What kind of chess variants do you like? Do you think there should be any? What could they add to chess? What would you like to discuss about chess variants like chess960, renaissance chess, or monster chess? Just post anything you would like to say...

crazyhouse, bughouse...

I just recently published a short fantasy story on the Amazon Kindle featuring a number of new chess variants that I developed:

"The Amnesiac's Quest" (available on the Amazon Kindle for 99 cents)

Here are some of the variants portrayed in the story:

Promotion Chess

Attrition Chess

Melee Chess ("Chesskers")

Diamond Chess

Parasite Chess

Most of these variants would be challenging to play unless one had multiple identical chess sets, since they use more than the standard number of each type of piece.  This is because in many of these variants, each piece has the ability to change its rank to become another type of piece based on what it does in the game.

While trying to play these variants, I realized that I had to make my own chess set that would allow me to quickly transform one piece into another.  The result?

Chess Cubes! (available on Etsy.com)

I've made a few sets of Chess Cubes, and they're available for sale on Etsy in two varieties: "Psychedelic", and "Coal and Marshmallows".

If you are interested in trying out the variants from the story, then my hand-crafted custom-made chess set is the perfect way to do it.

I find Alice Chess fascinating and Hostage Chess as far as normal sets are concerned; I would also like to play Shatranj and Courier Chess (and maybe Tamerlane). In case we count Shogi and its variants as well: Chu Shogi would be my all-time favourite (and Daidai Shogi isn't bad either!).