variants tier list
this is my opinion and so totally original idea definitely not from chessmastergs and jackityjackjack yeah my opinion does not represent my actual opinion blah blah blah
Rubrics: S is my favourites of all time
A and above is ones I will play at my free time
B are ones I would not voluntarily play but if I see a casual seek I will (smth like that)
C~D is ones I wont play but increasingly worse
F are ones I absolutely despise
I will include variants that have the default position, but if the change to gameplay is not significant, I will not include them since it will all go in C
For all future viewers, S and A tiers are must try variants
2PC variants
| Tiers | Variants Applicable |
| S |
Ashtandrez Rubicon Villagers Chess (this would be d if not for 1 person) |
| A |
Minihouse Amazon Jungle Blackletter Chess Silent Clubstep Acheron (ditto) Warui-Shogi Cross Derby Enchanted Woodland Thermopylae Saturn's Rings (Ends Meet) |
| B |
Seirawan Chess Mini Forest Chaturanga Ambush Infiltration Danger Tag Team Caught in a Snag Chess960 Spell Chess (goated gamerule) |
| C |
Setup Chess XXL Chess Explosive Magic (ok this is B but chye made it C) Emperor's Tomb Phantom Rooks Stone Gravitation The Lake Racing Kings Crazyhouse King of the Hill 3-Check Counterturn |
| D |
Horde Chess with Checkers Paradigm Chess30 Behind the Mirror Courier Chess The X of Tricks Trapped Queens Giveaway Atomic Gothic Chess |
| F (ones ill remove if I was a cga) |
Rookmate Sergeants Checkers Villagers Chess II Crazy Cavalier |
I could be biased since there are some gamerules/pieces I do not like. I will try my best for F tier to be universally hated.
nvm SCII is quite good
I despise Rookmate because I consider it to destroy the spirit of the variants, I imagine it could have original gameplay, but I despise the board and how it got accepted. Anger sprouts on me thinking an accepted variant was THAT easy to make.
I despise sergeants checkers because it's jjust WAY too lame.
I despise Villagers Chess II because the spirit of VC1 is just GONE. No double knitial move, promotion is overpowered, why is there a filler ferz? Just put Jack's VCIII as a replacement to VCII. Please. No one will harm from that.
RALRAL3333's imbalances would all be a tier or above if it involved fairy pieces. Considering how every piece used are standard pieces, I lost a lot of the respect I had for imbalance creators since you could use analysis, as stuff with fairies need extensive testing.
I will do 4pc when I get more experience in variant play.
