Playing Every Chess Variant... (Part 1)
WARNING: You are now entering confirmed 'yapping' area! If you are not prepared to spend 15-20 minutes reading this, I highly recommend evacuating the area immediately! Thanks for your compliance!
Also, before I start, none of this coud have been possible without the coolness of these 2 people especially:
@BN1208
@yx-aynerik897
... and these people as well
@imchesspro0930
@ChocoCaramelPawn
@TimeVeteran
Anyways, now that my disclaimer is off the list, I'll dive straight into the blog.
By the way, if you don't know how the variants pieces move, here's a very useful guide that I strongly recommend reading: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/the-fairy-pieces-introduction
Intoduction to the Introduction:
Now I'm sure we have some people out there wondering, "What are variants?" Well (unfortunately) the fact is that variants are one of chess.com's lesser known features. In any case, I'll be walking you through it:
The most famous variant is four player chess, and nothing highlights this fact better than the fact that before 2021, there was a seperate server for four player chess and variants. After an event termed the 'merge' (which is another scandal in itself, I strongly recommend reading this article by Custom Games Admin @ChessMasterGS if you're interested in it) the 2 servers became one and the same, into the server that is loved (by some of us) till this day.
However, during the Merge, several decisions were also made that impacted the community for years to come: The default setup was altered, several variants were removed, and other variants were added (notably the positions made by @RALRAL3333).
As time passed, the Custom Variants Club began attracting people. It is now (at the time of writing) almost 10,000 people! As more people flooded in, more variants began being created and uploaded on variants.world (the official chess.com site for reviewing variants), and more variants began showing up on the server.
In any case, back to the present...
Ok now introduction for real:
So hello, I am @VishTheFish771. Just as a flex and to show I'm not completely a beginner at variants, I'll also be proving my variants credentials here:
-Coordinator in the official Chess.com Custom Variants Club. In the CVC, coordinators are known as NCV testers or New Custom Variant testers.
- I have over 2000 games of variants in my chess archive (Which is more than the number of normal chess games I have!)
- I've created 8 variants till now, out of which one (Obsidian Pinnacle) has been accepted as a Wheel of Fortune.
- A multitude of cool things within the CVC, like co-creating with @imchesspro0930 TestLab and the Pocket Chess Challenge.
Anyways, now that I've finished tooting my own horn, I'll start with some explanation of what I'll be doing in this blog (and the next 1 or 2; can't keep the content limited to one blog, so I've decided to split it)
So recently I was talking with some members of TestLab (which is kind of like the hangout place for the more active members of the Custom Variants Club) and @ChocoCaramelPawn, out of the blue, suggested I write a blog to increase variants popularity for BlogChamps.
Well, I was quite surprised, mainly because all my previous blogs have been about my life under the sea and occasional potato related science. Although I was slightly hesitant, I decided to write this, mainly because I really am interested in bringing variants out to a wider audience.
Now, the only thing remained: what to write about? Well, the fact is, there are far too many youtubers/chess bloggers claiming to have played "every single chess variant" on their thumbnails, and yet somehow none of them make it past the Most Popular page.
So I decided to do the second oldest trick in the book. As (almost) everyone knows, the oldest trick in the book is to make a clickbait title. However, as (almost) no one knows, the second oldest trick in the book is to make a clickbait thumbnail...
...
...
And actually do it!
So, I decided that I was going to play all of chess.com's 100+ variants within the spam of a single week: from July 25th to July 31st, which is when the BlogChamps Qualifiers 1 submission deadline is. Not only that, I'm also going to be giving each variant I play a rating out of 10 so you guys know the difference between the good, the bad, the ugly, and the really ugly.
Now, are you ready to experience me playing every single chess variant? Well, let's kick off with...
DAY 1- July 25th: A Whole Bunch of FFA
I also recommend glancing over all the games I played. Admittedly, the chats are quite lengthy, but also quite informative (if you count us saying, 'e' for the 2763rd time informative.
So, with some trepidation about the road ahead of me, contacted some TestLab members and members of the Testing Team to help me achieve this seemingly insurmountable goal. Luckily, I had some quick responses from Custom Games Admin (read: admins on the variants server) @BN1208 and TestLab member @yx-aynerik897 (If you spell that correctly first try, you are most probably using grammarly.)
- BLIND GOLD (delete candidate): https://www.chess.com/variants/blindgold/game/86238566/0/3
Quick note before I actually say anything: The reason the games are given (interesting?) names is because @BN1208 is a custom games admin, which means he has the powers to do that. Well, why not, I suppose. Oh, and don't ask why the time control is euler's number. It's an inside joke.
Just as a warm up, we decided to play a variant that's a delete candidate, which means you can only see it on the server by searching its name on the search bar.
Fun fact: You can't see any of your pieces while playing Blind Gold.
In any case, we began playing. Green did a quick resignation, which left me, yx and BN as the only three players. By some sheer luck, while I was frantically trying to remember where my pieces were (I could swear that knight was on that square 5 seconds ago!), Yx was randomly clicking his pieces and managed to bring his king all the way to the hill, ending the game.
Final Rating: -10/10- Way too luck based, and blindfold isn't a great gamerule in any case.
- 𝕏 F̷i̷l̷e̷ ☣ (A giveaway FFA with a fancy name): https://www.chess.com/variants/x-file/game/86238769/130/2
Next up, I decided that a giveaway variant would set our brains into motion: giveaway is a gamerule that really bends your brain: instead of trying to checkmate your opponent or win their pieces, you try to lose as many pieces as possible! The first person who loses all their pieces gets 600 points and basically wins the game.
Well, one thing to note about 4 player variants is that they take a lot of time. A LOT. In this case, I was trying to get rid of my last piece for good 10 moves before finally forcing the yellow bot bishop to take it.
Final rating: To quote @yx-aynerik897: "X Tier".
-Grasshopper Arena (A variant only for the most tactically minded): https://www.chess.com/variants/arena-of-grasshoppers/game/86239166/89/2
Now we moved on to one of the most calculating-intense variants of all time: The Grasshopper Arena. This variant utilizes only 2 pieces: the king, and the grasshopper. The grasshopper is by far one of the most interesting fairy pieces, mainly because it cannot move on an empty board. The grasshopper can move an unlimited amount of squares in any direction, provided it can jump over a piece.
Finally, my skills could shine: I managed to tactically checkmate BN before quickly moving on to yx, and finally, with a Mate in 1 hanging over @ChocoCaramelPawn's head, he resigned.
Final Rating: 9.75/10, mainly because I won as the lowest rated player.
-Glass labyrinth (A FFA imbalance): https://www.chess.com/variants/glass-labyrinth/game/86239814/3/2
Next came one of the greatest Free For All variants of all time: The Glass Labyrinth. This is an imbalance, meaning every player has a different army with them. To top it all of, all of us had different royals! These variants are among the hardest to create, which makes this one all the more special.
This was definitely the most grueling part of our session as we played for well over 30 minutes, with Choco getting mated even with his grasshopper royal and me managing to bag a King of The Hill. The hill in variants is the highlighted squares: moving onto such a square with your royal automatically gives you a win. Again, I was happy to have won yet another match.
Final Rating: 10/10, extremely well made variant.
-Gustav's Box (or a 'Funni Box Thing' also works): https://www.chess.com/variants/gustavs-box/game/86240968/79/3
This variant is easily one of the more popular FFA variants mainly because it's pretty easy to understand: your army is cut into the King of The Hill army, the royal defence army and the attacking army. You try to attack your opposite while simultaneously defending yourself from similar attacks, and eventually push for the hill.
Although a lot of people detest it for whatever reason, I quite enjoy it (when I'm winning, which isn't often). Anyways, in this game, nothing much of interest happened until towards the end. With BN already checkmated by yx, I managed to checkmate yx using a sneaky queen mate, and claimed the win. This means that I was so far ahead of points compared to Choco that even if I resigned, I'd still win.
Final Rating: 8/10, not bad, not bad at all.
-4 Player Chess (The classic): https://www.chess.com/variants/4-player-chess/game/86241521/88/4
Of course, nowadays it's hard to open the variants server without seeing over 150 people playing a match of 4 player chess. In any case, I had to play it at one point. Rather than joining a seek with random 3 people, I decided to play it with my friends.
Well, I was already feeling quite confident from my previous 3 wins in a row, and it was to be downfall. Years of not studying basic 4p theory landed me in hot water very fast, and Choco and BN teamed up to absolutely demolish me.
Yeah, that could have gone better...
Final Rating: 3/10. What do you mean, I can't give the most played variant a 3?
Ok, well probably a 4...
Anyways, I finished off that day with a whole bunch of 2 player variants, including...
- Ashtrandez (Fancy name indeed): https://www.chess.com/variants/ashtandrez/game/86244949/38/3
Ashtrandez is a pretty fun and strategic variant that's easy to learn as well.
- Atomic (This one is pretty famous as well): https://www.chess.com/variants/atomic/game/86245209/25/3
One of my most played variants, even if it is a huge advantage for white
- Acheron (Pretty complex looking, but quite simple): https://www.chess.com/variants/acheron/game/86245412/48/1
Acheron is one of my favorite variants of all time. It utilizes the very interesting dabbaba-rider piece to be the 'royal' or the replacement of the king. The goal is to try to check the opposing dabbaba-rider 8 times or move your royal to the KoTH
- Phantom Rooks (yeah I may have skipped alphabetic order...):
https://www.chess.com/variants/phantom-rooks/game/86247170/20/1
Apparently I didn't do well in this.
With that, I managed to wrap up day 1 of me playing every single chess variant.
DAY 2- JULY 26th: MAXIMUM THROTTLE-
By now, I had only really started to realize the magnitude of the task I was looking at. I had over 100 more variants to play, and only 5 days left to play them! And, in case that wasn't enough, real life pressure was starting to take over me as well, reducing the amount of time I could play variants. Nontheless, I hopped on to the server, kicking off with...
-Arena of Legends (One of the only variants with an Amazon): https://www.chess.com/variants/arena-of-legends/game/86282141/111/3
Once again, BN had deigned to send us more challenges with funny names and time controls. At around this time, Choco had also made a challenge with me: If I got checkmated by him 3 times in 4 player chess, I had to change my profile picture to...
A duck.
(Oh, the punity)
And of course, I got mated by him, making this time number 2 (He mated me in the classic four player chess game as well)
Final Rating: -16/10.
...
Ok not really, this is actually quite good, but getting 4th place really didn't help my morale...
-Simplicity (Simple... or is it?): https://www.chess.com/variants/simplicity/game/86283026/236/3
Now for literally the longest game of variants (or for that matter, chess anywhere) that I had ever played: Taking 52 minutes! Simplicity is a 4 player game that utilizes no special gamerules other than N-check (which means if you get checked a certain amount of times, you lose.) However, it is very very very painful to finish, as I discovered when @chococaramelpawn and @imchesspro0930 began teaming. Even then, using my indomitable fish powers, I managed to score a win.
Final Rating: T tier. T stands for "Takes way too long".
...Followed up by some more 2 player variants, including...
-Amazon Jungle (Tarzan simulator on chess): https://www.chess.com/variants/amazon-jungle-fight/game/86289928/50/1
-Ambush (Rook jumpscare): https://www.chess.com/variants/ambush/game/86290110/58/1
-Behind The Mirror (Fight on 2 sides at once!): https://www.chess.com/variants/behind-the-mirror/game/86290273/62/3
-Courier Chess (...really boring... so a hyper time control should spice it up!): https://www.chess.com/variants/courier-chess/game/86290506/59/1
-Cornered (Your king has only one way out... to win): https://www.chess.com/variants/cornered/game/86293418/52/1
DAY 3- JULY 27th: THE PRESSURE MOUNTS-
As the next day dawned, I realized that only 4 days were left... and I had done barely a fourth of the variants. The pressure to finish all the variants in time for the deadline, as well as not lose any more matches to Choco, was now affecting my gameplay...
-Cross Derby: https://www.chess.com/variants/cross-derby/game/86321534/45/1
Thought I'd give this a small shoutout for being one of the only variants that is not on most popular that gets featured (probably because the youtubers can't process more than 3 different types of pieces at once...)
-Explosive Magic: https://www.chess.com/variants/explosive-magic/game/86321941/104/3
Also shoutout because @BN1208 is the creator of this variant. Also, one of the only 2 atomic variants on the server.
-Minihouse: https://www.chess.com/variants/minihouse/game/86322617/26/1
Also a very popular variant for bloggers and youtubers.
-Pac-Chess: https://www.chess.com/variants/pac-chess/game/86322702/129/3
Not a great variant if you're looking for skill, because it is completely luck-based
-Enchanted Woodland: https://www.chess.com/variants/enchanted-woodland/game/86325035/69/1
Quite a fun variant and one of the only ones with spell chess (The others being Explosive Magic and of course, spell chess. Not to mention Qiang Xiangqi, Phantom Rooks and Sergeants Checkers II)
-BlindBox: https://www.chess.com/variants/blind-box/game/86340290/133/3
TimeVeteran is a fellow NCV tester who decided to help me out in the making of this blog by playing a few teams variants with me. Blindbox is basically normal chess but you have a backup army! How cool is that?
-Together: https://www.chess.com/variants/together/game/86341037/50/1
Yet another teams variant. Pretty simple to learn and a good choice if looking to grasp the basics of self-partner.
-Labyrinth 82: https://www.chess.com/variants/labyrinth/game/86341409/156/1
Finally, after around an hour of playing with TimeVeteran, we decided to move on to another 4 player variant: Labyrinth 82, named for the 82 bricks on the board that impede your progress. Unfortunately, I had to leave in the middle of the game, but it was nonetheless quite interesting.
Finally, as day 3 came to a close, I had managed to finish over 25 variants, and I was ready to go into the next challenge: finishing the rest.
This is part 1. Part 2 is coming out soon, with dys 4-7! Stay tuned!
