Forum

Greetings all, Rather than seeing our forums fill with numerous threads about "dO YoU LiKe mY nEw pOsITiOn," and "wHO wAnTS tO hELp Me tEsT mY NEw pOsITioN?" We've decided to pin this thread instead. Here, you can post screenshots and ideas you have for new positions, and develop them collaboratively with the community. You can also follow this thread, and post requests within if you're looking to help creators play test games of their new positions, or if you are a creator looking for players to help you test. The conversation here will be less moderated than the official submission threads, or threads posted elsewhere on this forum. Note: this is exclusively for positions created in the custom editor, not for gamerule suggestions

Introduction Since variants.world currently doesn’t support notifications, this thread is meant as a way for the CGA team to update everyone on when a variant is accepted or declined in one place! (Note: This feed began on February 20, 2024, per post #2.) Follow the post to receive updates as soon as they are available!  CGAs and NCV Testers are the only people who may post comments on this thread! Please see below in the Q/A for more information. Q/A Q: What even is "variants.world" or "Variants World"?A: It's the platform we use to submit and review variants; it's developed by chess.com, and you login using your chess.com account. The URL is https://variants.world/, hence the name. Refer to the pinned threads for more info! Q: How does this thread work?A: You can press the follow button to get notified when we post here, so that you can keep up-to-date without having to check through every post on variants.world. Q: If only CGAs and NCV Testers should be posting here, why is the thread not locked?A: Because locking the thread means the follow button is disabled, I’m keeping it unlocked. This thread is meant to be organized, and any comment will be deleted. If you want to have a discussion, there are other places to do so such as by posting in notes, making another thread, or going to the variants.world comments sections.  Q: What do the different statuses mean?A: There are currently 4 color-coded statuses for a variant on variants.world, as well as 1 internal designation, which are all listed below: Under Review (UR): The variant is submitted and is currently on the CGAs' list. Pending Reply (PR): The variant has some minor issues that the CGA team has fixed. The creator can choose to accept the revisions or decline them. Declined: The variant was voted by a majority of the CGA team to be declined.  Accepted: The variant was voted by (usually) all members of the CGA team to be accepted. If recent, the variant will shortly be added to either the WoF rotation or the NCV public listing. Requirements Not Met (RNM): The variant has quickly resigned testing games, invalid time control, or any other disallowed feature that was not already detected by Variants World during submission. Q: Why aren't Under Review (UR) posts posted here? What about Pending Reply (PR)?A: variants.world already automatically puts the most recent posts on the top of the website's list; logging on to check regularly isn't that bad compared to potentially month-old posts being declined or accepted but forgotten about. PR'ed posts are put here, but a post having such a label is incredibly rare.

Post for the previous month’s vote:https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-marchs-golden-variants-2026Not sure on what some of the terms in this post mean? Have any other questions? See any typos? Feel free to ask and comment below!(Scroll down to the start of the bold headers if you want to know how to vote without reading my entire post 😀)Hello again, Custom Variants Community!This post will be brief since the May vote will also be coming out shortly after this post is made, so keep your eyes peeled! The start here will mostly just go over the results of the Platinum Variant arena from last month, as well as the start of the new cycle in Q2 (Quarter 2 of 4 in 2026).If you didn’t know yet, we have a Platinum Variant Hall of Fame thread here where you can see the winners of both the votes and the arena; of course, every Platinum Variant in the entire history of its existence is listed here, from Minihouse to the recently concluded arena for Rookmate! The top 3 finishers for 2026 Q1 are copied below:@IITianMumbai@wizardrunnerNM @chessmaster0108Congrats to the winners, who will be receiving their premium Chess.com memberships soon (excluding @chessmaster0108, who already holds a lifetime membership, and including the 4th place winner @racerbilchess as replacement).Now that the Q1 cycle is over, we’re onto Q2! 5 more variants (consisting of the Emerald Variants and Golden Variants featured between April and June) will arise as the new candidates for the next Platinum Variant vote. The CGA team was pleased recently as they accepted a new variant (Torpedoes in a Lake, aka TiaL, by variant creator @CzarnyResorak567), which per the guidelines of Emerald Variant, was automatically featured in this month’s first 2 weeks and became the 1st of the 5 variants eligible in the June Platinum Variant vote.Speaking of accepting variants, to close off this post, here are the recent CGA stats on variant reviewing:Wheel of Fortunes (WoFs) Under Review (UR): 30New Custom Variants (NCVs) UR: 31Total Variants UR Currently: 61Variants Reviewed in Last 2 Weeks: 38Variants Submitted in Last 2 Weeks: 30Oldest Variant UR (Overall): https://variants.world/posts/1956Oldest Variant UR (Excluding CGA/NCV Tester-Made Variants): https://variants.world/posts/1961With that, let’s get to the voting!Format of this month’s GV cycle:Week 9 (April 3-17) : Emerald Variant Week 10 (April 17-May 1): Golden VariantThe Week 9 selection has already been pre-determined; as stated above, new variants are automatically scheduled into Emerald Variant arenas in order to feature them after releaseThe community will vote on the Week 10 Golden Variant!See https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/2026-golden-variant-schedule for more info.The voting process:A comment will be added below this main post with 5 variants listed. You may use the hyperlinks on the variant names in order to see what the variant is if you are unfamiliar with any of them!Simply react to the comment with the emoticon corresponding to the variant you want to be featured to vote for it! You may vote for more than one variant, or even all 5 (that is, if you don’t want your vote to matter…)The variant with the most votes by the end of the polling duration will be the honored variant represented in the upcoming April 17-May 1 Golden Variant arena.The tallying for the Golden Variant arena vote will close at approximately 0 UTC on April 18; the arena may be delayed by a few hours (no more than 10 hours) to allow for time between the end of the vote and the scheduling of the arena.See an example of a previous vote below:Happy voting and may the best variants of 2026 win!

Hello all! 👋 Over the last year or two, I've built a platform for hexagonal chess, and would love some feedback and beta testers! You can log in with your chess.com account. https://www.hexchess.club Please give it a try and share your thoughts!

2025's Schedule & Info: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/2025-golden-variant-schedule Welcome to Golden Variant 2026!   Golden Variant is a bi-weekly (twice a month) arena that aims to feature community-made custom variants on the chess.com variants server! This resource page will be periodically updated throughout 2026 as Golden Variants for each month have been decided on through CGA nomination and/or by voting by the community in forum votes. Your opinion matters! If you got here from the variants server through a game chat link, please consider joining us here in the official Custom Variants club using the link below to learn how you can submit your own variants for review and for updates in the world of all things chess variants: https://www.chess.com/club/custom-variants/join GENERAL INFO This page will be linked on most Golden Variant announcement posts and in Golden Variant arena game chats. It will also be pinned on the Forums page in this club for easy viewing and is also included in the Club Directory (newcomers to the club are highly encouraged to check it out!). This page will contain all of the variants that are nominated for each section in 2026, and relevant announcement posts for voting will also be added below as they are released. Dates listed below are based off the PST/PDT time-zones and are in Month/Day format. Arenas generally start at 4 PM PST / 5 PM PDT on Fridays and 0 UTC on Saturdays. ARENA FORMAT Most Golden Variant arenas are voted on by the community in a monthly plurality (through chess.com forum reactions on the voting thread) or ranked-choice vote (through the usage of StrawPoll), although some may occasionally be pre-determined by the Custom Games Admins. There are three main types of arenas: Golden Variant (regularly scheduled variants largely decided as described before through community vote), Emerald Variant (newly accepted variants which automatically gain an arena slot in order to feature them, previously known as "Golden Variant All Week"), and Platinum Variant (quarter-yearly overall vote winners out of all Golden Variants in a 3 month time period). Previously, these arenas were generally 72 hours long, or 3 full days. The major change we (the CGAs) have decided to make this year to allow variants to get more activity is adjusting the length for most Golden Variant arenas to a longer duration. Golden Variant and Emerald Variant arenas will be 2 weeks long this year, and Platinum Variant will remain at its previous 1-week arena length. Platinum Variant selections are decided every quarter year (about 3 months), voted upon out of all of the Golden and Emerald Variants of that quarter cycle (approximately 5 per quarter) in a winner-takes-all vote. These arenas are 168 hours long (1 week, as mentioned above), and also grant a membership prize, usually 1 month of diamond/platinum/gold, to the top 3 finishers respectively. (There are currently NO plans to hold a " Diamond Variant " event. Platinum Variants are currently ineligible to be voted on and featured in future GV events in order to provide more exposure to lesser known and newer variants.) Golden Fortune variant arenas will continue to be held this year, albeit not as frequently as last year due to the introduction of 2-week arena lengths for most scheduled arenas. Instead, during gaps without a standard arena (., during 5 weekend months or during the break after a Platinum Variant run), a Wheel of Fortune variant will be chosen (usually through CGA nomination) to have a week-long arena. These will replace the regularly scheduled rotating daily Wheel of Fortune cycle for that week and will also run through the weekends as they are 168 hours long. As the schedule below states, we may have Halloween- and Holiday-themed Fortune arenas in 2026, but it is not certain yet if there will be membership prizes. The standard time control for any arena is 3|2, although 3|0 and 1|2 may be used for variants which work significantly better with a shorter time control (Minihouse, Amazon Jungle, Cornered, etc.). The exception is that Golden Fortune will always use its creator-suggested time control rather than a standardized time control. (This section may be subject to minor revisions throughout the year.) 2026 SCHEDULE Week 1 (1/2): Rose (Emerald Variant)* Week 2 (1/16): Stereo Jungleness (Golden Fortune)* Week 3 (1/23): Rookmate Week 4 (2/6): Cross Derby Week 5 (2/20): Arena of Legends Week 6 (3/6): Trapped Queens Week 7 (3/20): Hors d'oeuvres (Golden Fortune)* Week 8 (3/27): Rookmate (Platinum Variant Q1) Week 9 (4/3): Torpedoes in a Lake (Emerald Variant)* Week 10 (4/17): Villagers Chess Week 11 (5/1): TBD (Golden Fortune) Week 12 (5/8): TBD Week 13 (5/22): TBD Week 14 (6/5): TBD Week 15 (6/19): TBD (Platinum Variant Q2) Week 16 (6/26): TBD (Golden Fortune) Week 17 (7/3): TBD Week 18 (7/17): TBD Week 19 (7/31): TBD (Golden Fortune) Week 20 (8/7): TBD Week 21 (8/21): TBD Week 22 (9/4): TBD Week 23 (9/18): TBD (Platinum Variant Q3) Week 24 (9/26): TBD (Golden Fortune) Week 25 (10/2): TBD Week 26 (10/16): TBD Week 27 (10/30): TBD (Halloween Hootenanny?) Week 28 (11/6): TBD Week 29 (11/20): TBD Week 30 (12/4): TBD Week 31 (12/18): TBD (Platinum Variant Q4) Week 32 (12/25): TBD (Festive Fortune?) Italics indicates a variant not eligible for the Platinum Variant vote, such as Golden WoFs. Asterisks (*) denote a variant which was predetermined by the Custom Games Admin team. Weeks with currently known arena types (Golden, Emerald, Platinum) are color-coded. ANNOUNCEMENT POSTS January: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-januarys-golden-variants-2026 February: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-februarys-golden-variants-2026 March: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-marchs-golden-variants-2026 April: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-aprils-golden-variants-2026 May: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-mays-golden-variants-2026 June: Coming soon... July: TBA August: TBA September: TBA October: TBA November: TBA December: TBA The currently active / upcoming soon voting thread has been bolded .

Having trouble... navigating the forum threads, finding the information you need, or getting questions answered? This is the Custom Variants Club Directory, where the most important forum threads are compiled and categorized! So whether you need information on how to submit a variant, a guide on how to make one, or something else, this can help out!  This thread will be periodically updated, so keep an eye out for changes! Use the bold titles on the sections to quickly find sections you want to read. Hopefully, with this, we'll have less clutter in the forum as there won't need to be as many pinned threads... (P.S., this is a good resource to link people to at any time if you want to recommend a guide or two. Remember to give constructive feedback to variants!) General Custom Variants Info https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/introduction-to-variants This post introduces some of the variant rules and pieces added in the major update in 2022, as well as explain the composition rating system, one of the categorization systems for variants, and some more! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/a-guide-to-the-new-analysis-board-and-editor This is probably one of the most important pages out there for variants on chess.com! If you are uncertain on how to use the custom position editor, this is the best starting point! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/who-is-the-cga-team "Who is [on] the CGA team" was a question asked in 2020; the main response will therefore be outdated, but it shows how you can tell who is on the Custom Games Admin team at any time by using chess.com clubs' Super Admin/Admin/Coordinator feature. https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/gameplay-types In composition ratings, you may have seen things like "Materialistic", or "Positional". These are gameplay types, or classifications, which this post details. https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/my-ncv-sortable-spreadsheet Want to know how many community member-made NCVs (New Custom Variants) there currently are on the server? What about who created them? One of our CGAs @BN1208 has made a Google Spreadsheet that shows the author of each NCV, as well as some other information on every variant as well! Creating a Variant Are you ready to become a variant creator? Anybody can become one, and everyone is welcome to try! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/good-custom-position-bad-custom-position-dos-and-donts-for-ncps-1 NCVs (as explained earlier) are a category of variant denoting community-made variants that are skill-based and are listed on chess.com/variants; this guide explains what the basic vision of a variant creator looking to make this type of variant should be! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/custom-position-stereotypes This is a pretty funny user-created post that shows some examples of flawed positions and why they would be declined if submitted! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/10-variant-creating-advices Another user-created post that has some pretty neat advice on how to create and (most importantly) how to make the most out of testing your variant! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/how-not-to-make-a-variant Similarly to the post above, this is a guide on some common trends amongst declined variants, and can give you some pointers on how to avoid making the same mistakes! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/autodecline-a-guide This is a guide on "autodecline", which is when a variant is quickly declined. The guide shows the guidelines that the Custom Games Admins (CGAs) use when considering an autodecline, and includes some very important testing tips! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/self-decline-a-guide  Similarly, this is a guide on “self-decline”, which is when the author of a variant wants to decline their own variant. This guide also explains why a creator might request one, as well as how to request one if it is ever needed! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/how-to-make-new-variants-accepted This is an announcement by our current head CGA @qilp, and details part of the review process and what the CGAs are looking for. The main focus of the post is concerning variants that are too similar to each other, and how variants with similar concepts should be innovative and unique. https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/new-position-workshop-testing-thread Need some quick feedback? Want to find testers for your variant? This thread is perfect for that! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/variant-design-patterns Many variants have similar patterns in gameplay or in the goal of the game, such as "checking the opponent before a certain move". This thread explains many of the different patterns that occur in the many variants on the server! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/why-1653 "Why do CGAs need us to test games?" was a question posed by a player in 2020; if you're wondering the same thing, the responses here by former CGAs make some good points! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/how-can-you-make-different-numbers-of-checks-in-a-wof-or-ncp There are many variants that use check asymmetry (one side has more n-check lives than the other); this thread details how you can edit the FEN4 of an n-check variant to allow for this! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/some-fen4-tips-and-tricks The comments on this thread offer an extension to the FEN4 tricks shown above! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/everything-about-fairy-stockfish Want to analyze a position at a deeper level using engines? Learning Fairy Stockfish is a pretty technical process, but it's not impossible, and this thread can help simplify things. https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/piece-dynamics-in-custom-variants There are many criteria to making a good variant, of course, but the most important one is using the right pieces! Understanding how pieces interact with each other and with different gamerules is crucial to designing a well-balanced, beginner-friendly, and fun-to-play variant. https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/a-guide-on-how-to-use-promotedfrom-a-unintended-crazyhouse-feature  This forum explains a recent discovery involving the “promotedFrom” PGN4 tag, which allows you to do a few things that were previously considered impossible! This mechanic can be used for very interesting things like multiple royal pieces or artificially changing the point values of pieces. Submitting Variants Now that you've created a variant and are ready to submit, here are some resources that will help you during that process! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/how-to-submit-new-custom-positions This is the best place to start to get the gist of the basics. It helps more with defining the main variant categories of "NCV" (New Custom Variant) and "WoF" (Wheel of Fortune) and their respective arena schedule. https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/4pc-wheel-of-fortune-information-1 More information on WoFs/WoF arenas here! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/requirements-for-submission This is the official submission requirement list. Please read this carefully before submitting a variant to Variants World! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/how-to-use-variants-world This is a video guide on how to use Variants World (https://variants.world), which was created by chess.com to host an archive of previously submitted positions and to also serve as a submission platform. https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/variant-verdict-feed Once a variant has been reviewed, its verdict will be posted on the submission page, as well as on this thread linked above! There's a handy Q/A there as well, which will explain more on what the different results are. Golden Variants Golden Variants was started in 2021 as "Variant of the Week" and evolved into its current form in 2024. Want to know the most up-to-date information on how this weekly arena operates? These are some helpful threads! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-decembers-golden-variants-2025 This is the most recent Golden Variant announcement post, and shows the most recent voting format as well as information on how the arenas will operate. https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/2026-golden-variant-schedule This is a list of all variants that have been featured as a Golden Variant or Platinum Variant so far every week in 2026, along with arena dates and announcement posts from each month. https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/platinum-variant-hall-of-fame  This is an archive of all past Platinum Variant arenas. Here, you can quickly review the vote results and arena winners for every past Platinum Variant arena. Creator Challenges These started in 2025 with the creation of "Pocket Chess", a challenge where all variants participating had to fulfill certain variant design requirements. Want to see what influenced some of the variants submitted? Check out these challenges, made by the community! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/2025-challenge-pocket-chess Pocket Chess basic rules: Must have 6x6 board and use the RY color theme. Historical Threads You might hear references to things like "cgabot" and the "merge", or an important event, and you might have no idea what that's all about! These threads are historically important and can help explain past conventions. https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/cgabothttps://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/cgabot-2-0https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/cgabot-3-0 cgabot was a program that utilized chess.com's forum API to sort and automatically format forum threads, and was active during 2021-2023 before being replaced by Variants World. These 3 information posts detail the 3 different versions of cgabot. https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/variants-world-update Variants World is the current submission platform used that only requires chess.com account authentication to access! It does a lot of stuff that cgabot used to do but faster and much more efficiently. These information posts detail changes made to the website. https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/seeking-ncp-testers-apply-herehttps://www.chess.com/announcements/view/seeking-variant-testers-apply-herehttps://www.chess.com/announcements/view/become-a-variant-tester-apply-here NCV Testers are extensions of the CGA team and serve as helpers. Applications (like the ones listed above) are released every few months/years as members of the team fluctuate and as NCV Testers become CGAs.  https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/the-changes-to-the-variants-custom-games-after-the-merge The "merge" happened in 2022, and was the merging of 4 Player Chess with Variants. Many changes were made, which have been detailed above by a CGA. https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/festive-fortune-2024 A replacement of the traditional Holiday Hootenanny arena, Festive Fortune 2024 was the first ever prized event hosted by the modern Custom Variants club, and featured the WoF "Treehouse Battle" in a weeklong arena where the top 3 players earned a membership award. https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/all-variants-accepted-2024https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/all-variants-accepted-2025  These are compilations of all of the variants (both WoFs and NCVs) accepted in the last 2 years by a CGA, along with some extra statistics and fun facts! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/2024-golden-variant-schedulehttps://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/2025-golden-variant-schedule These are the schedules of all of the variants that were featured as a Golden Variant or Platinum Variant in previous years, along with the original arena dates as well as the announcement posts for each month. Historical Threads (4 Player Chess Club) Some important threads pertaining to custom variants were actually made prior to the creation of this club! These posts are a bit harder to track down, but here are the most notable ones! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/4pc-variant-custom-starting-position This was the original thread used for submitting NCVs (then called New Custom Positions or NCPs), in a format similar to the Workshop thread currently in this club. Many of these variants no longer exist on the current Variants server, but a select few have remained! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/fools-day-tournaments This was the first ever prized event held related to WoFs by the CGA team. Sixty 24-minute WoF arenas were played on Fools' Day in 2024, with the player who won the most of these arenas winning a membership prize. Ironically, 3 CGAs came in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, and they offered the prize to the 4th place player. Transparency/Progress Reports The CGAs here at chess.com are all volunteers. Nonetheless, we wish to be as transparent as possible, show what our process is, and own up to our mistakes. These are some reports written by @ChessMasterGS (a CGA) which have been released periodically in 2023 and 2024. https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/update-on-ncv-wof-testing-situation July 13, 2023 https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/update-on-ncv-wof-testing-situation-2 August 11, 2023 https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/update-on-ncv-wof-testing-situation-3 November 26, 2023 https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/announcement-regarding-recent-submissions March 4, 2024 https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/custom-variants-club-update July 1, 2024

Make sure to scroll all the way to the end of this post, since every rule is important! The minimum requirements for submission: Title Your variants.world post must be titled with the name of your custom variant. Default names that are automatically generated by the system (e.g., Custom position giveaway) are not accepted. Afterwards, select either NCV or WoF on the submission screen, according to whichever category the variant belongs to. Consult a CGA if you are unsure which one your variant belongs in. Testing games Links to the testing games of your variant you played. Number of games A minimum of 9 testing games (previously 10). Time span Testing games must be played over a span of more than 24 hours (the last game must be played at least a full day after the first one). Different players Testing games must include a minimum of 9 different players (previously 8). Final version We encourage you to continue making alterations throughout your testing games. That's the point, after all. If you decide to make changes and want to count the previous versions as part of your tests, you may do so, as long as the previous versions are similar enough to the final one, but please include an explanation of these changes with the links to those games. At least 5 of your testing games must be of the final version. The last played testing game will be considered the final version.We will not accept submissions with illegal time controls (e.g., time controls obtained using an exploit, like 8 min), and this is because this way it's easier to gauge what a good default time control is and makes the testing games more productive and practical.In addition, WoF variants must be tested with a hyperbullet or bullet time control in order to better simulate real play of the variant; blitz won't be accepted. NCVs should work in all time controls, so testing in any (although preferably blitz or rapid) will be accepted. No bots Testing games cannot include any bot players or alternate accounts. No aborts Testing games are not valid if they were aborted or quickly-resigned (two to five moves into the game).  Forbidden gamerules Rules that only serve to alter the appearance of the board or the pieces, such as Blindfold, Checky Chess, or Ghostboard are not allowed by default. Exceptions may apply in extremely rare cases. Limit of publications We no longer strictly limit publications (it was previously 2 every 7 calendar days). However, still be aware that making multiple low-effort variants does not mean the chances of one getting accepted will be higher; the standards are still essentially the same. Notes (optional) Any additional text to be included in the game's description, or notes about the variant (e.g., common themes you discovered in your testing, special requests to the CGA team, etc.). In the case that you are submitting a revision of a previously declined variant or making a "sequel" to an existing variant, it is highly recommended that you include the changes that you made and why you made those changes. The complete process of new variant submission on variants.world is shown in the post below: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/how-to-use-variants-world

Hello custom game creators and players! As you may already know, the event we've been waiting for has finally happened! While some haters do their work because of feeling uncomfortable in a new environment, we, custom positions (hereafter, variants) fans, are happy to see the new version of four player chess. However, if some are still not excited of the changes, let me introduce you to the new world of variants and show what you should like it for. Remember to check our PINNED forums which detail how to submit positions, what we're looking for, guides, and more! New Features Let's start with the most sweet part of the update – new game rules. We've got such new cool things as Atomic, Fog of War, Capture Anything, Sideways, Torpedo, Racing Kings, Allow Passing, Fatal Capture, Bare Piece. The Allow Passing rule doesn't need any introduction as the name speaks for itself. Players can skip their turns. In case each player skips his turn 2 times in a row, the game ends in a draw (everyone gains 10 points if it's Game of Points). According to the Fatal Capture rule, all pieces except pawns die when they capture. However, its combination with Atomic makes pawns die too as all exploded pieces die, rather than disappear. With the Bare Piece rule, players with only one remaining piece automatically lose (resign). There are also some insignificant rules such as Opposite Castling, Self-Check and Pieces Face Center. The first rule prevents players from castling to the same side as the opponent, and the third rotates the pieces according to who these pieces belong to. In addition to the new rules, we also got 4 new pieces—the xiangqi horse, dragon bishop, transparent brick, and duck (acts like a brick). You have no longer ask us to make walls invisible as you can now customize them yourself, and even combine visible bricks with transparent ones (and ducks)! Isn't that cool? Moreover, now you can also set promotion to bricks, both visible and transparent! Another exciting innovation is the ability to expand the board to a size of 14x14. There will no longer be annoying fixed 3x3 corners that do not allow us create positions we need. Small positions can now be full screen as the board size is also customizable (from 2x2 to 14x14). Categories All variants are now divided into 8 categories: Most Popular – The most popular variants. Common – Variants with standard 2P position and some game rules applied. Extra – Custom 2P variants. FFA – Custom FFA variants. Teams – Custom Teams variants. Featured 2P – The best custom 2P variants. Featured 4P – The best custom 4P variants. Giveaway – Variants with Giveaway rule (Antichess). The best means the most balanced, beginner-friendly, unique, and/or well-made. To maintain the popularity of custom variants and prevent hours of waiting for a single queue to fill up, we were forced to drop half of the custom variants. Therefore, now the requirements for the new custom variant (NCV) acceptance have grown more than ever. In order not to clutter up the list and keep the balance between the number of custom variants and their popularity, we will no longer be able to accept NCVs just because they are cool. Now they must be made in the best way and be the best among possible alternatives. More information about the changes of listed custom variants can be found here. Ratings This is another amazing thing that makes Variants super cool. We used to have only one rating for all custom variants, and a separate Hyper rating for all games which were played with the hyperbullet time controls (6 and 15 seconds, no increment). Now we no longer need to be afraid to play different variants, as each variant has its own rating! There are two types of ratings: dedicated and composite. Dedicated ratings can be created by admins and assigned to multiple variants. Each dedicated rating is divided by time control type and game mode. Thus, one dedicated rating defines up to 8 sub-ratings (FFA rapid, Teams rapid, FFA blitz, Teams blitz, etc.) Only "elite" variants use this rating: variants from Common and Featured categories (however with some exceptions). Composite ratings are based on multiple sub-ratings, such as <custom position> rating, KotH rating, N-check rating, blitz rating, etc. Composite ratings have a custom effect on sub-ratings defined for each variant. In this way, if some variants have KotH that is more important in terms of gameplay than, let's say, N-check, then KotH rating will change more than N-check rating. How much each sub-rating changes in a particular variant can be seen in the player-popup when this particular variant is opened. Most dedicated ratings, also affect composite ratings, but less. This is done so that variants with certain rules can affect the sub-ratings of these rules. Another interesting thing about ratings is gameplay type rating. There are 5 gameplay types defined: Materialistic, Tactical, Dynamic, Positional, and Strategic. More information about what they mean can be found here. How the rating system works in general is explained in this article. What's next? We've got a lot of new things that will inspire many custom variants creators. However, let's first try to explore all new features and realize what we can actually do, before asking us to make something rated or add something to the WoF rotation. While creating new variants is very enjoyable and interesting pastime, let's do not forget to play already created variants too! Otherwise we'll need to cut the list twice more :]

Welcome to the Custom Variants discussion forum. This club is a resource for anyone who enjoys custom variants, and is the principle way in which variant custom positions to be submitted for listing within variants can be discussed. To better allow for a productive and healthy exchange of ideas, there are a few rules that we ask all club members and commenters to follow. Please note that while on Variants World, these rules should still be adhered to. 6 Simple rules: Comments shared on the forum must have purpose and be related to custom variants. Do not advertise on this forum. No spam. Be kind to one another. Do not use this forum as a means to accuse another player of rule-breaking. This forum is moderated at the discretion of the admins, and by the admins alone. Posts and comments which do not follow these rules may be removed, edited or locked. Frequent abusers of these rules may be temporarily or permanently muted within this forum, or banned from this club entirely with or without warning. All rules and community guidelines for chess.com must be followed on this forum, even if not explicitly listed here. 1. Comments shared on this forum must have purpose and be related to custom variants. New post content must be discussion-worthy. Most posts in this forum are related to New Custom Variants (NCVs) and Wheel of Fortunes (WoFs), however content on our forums is not limited to only these types of posts. If interested in submitting an NCV or WoF, please observe the requirements for doing so, found in this thread. If posting a thread which doesn't concern an NCV or WoF, make sure the content discussed is relevant to other members or admins. If not, consider posting elsewhere, like to your personal profile (blogs). Posts showcasing a new custom variant idea should be posted in the Workshop thread. If sharing a novel gamerule or fairy piece idea, then a new thread can be used to explain it, but should be written with detail. If you are suggesting two or more very similar ideas, please limit your posts to one thread instead of one for each of the idea. Check to see if there are existing similarly-themed threads before creating a new one. Use the search bar to lookup keywords related to your topic. In many cases, questions being asked through new threads have already been answered and discussed more fully than what you'll receive by starting a new post. With questions on how the game is played, the rules, or mechanics, your questions can be forwarded directly to any 4PC admin or Custom Games Admin (CGA). This forum is devoted to custom variant discussion. Posts about theory, tactics, and other gameplay mechanics of standard 4PC or variants (Atomic, Chess960, etc.) generally belong on the main 4PC forum and/or Variants forum, although they may occasionally be relevant here. Threads about bugs and lag should be posted in the Bug Reports thread in the Variants club. 2. Do not advertise on this forum. Forum threads or comments inviting members to other clubs are not allowed, even if Custom Variants related. Forum threads or comments sharing information about YouTube / Twitch / Discord channels or servers are not permitted. The above 2 points may be waived on a case-by-case basis, but only with permission from a CGA. Do not offer products, to work for hire, or ask others to do so. 3. No spam. Threads and comments must support a larger overall discussion related to 4PC variants. Meaningless comments are not welcome. One- or two-word responses are meaningless. Comments such as "+1," "agree," or "lol" must be supported with further commentary. State why you agree or disagree with ideas, or what points you specifically support. Quote other users only when needed either in response, or to support / refute their words. Edit quotations to only the most pertinent excerpts, so as not to flood pages with words that have already been said. There is hardly ever significant enough reason to quote a user's entire posting in full. If commenting, share your opinions within one post. Posting multiple replies within the same thread sequentially is considered spam. If you need to add to your previous statements, edit that comment instead of creating a new one. If absolutely necessary, you are permitted to bump your own post once, and only once. "Bumping" refers to leaving a new comment on a thread in order to bring it back to the top of the list of recent posts in an effort to renew interest in it. If bumping your thread, please make an effort to add some new context or discussion to the topic. As a general rule of thumb, posts older and inactive for more than a month should not be bumped unless the above standard is met. 4. Be kind to one another. If the purpose of your discussion points is to be spiteful, is targeting another player / a group of players, this is not the place to share those ideas. We recommend resolving disputes privately through direct contact, but you still must be kind in these private communications or you may face punishment from chess.com support staff. If the situation calls for more immediate action, you may contact any 4PC admin directly or chess.com support. Do not use vulgar / sexually-explicit / unfriendly language, or promote hateful ideas. This includes racial, homophobic, and xenophobic slurs. This includes references to any illegal activity. This includes links to websites or channels which frequently violate this rule. This rule, and all others, applies no matter the language in which it's posted. Private information should not be shared. Be respectful of the information other players have decided to share about themselves. Sharing personal details about yourself is not a good idea and is discouraged, but sharing personal details about someone else without their consent is strictly prohibited. Do not solicit this information from other players. 5. Do not use this forum as a means to accuse or report another player of rule-breaking. Rule-breakers within Variants can be reported directly to admins within the server. More information on how to do so can be found here. Rule-breakers within this forum can be reported by directly messaging an admin. CGAs do not have the ability to moderate the Variants server; only Variants admins can. 6. This forum is moderated at the discretion of the admins, and by the admins alone. If we choose to take action or not take action on a forum thread, comment, or user, that action cannot be appealed. Having said that, if you are unsure about why an action was taken against you or your content, you may privately message an admin with inquiries. However, realize that we may not respond, or we may not answer your question fully. Our decisions are final, and will hardly ever be reversed. The rules listed above are given as guidelines for forum content. They are not the only rules we enforce, nor are they all enforced at all times. We act in the best interest of the 4PC variant community at large, and will, in most cases, be discrete and restrained in our moderation efforts. Do not mini-mod. If someone is breaking these rules deliberately, you may report them to the admins. Please include a link to where a rule was broken. The admin team is active on these forums, and uses discretion when enforcing these rules. Unless you believe a user is knowingly and purposefully breaking rules, or is doing so in a manner causing significant damage to this community, you may assume that it will be dealt with in due time, and according to the judgement of the admins. If reporting incidents to the admins, you may not receive a response, although we appreciate your suggestions and vigilance. The rules above may be changed at any time.

Hello custom variant players and creators! Did you know that mostly all of the custom variants available for play on 4 player chess/variants were submitted by members of the community? We love seeing your creativity, and if you're up for the task, we invite you to make chess variants even more fun by helping us make New Custom Variants (NCVs)! We have a dedicated team who review and maintain the custom positions and arena tournaments, called Custom Games Admins (CGAs). On this forum you can submit your creations to the CGA team for consideration, and the possibility of becoming a rated playable variant position. We run daily tournaments (on weekdays) where the positions can be partially luck-based and designed to be a faster, less-contemplative game. We call these positions and the tournaments the Wheel of Fortune (WoF). You can create and submit these positions too! More information on WoF can be found here! On Saturday/Sunday/Monday (UTC) weekly, we also run weekend tournaments of New Custom Variants, called "Golden Variant". These games are entirely skill-based and offer both casual and competitive players alike to try out variants, both new and old, that they may have never played before! ⚠ IMPORTANT NOTE: PLEASE READ! ⚠ Having your created variant available for anyone to play is a big deal! It's right to be excited by the prospect. However, if you're going to have your name attached to something, wouldn't you rather it be the best it can be? The CGA team cannot strongly enough emphasize that the testing you do on your custom position be thorough, and extensive. We've created a guide all about what makes good positions good, and bad positions bad. Please read and make sure you understand this guide before starting your journey into variant creation. In order to submit your NCV or WoF for consideration, make a new variants.world post (see information here) following the requirements detailed in this thread.  The CGA team is strict with these requirements, so we are kindly reminding you that if your post does not meet all of the criteria listed above, the position will not be evaluated until you fix the errors. Additionally, bear in mind that the variant-scape is ever-changing, and so although we will make every effort to preserve listed variants, some of them may be removed in the future.

NEW VARIANT IDEAS

Post for the previous month’s vote: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-aprils-golden-variants-2026Not sure on what some of the terms in this post mean? Have any other questions? See any typos? Feel free to ask and comment below!(Scroll down to the start of the bold headers if you want to know how to vote without reading my entire post 😀)Welcome back to another month of Golden Variants, Custom Variants!We’re coming up on another Platinum Variant vote, set to begin in June. Currently, 2 variants have been selected so far, but the remaining 3 candidates still remain; 2 will be voted in this month, and 1 early next month. As a reminder, all variants which become Emerald Variant or Golden Variant (excluding Golden Fortune) are eligible for the Platinum Variant vote for its respective quarterly cycle.Keeping everything brief for now, there’s not much else to go over this month except for recent CGA stats; for information on last month’s stats and preface, feel free to visit the link above to check it out again!Wheel of Fortunes (WoFs) Under Review (UR): 32New Custom Variants (NCVs) UR: 22Total Variants UR Currently: 54Variants Reviewed in the Last 2 Weeks: 30Variants Submitted in the Last 2 Weeks: 21Oldest NCV UR Currently (Overall): https://variants.world/posts/1956Oldest NCV UR Currently (Excluding NCV Tester/CGA-Made Variants): https://variants.world/posts/1961Oldest WoF UR Currently: https://variants.world/posts/2014As always, our verdict releases are always available at https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/variant-verdict-feed.Now, onto the voting!Format of this month’s GV cycle:Week 11 (May 2-9): Golden FortuneWeek 12 (May 8-May 22): Golden VariantWeek 13 (May 22-June 5): Golden VariantThe community will vote on all weeks in this month!See https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/2026-golden-variant-schedule for more info.The voting process:2 comments will be added below this main post with 5 variants listed each. You may use the hyperlinks on the variant names in order to see what the variant is if you are unfamiliar with any of them!Simply react to the comment with the emoticon corresponding to the variant you want to be featured to vote for it! You may vote for more than one variant, or even all 5 (that is, if you don’t want your vote to matter…)For the Golden Fortune vote, the winner will be selected for the Week 11 arena, whereas the top 2 in the Golden Variant vote will be selected for Week 12 and 13 respectively.The tallying for the Golden Fortune arena vote will close at approximately 0 UTC on May 3 (4 PM PST on May 2) since this post came out late. The arena’s time will be extended as needed to 168 hours.The tallying for the Golden Variant arenas vote will close at approximately 0 UTC on May 7 (4 PM PST on May 6).See an example of a previous vote below:Happy voting and may the best variants of 2026 win!

Some of these may be hard to understand, as it revolves around VW submissions, rather than variants itself. jack: hmmmm.... I see 9 points of material for white. Game: https://www.chess.com/variants/villagers-chess/game/72381096/62/1 yes I did mention specific individuals. sorry

I vgot some good variants but idk how to give their a name. PLEASE HELP

how do you create a varient I am a new member #help

Here at the CGA team, we have always historically valued player contributions and new variants very deeply. After all, the variants server wouldn’t be as rich with variety as it would be today without everyone in the variants community (and especially everyone here in the Custom Variants club).However, honestly, it’s getting way too hard to review everything. Have y’all seen how many variants are always Under Review at the same time? Would you take hours of time out of your lives to look at some random variants that probably won’t get accepted anyway?Starting today, and effective immediately after the publication of this post, we are CLOSING ALL VARIANT SUBMISSIONS PERMANENTLY. All variants currently Under Review will be declined in the coming weeks and months, although that depends on if I want to watch Minecraft videos on YouTube (here’s my favorite one: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KrlkXOxlvCk) first or if I can click through the CGA menu fast enough for my attention span to not get bored.With all of these variants out of the way, we can focus on new projects. Like deleting every variant currently on the server (yes, including 4PC!) and replacing them with new CGA creations. All it takes is for me to hit that trash can icon a few hundred times and the entire server will become empty. With the CGA super-majority, we will have +5/-0 votes on every single new variant submission in no time. I can finally have my dream of “67-Player Chess” become a reality without people accusing me of “admin abuse”. What a ridiculous argument.Summary of Post (Click Me)A Separation of Powers: The Case Against CGA Review of Custom Variant SubmissionsIn the high-stakes world of clinical genomics, the Clinical Genetic Analyst (CGA) acts as the ultimate gatekeeper between raw sequencing data and life-altering medical reports. Their role is defined by precision, adherence to standardized guidelines (such as the ACMG/AMP criteria), and clinical objectivity. However, as personalized medicine expands, there is increasing pressure for labs to accept "custom variant submissions"—interpretations or specific variants flagged by external researchers or clinicians that may not meet standard laboratory thresholds.While the desire to incorporate every possible lead is understandable, tasking CGAs with the review of these custom submissions is a strategic mistake. It threatens the integrity of the clinical pipeline, introduces significant liability, and compromises the objectivity essential to diagnostic medicine.1. The Conflict of Standardization vs. SubjectivityThe backbone of clinical genomics is reproducibility. CGAs operate within a framework designed to ensure that a variant classified as "Likely Pathogenic" in one lab would be viewed similarly in another. Custom submissions, by their very nature, often bypass this rigor. They are frequently based on:In-house research data that has not been peer-reviewed.Anecdotal "clinical intuition" from a treating physician.Functional assays that lack clinical validation.When a CGA is asked to review these, they are forced to step out of the "Standard Operating Procedure" (SOP) and into the scientific Wild West. Attempting to reconcile a researcher’s "gut feeling" with strict clinical criteria creates a cognitive dissonance that slows down the pipeline and introduces dangerous levels of subjectivity into a process that demands absolute consistency.2. The Burden of Liability and "The Signed Name"In a clinical setting, the CGA (and the signing director) bears the legal and ethical responsibility for the report. If a CGA approves a custom variant based on external data they cannot personally verify, they are essentially "signing off" on someone else’s homework.If that "custom" evidence later proves to be a false positive, the liability rests with the clinical lab, not the external researcher who submitted the suggestion. Expecting CGAs to vet external data—without the same access to the primary raw data or the experimental environment where it was produced—places them in an untenable position. It asks them to vouch for the unknown.3. Resource Allocation and the "Research Rabbit Hole"Clinical labs are already facing a massive bottleneck in data interpretation. CGAs are highly trained professionals whose time is best spent navigating validated clinical databases and internal cohorts.Reviewing custom submissions is notoriously time-consuming. It often requires:Extensive back-and-forth communication with the submitter.Manual searching of obscure literature to find the "missing link" the submitter claims exists.Re-analyzing data outside of the automated bioinformatics pipeline.Diverting CGA resources to these "boutique" reviews reduces the laboratory's overall throughput, ultimately delaying results for the vast majority of patients whose cases follow standard diagnostic paths.4. Preservation of Clinical ObjectivityThere is a subtle but real psychological pressure involved in custom submissions. When a clinician or researcher submits a specific variant they "believe" is the cause of a patient's disease, it creates a confirmation bias.The CGA’s role is to be a skeptical observer. By forcing them to engage with these pre-selected "interesting" variants, the lab risks turning the analyst from an objective judge into a proofreader for the submitter’s hypothesis. To maintain the "blinded" integrity of clinical classification, the analysis should remain independent of external expectations.ConclusionThe bridge between research and the clinic is vital, but the Clinical Genetic Analyst is not the proper vehicle for that crossing. To protect the quality of clinical reports and the mental bandwidth of the analysts, custom variant submissions should be handled by a dedicated Research-to-Clinic Liaison or an independent Review Board.By keeping CGAs focused on standardized, validated data, labs ensure that clinical reports remain the "gold standard" of truth, rather than a collection of unverified scientific leads. The integrity of the diagnostic report depends not on how much information we include, but on the rigorous quality of what we allow to pass the gate.

https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/thermophylae-bug-or-feature Here is the post. As green, I made blue stalemated and captured red's ferz royal. (This was possible by having Yellow's King move)

The automatic 4p grouping makes 4p chess a little bit unfair because some people are just starting and go against the "grandmasters" in 4p chess.

there are no more futer bots avaibles in 4 player games?