appears to be a fine variant, in spite of the 2 unprotected pawns per side in the setup (that kind of helps make up for the 6 ranks distance between the initial pawn ranks, actually).

@ Greg:

Hi. One player mentioned to me that this preset doesn't seem to work perfectly. Namely only two-square K move to castle either side (i.e. not three-square K move to the queenside) has been allowed by it. Also, capturing by en passant isn't always allowed, I guess meaning if a 3-step pawn move is made by the opponent. Has this preset been tested for either of those possible problems? If not, please fix if you can, at your leisure.

K


Grand Riders Chess. Members-Only Chess with cross over between Cavalier Chess and Shogun Chess and use the normal riders.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.

Musketeer Chess. Adding 2 newly designed extra pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jean-Louis Cazaux wrote on Wed, Nov 3, 2021 11:30 PM UTC:Poor ★

The quality of the page has not been improved in more than one year. If everyone is happy with that, fine.


Simple Mideast Chess. Members-Only Game with simple rules, no promotion, no nonstandard move or capture, no asymetric pieces, and no check, checkmate or stalemate.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.

Opulent Chess. A derivative of Grand Chess with additional jumping pieces (Lion and Wizard). (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Eric Silverman wrote on Mon, Nov 22, 2021 04:48 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I've played the heck out of this via Ai Ai, and I absolutely adore this game. I prefer the greater piece density and the more interesting piece mix here to those of Grand Chess. The resulting play is interesting and nuanced both tactically and strategically. In my opinion Opulent Chess is one of the finest 10x10 variants.

My one complaint is the presence of Pawn promotion by replacement, but that's not particular to this game, I just dislike it everywhere. Promoting stuff is fun and interesting, so I prefer just being able to promote to any piece without restriction. After all I'm a Shogi player, and what can I say, we like promoting stuff! I also dislike some of the weird effects the rule can produce in rare circumstances, but that's more of an aesthetic objection. I do like the extended promotion zone though.

On the whole, a delightful game. Strongly recommended to anyone with an interest in decimal variants.


Terachess II. An unrealistic summit on a very large board of 16x16 squares and 128 pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Eric Silverman wrote on Sat, Nov 27, 2021 09:08 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I've been playing a lot of this game recently (via Ai Ai), partly for my own enjoyment and partly as inspiration for my own 16x16 experiments. There are relatively few modern Chess variants played on 16x16, and for me, this game is the best example thus far.

The variety of pieces presented here is at first intimidating, but one soon realises there is a logic to everything presented here, and shortly thereafter you'll find the piece movements become natural. The balance of the initial position is excellent, with every piece finding its way into the fight without too much awkward development. Games are long -- against AI at 2 minutes/move my games take at least 400 plies, with my longest so far at 695 -- but as a large Shogi variant fanatic this doesn't bother me at all. Throughout those long games one will find drama, excitement, and plentiful opportunities for subtlety and subterfuge.

If I were very picky, I might say that I'd like to see the Rook + Camel/Bishop + Camel compounds in here, which I find really fun on a large board. Also the basic leapers -- Camel, Giraffe, Knight -- feel less impactful in a game this size. Having said that, everything works well together, and I enjoy this game tremendously.


Capablanca Random Chess. Randomized setup for Capablanca chess. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Thomas wrote on Thu, Dec 2, 2021 06:04 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

But why the limitation to set up queen and archbishop on different coloured squares, when they can change the square colour by moving like rook resp. knight?


Kriegspiel. With help of a referee, two players move without knowing the moves of the opponent. (3x(8x8), Cells: 192) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
chesspro24 chesspro wrote on Fri, Dec 10, 2021 03:40 AM UTC:Poor ★
What If They Castle Do they Tell you?

Jupiter (Revised). Missing description (16x16, Cells: 256) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Ruei Ching Hong wrote on Fri, Dec 31, 2021 01:57 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
Is there any .ZRF file for this game?

Baseball Chess. Missing description (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Baseball Chess Baseball Chess Set wrote on Tue, Feb 8, 2022 11:43 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
great article , this is definitely one of the best for young chess players to read and learn strategy.  If you intend on writing more similar content on this site be sure to check out our page with more inspiration for future posts

Hero and Superhero Chess. The King's Pawn is replaced by a Hero (moves like any other piece on your side on the board) or a Superhero (improved Hero). (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Baseball Chess Baseball Chess Set wrote on Wed, Feb 9, 2022 03:34 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

great article, this is definitely one of the easiest strategies for young chess players to skim through and learn. Might also interest for more Superhero Chess Sets see this page [spam url deleted].


Dou Shou Qi: The Battle of Animals - The Jungle Game. Simulated conflict between animal kingdoms. (7x9, Cells: 63) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Anon wrote on Wed, Mar 23, 2022 11:43 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

The Wolf is ranked higher (stronger) than the Dog.

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/鬥獸棋

象>獅>虎>豹>狼>狗>貓>鼠

Elephant > Lion > Tiger > Leopard (Panther) > Wolf > Dog > Cat > Rat

I played this since childhood. This is the proper ranking of the animals.

The confusion about Dog > Wolf happened because on some of the cheap chess pieces, the wood carving of the Dog and the Wolf are almost identical.


Very Heavy Chess. A lot of firepower with all compounds of classical chess pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Kevin Pacey wrote on Tue, May 17, 2022 11:07 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

The Heroine and Popess piece types in this variant arguably (nicely) complete the combination of compound pieces I used in my own (earlier) 10x10 Sac Chess variant.

On the topic of piece names, I've noticed that in some languages the name for a chess rook translates to ship (or to boat, also). Thus 'Admiral' (or my choice of 'Sailor', in Sac Chess) gets bonus points as a choice of name, perhaps (for the piece type in question, a promoted rook in shogi), i.e. a person who uses a watercraft's power.

Maybe there's a slightly related argument that a real-life knight, in the past, is a person who uses a horse (arguably knight is a more elevated title than horseman, which would also work).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rook_(chess)#Name_translations


ArchMage Chess. 10x10 30v30 Fantasy Chess. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Samuel Trenholme wrote on Thu, May 19, 2022 04:17 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

I think one thing the author may do until when and if this variant gets formally published here is to make a Zillions of Games implementation of it, then send an email to Ed van Zon to get the implementation published. There can be a long delay before a submission and its publication here, but Ed’s pretty good about publishing a submission within a week of its submission.

The hard part is taking all these rules and converting them in to Zillions’ quirky language. I enjoy doing it myself; it converts rules in to unambiguous machine-readable rules, and it allows people to play the variant themselves.

I would also change the name of the summoned pieces in to something like, oh, Dragon Horse and Dragon King, the Anglicized form of these pieces’ names in Shogi. I like the summoning tactic, but it’s an open question whether having it makes the White advantage overwhelming. People seem to enjoy Crazyhouse a lot over at Lichess, so I think this summoning mechanic can be very usable.

(I should also point out that Betza called what is the Jester here the “Waffle”)


Archchess. Large chess variant from 17th century Italy. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Parker KH wrote on Sun, May 22, 2022 05:05 PM UTC in reply to Daniel Zacharias from Fri Nov 27 2020 09:04 PM:Good ★★★★

i think so


The Game of Nemoroth. For the sake of your sanity, do not read this variant! (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Azgoroth wrote on Thu, May 26, 2022 02:28 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Just over twenty years after the initial publication of this page, the first ever computer implementation of Nemoroth is live, complete with a basic alpha-beta pruning AI. You can play in your browser at this link: https://azgoroth.itch.io/nemoroth

The only thing I haven't implemented is the Go Away push order, which I've been putting off due to how laborious the UI considerations are. As a placeholder, Go Away pushes are clockwise from top.

I originally wrote this implementation in TypeScript, but the AI was too slow and I ported it over to C++ using WebAssembly. I plan on open sourcing it eventually once I have more opportunities to clean up the code. This is one of the most difficult software projects I have ever worked on; I have known about Nemoroth since around 2013 but was not a strong enough of a programmer to pull it off until now.

I found a number of ambiguities in these rules, which I have tried my best to address reasonably on the linked page. Some have been covered in this comments section, some not (for example, if a Wounded Fiend leaves an already ichorated square, does the ichor stack to 11+ plies or max out at 10?).

The AI is surprisingly dangerous. It mobilizes the Ghast immediately and WILL advance it to d4/d5 if you let it, usually costing you the game. I have managed to beat it a few times, but it's tough as nails for how crude the programming is. Beware!

Ralph, if you're out there, thanks for this amazing variant. I tried to email you to get permission to make this but alas, I never heard back.


H. G. Muller wrote on Tue, Jun 7, 2022 07:11 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from Thu May 26 09:33 AM:Excellent ★★★★★

Some Nemoroth pieces are 'color blind': they capture or otherwise affect friendly and enemy pieces in exactly the same way. The only effect of their allegeance is then which player is allowed to move them. But when they are petrified neither player can move them, and in effect they become neutral. An alabaster and an obsidian Leaf Pile are really the same piece, from a game-theoretical point of view, and that also holds for petrified Wounded Fiends. Likewise petrified Go Aways are all the same. And since they lose their special power on petrification, they are also the same as a Mummy. And they only differ from petrified Humans when we adopt the rule that petrified Humans promote to Zombie when pushed to last rank. Which would also make it necessary to distinguish petrified Humans by color.

Petrified Basilisks remember their allegeance because of the Basilisk's asymmetric move, which is preserved in the way it sees. Ghasts have a more severe effect on foes as on friends.


Marseillais Chess. Move twice per turn. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Vighnesh Jadhav wrote on Sat, Jul 16, 2022 02:43 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Marsellais chess has a rule where each player moves 2 pieces in the same turn. Castling is considered a single move. All other castling rules apply.

Mirodoly. Members-Only Piececlopedia: Mirodoly. Some theoretical principles of the analysis of pieces, both for classical chess and for modern chess.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.

Empress Chess. Members-Only Help your Empress win her battle. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.

ABC Chess. A variant with 8 armies of pieces generated by combining 1, 2 or 3 simpler pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Andrew L Smith wrote on Thu, Aug 18, 2022 02:10 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

I like the idea of making an army using various combinations of a few building blocks, though I do have two critiques.

1: Balance. A combination piece is usually wirth more than the sum of its parts (eg: a Queen is worth more than a Rook and a Bishop; a Mann is worth more than a Wazir and a Ferz) which means an army with A+B+C=7.75 is likely to be completely overpowered. For example, look at army 1:
BNW=10, NW=5.25, BW=5.25, W=1.25, B=3.25, N=3.25, BN=8.75 (total: 37).
This is over a full Rook stronger than the regular chess army.

The more equal the components are, the more powerful they are when they work together. For example, army 2 (where one component has most of the value) is only about 2 pawns stronger than the regular chess army. So, armies with wildly unequal component strengths will need to have stronger components than more egalitarian armies to compensate for this.

2: The components should be versatile enough to be fun to play with on their own. For example, an Alfil can only reach 1/8 of the board which is un-fun to play (both with and against). One solution to this would be 'ABCD' chess, with 4 components arranged like this:

AB  CD  AD  ABC   K   BC  BD  AC 

By adding an extra component, one can eliminate the need for components to survive on their own, and can make weak components without having to worry about un-fun Alfil play.


Enhanced Courier Chess. Courier Chess with the weaker pieces enhanced.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Christine Bagley-Jones wrote on Mon, Aug 29, 2022 02:41 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

Should play well, it's nice to see you didn't 'overpower' it.


Avatar Chess. Game with avatars that can assume any piece of chess, depending on the fields of the board. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Christine Bagley-Jones wrote on Tue, Aug 30, 2022 12:00 AM UTC in reply to Gerd Degens from Mon Aug 29 07:24 PM:Excellent ★★★★★

Hi Gerd, hope your fine and well. I'm sure you haven't upset or hurt anyone!! I understand what you said, and it is extremely interesting idea indeed how you describe your game about the board etc.

I don't want to go on about the pawns, but still, I have to say, the game would maintain your 'theme' even if the pawns remained pawns. However, the game as you have it must have a unique feel and play to it!

Would be fun to see the game in action.


Al-Ces. Variant on 10 by 10 board with 30 pieces per player. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Kevin Pacey wrote on Tue, Sep 13, 2022 06:44 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

Inspiring game, yet it seems the action may take a while to get going

I don't yet get how to mobilize in the opening smoothly when playing this CV, at least when I tried to do so in my first game (with White, no less). After I moved the pawn in front of my king two squares, for example, I wanted to develop my knights to my fourth rank, towards the centre, in natural fashion. Yet that would allow Black to develop his deves (camels) similarly, and then to take my knight(s) almost at will - perhaps clearly at least a slightly worse exchange for me, since my pawn structure might be compromised without sufficent compensation when I recapture, and by my valuations (though tentative) a Kt is worth more than a camel on 10x10 (maybe even by as much as a pawn).

As my game (with arx) went on, I found my gold and silver had a hard time being deployed usefully for quite some time - an issue since they can get in the way of other pieces. I also had mobilization issues with at least one of two of my bishops, especially concerning if assuming castling is desirable in general. The assassins I had a hard time valuing, but guessed one could be worth as much as a queen. Maybe the inventor intended that mobilization be slow in playing this CV, I don't know.

@arx: I've sent you a personal invite to a Sac Chess rematch, in case you missed it, and wish to play.


Tridimensional Chess (Star Trek). Three-dimensional chess from Star Trek. (7x(), Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jim Tinsmith wrote on Tue, Sep 27, 2022 02:23 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

The premise for tri dimensional chess set's presence on federation star ships was to teach three dimensional combat tactics, which is something the Bartmess and Meder rules patently fail to do, by blocking circumventing moves.
The rules presented here, on chess variants, are not complete and lack rules for castling but also advocate inverted attack boards, which, if nothing else, are highly impractical.
Not only were the World Tri Dimensional Chess Federation rules written by a fighter pilot, to teach three dimensional aerial combat, which is more in keeping with the original theme, they also start the king and queen in the centre files and provide the most reasonable method for castling, as the attached images demonstrate.

King's side castling
Tri dimensional chess kings side castling
Tri dimensional chess king's side castling
Queen's side castling
Tri dimensional chess queen's side castling
Tri dimensional chess queen's side castling


Chess 66. Board based on the 8x8 arrangement - with the difference that 66 fields are now available. (8x8, Cells: 66) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Thor Slavensky wrote on Sun, Oct 23, 2022 12:08 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

This is a great idea with those switches. Together with the twisting of the files it makes a very interesting board and game. The switches give instantly the game a dynamic tension which is enjoyable. And a very sophisticated solution that 2 squares together constitute 1 field on which there can only be 1 piece. There is no mentioning of pawn move/capture (maybe it could be helpful), but it must be implied that 'normal' forward movement and diagonal capturing are in place, that will often be first 'battle' around the switches.

What is better than 2 switches? That has to be 4 switches! The inventor, Gerd Degens, has also such a game, Chess69, which can be viewed through the link at the top, or for CVP members through the link in the comments. I will try to make a comment about it later. But I can only recommend to the editors that this game also is published properly. It is even more interesting because here the ranks are also twisted, very delightful for us fans of 'unusually shaped boards'. It already has a old post from 2003 here on CVP with a broken link in the Alphabetical Index and the Topic Index, so that will have to be displaced.


Chess 69. Members-Only Missing description (8x8, Cells: 69) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.

High Chess. Drawn games are instead won by the player whose King is closest to the centre.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Daniel Zacharias wrote on Sat, Oct 29, 2022 10:49 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

I like the idea of this, although it seems possibly over-complicated with the momentum rules.


Chess 69. Members-Only Missing description (8x8, Cells: 69) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.

Horizons. Game with 5 new pieces on 12x12 board. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Diceroller is Fire wrote on Fri, Nov 18, 2022 12:25 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

One remark: can you watch Magician’s moves and make diagonal-based motion. And small Shielder’s regulation of replacing rules, but it’s not required for now.

Yeah, thank you very much!


Expansion Chess. Get points per each your piece on other half of board to win. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Diceroller is Fire wrote on Fri, Nov 18, 2022 12:31 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

Points are accumulating. I’ve written this in the page.


Stone Garden Chess. The animal statues in the stone garden came to life and attacked the two rival kings! With the help of a policeman each, they…. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Diceroller is Fire wrote on Sun, Nov 20, 2022 08:27 AM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from Fri Nov 18 12:46 PM:Good ★★★★

Sorry, but yellow X-es are captures!

I have an idea: you can turn Ox’s face to left in Stone Garden, as it was in my drawings, and make it different from Horizons. About Index it’s same. Please.


Fluidity Chess. (Updated!) No displacement capture, all non-royal pieces take by cutting through or bypassing. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Diceroller is Fire wrote on Sun, Dec 4, 2022 11:22 AM UTC in reply to Greg Strong from Wed Nov 16 10:04 PM:Poor ★

No, it’s not easy win, black can easily block the path of check by 1.…Be7 or 1.…Qe7 after 1.Qe2

So it’s not required to add interactive diagram for THIS variant. But if it will be in online chess resource, thank you.


Tamerlane chess. A well-known historic large variant of Shatranj. (11x10, Cells: 112) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Benjamin Ross wrote on Mon, Dec 5, 2022 10:10 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

Are there no promotions in this version? Where is the prince and adventitious king?


Stone Garden Chess. The animal statues in the stone garden came to life and attacked the two rival kings! With the help of a policeman each, they…. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Diceroller is Fire wrote on Fri, Jan 6, 2023 06:47 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from Sun Nov 20 2022 04:15 PM:Good ★★★★

Edited. Can you publish it please?


Conservative Capablanca Chess. Alternative, more traditional Capablanca chess setup.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
John Vehre wrote on Fri, Jan 6, 2023 08:37 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

I like the idea, but perhaps a flaw in the game would be the unprotected pawn on a7. After 1 f4 Black has few defensive options and one would never arrive at "double king-pawn openings" since after 1...f5 2 Bxa7 already would drop and exchange in addition to the pawn. Maybe as in Schoolbook chess the Chancellor and Queen need to be out on the flank and the Archbishop deployed to the center.


Expansion Chess. Get points per each your piece on other half of board to win. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Diceroller is Fire wrote on Sat, Jan 14, 2023 10:58 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

Fixed,


Shako. Cannons and elephants are added in variant on 10 by 10 board. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Fri, Jan 27, 2023 12:02 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
I cannot love Courier-Spiel, but I (heart) Shako.

Revising my [2006-08-12] comment:
Unicorn=10, Queen=10, Chancellor=9, Rook=5.5, Lion=5. Bishop=3.5, Knight=3, Elephant=2.75, Pawn=1 
are endgame piece values (for Shako and Unicorn Great Chess) which preserve some formulas I firmly believe in, namely Q+P = R+R and Q = R+B+P and R+P = B+N. The Cannon should be worth 4 Pawns at the start of the game, but decline to half the value of a Rook in the early endgame (2.75 Pawns). I consider short range pieces to have more value than Antoine Fourrière gives them in his Comment. Even the lowly Ferz should be worth 1.5 Pawns on a 10x10 board.

Ajax Chess. All pieces have can play one square in any direction, the Mastodon leaper complements the Knight. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Daniel Zacharias wrote on Fri, Jan 27, 2023 10:41 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I'm not quite sure whether I want to rate this Good or Excellent so I'll go with the higher rating. This is a great way to enhance weaker pieces without making them too strong. An interesting variation of this idea might be to have all the pieces except the king and queen start without their non-capturing king moves and gain them by promoting on the last two ranks.


Shatranj al-Sultan. Normal Chess + Alibaba , with a Sultanic flavour . (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Sat, Jan 28, 2023 01:04 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

Similar to Courier-Spiel, the game adds modern Bishops and improves the Elephants (called Couriers here). Switching the Bishops and Couriers in the initial setup will improve this game. While the b-file and h-file Pawns are now undefended, they are also no longer threatened by hostile Bishops. Jumping the Courier c1-c3 will help to shield the Pawn on (b2).

Some time before 1992, Paul V. Byway included the Ferz in Modern Courier Chess, placing RNCBFQKFBCNR on a 12x8 board. Ken Franklin also placed Alibabas in Leap Chess on 44 squares.


Centennial Chess. 10x10 Variant that adds Camels, Stewards, Rotating Spearmen and Murray Lions to the standard mix. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Sat, Jan 28, 2023 01:48 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
Back in [2018-03-04] Kevin Pacey mentioned "the pleasing possibilities of smothered ... mates".  My 12x12 variant Rose Chess XII has 96 empty squares, with ten Pawns each on the 4th and 9th ranks.  But Black can deliver a smothering mate with a circular Nightrider on the second move of the game.  A position so amusing that it earned a diagram at the top of the rules page.

Fighting Chess. A reform to Chess that eliminates stalemate and strengthens some of the pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Sun, Jan 29, 2023 03:56 AM UTC:Poor ★
"This rule gets rid of zugzwang." 
 
More than sixty years ago I learned how to use zugzwang to win with King and Rook against the lone King. So how does Tony Berard deal with this problem? 
 
"The rooks, bishops, and knights now also move and capture like a king." 
 
Sixteen years ago I commented on Ultra Chess (by Ruggero Micheletto).  Here is a question for both authors.  Is the endgame King and Rook versus King and Knight even more likely to lead to a draw in your chess variants?

Chess II. Two extra files with two additional pieces (princes) on each side. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Argon Teuhai wrote on Thu, Feb 2, 2023 12:47 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

Here is a Fairy-Stockfish variant file that I made for the variant. Despite the E and Elephant symbol, these pieces are still princes (princE). It might not be 100% accurate, but this should be incredibly similar to the actual variant, as there are essentially no differences between promoting the princes to kings to win (by getting them directly to the last rank) or merely getting the princes to the end of the board (the last rank) to win. This variant also has defined castling rules.

[chessii:janus]
startFen = rnbeqkebnr/pppppppppp/10/10/10/10/PPPPPPPPPP/RNBEQKEBNR w KQkq - 0 1
customPiece1 = e:WF
pieceToCharTable = PNBRQ............E...Kpnbrq............e...k
castlingKingsideFile = i
castlingQueensideFile = c
whiteFlag = *8
blackFlag = *1
flagPiece = e
maxFile = 10
archbishop = -
promotionPieceTypes = rnbq

This is meant to be used with https://fairyground.vercel.app/, and should be pasted into a file called variants.ini, before loading the variants.ini file into the website.


Paulowich's Chancellor Chess. A proposal to play chancellor chess with chancellors and queens in the corner on 8 by 8 board. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Joe Joyce wrote on Tue, Feb 7, 2023 07:01 PM UTC in reply to David Paulowich from Mon Feb 6 07:51 PM:Good ★★★★

Hi, David! Glad to see you back! This is a nice helpmate and looks like an interesting 'little' game to play - all that power in the corners and a weak center, on a small board! The central rook is a rare feature, or was, a decade or two ago. Who's used it besides Ralph, you, and me, any idea? I don't remember it in even any semi-popular game onsite aside from what you and Ralph have done.


Behemoth Chess. Chess with a randomly moving, uncapturable Behemoth piece that can capture multiple pieces in a turn.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Thomas wrote on Thu, Feb 9, 2023 09:57 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

I played this on brainking.com many times and it is fun, even if the outcome is more dependent on luck than on skill.


The Duke of Rutland's Chess. Large variant from 18th century England. (14x10, Cells: 140) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Daniel Zacharias wrote on Fri, Feb 10, 2023 03:05 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

This is a nice game. It seems to have a theme of rook + weaker piece compounds. I wonder why the board isn't 15x10 to make room for another knight, and have a nice 3:2 shape like Courier Chess. An alternative enhancement would be a pair of camels on d1 and k1 and a camel-rook on i1. That would make more sense of the 10 rank board.


Spartan Chess. A game with unequal armies. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Sun, Feb 12, 2023 04:44 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

Spartan Chess has the Warlord and the General, together worth approximately three Rooks. These are solid performers that have been used in many variants. Worth noting that pieces like the Lieutenant with additional noncapturing moves are rare. My Shatranj Kamil (64) has Elephants with noncapturing Dabbabah leaps and ArchMage Chess by Cyrus Arturas has the Prince, a Commoner with noncapturing R2 moves (no mention of Dabbabah leaps). In the diagram below, a Warlord pins a Rook against the White King - winning the piece and the game.

diagram

WHITE TO MOVE AND LOSE


TenCubed Chess. Variant on 10 by 10 board with combination pieces. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Kevin Pacey wrote on Mon, Feb 13, 2023 08:46 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Nice mixture of pieces in this variant!

edit: Also, this CV reminds me a little of Opulent Chess:

https://www.chessvariants.com/rules/opulent-chess

edit2: Two CVs that might have been inspired by TenCubed Chess (but weren't):

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/soho-chess

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/wide-soho-chess


Greg Strong wrote on Tue, Feb 14, 2023 02:16 AM UTC in reply to Kevin Pacey from Mon Feb 13 08:46 PM:Excellent ★★★★★

TenCubed and Opulent were both entries in the 10 Contest.  David and I both decided to use the number 10 by having 10 piece types on an 10-by-10 board, so they are pretty similar.  Although Opulent has seen more play, I think TenCubed is probably the better game.  I have had a very difficult time getting a good opening array in Opulent.  It needs to change yet again ...


Orthodia. Break your orthogonal and diagonal patterns! (Two versions). (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Diceroller is Fire wrote on Tue, Feb 14, 2023 11:49 AM UTC in reply to Ben Reiniger from Mon Feb 6 02:57 AM:Good ★★★★

I fixed it, it's your turn. There is no castling here;)


Turkish Chess. 8x10 board with different combination pieces, Vao and Pao. (8x10, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Kevin Pacey wrote on Fri, Feb 17, 2023 09:51 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

I'm a bit surprised this variant hasn't been played much so far on GC. If people think there's too much power in the setup, maybe by switching the FIDE army of each side onto their 2nd ranks, directly behind their pawns, that then could help the game unfold a bit more slowly, if that's desired.


100 comments displayed

EarliestEarlier Reverse Order LaterLatest

Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.