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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

Post for the previous month's vote:https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-mays-golden-variants-2025 Not 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 text if you want to know how to vote without reading my entire post 😀) Hello Custom Variants community! Okay, starting this off with a (funny?) comment: I accidentally closed the tab that I was drafting this post on after working for around 2 hours, so apologies if any part of this looks rushed, I'm trying to redo everything before I forget what I wrote lol Anyway; June is here! We're glad that all of you in the community (around 8.5k to be exact) are here with us! As variants steadily gets more popular, and custom variants along with it, we want to make sure that everyone has the best experience possible, and we can't do it without everyone here making variants, giving feedback, and helping us out! To newer members, welcome! We at the CGA team encourage you to look through this thread: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/custom-variants-club-directory, which contains more information than you ever thought you needed about custom variants, variants history, and the wonderful world of variant creation! As a short note, I'd like to dedicate this section to congratulating @MegaThief and co-author @imchesspro0930 on their variant "Qiang-Xiangqi" (https://www.chess.com/variants/qiang-xiangqi/), which is the newest variant on this server! Their variant was accepted after 5 revisions; truly a dedication! You can see their final revision and the accepted version at https://variants.world/posts/1558.  To top the announcement section of this off, if any of you here are interested in contributing to custom variants on a deeper level and aid us in testing and voting, then the NCV Tester application is for you! We just opened our newest round of selection, and the form is open thru June 30, although we recommend you fill it out sooner than later As usual, here are some CGA stats for the past few days/weeks: There are 95 variants currently Under Review (UR, not including bugged variants). Of those 95 variants, 55 are NCVs and and 40 are WoFs. In the last 7 days, 17 new variants have been posted. In that same time period, CGAs and NCV Testers have reviewed and released verdicts on 13 variants, with hopefully more to come (we promise we're trying to keep up!!) Now, let's get into the voting! See the full 2025 schedule as it is updated here: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/2025-golden-variant-schedule This month's format: 4 week-long (168-hour) arenas, starting in June at 5 PM PST on Fridays / 0 UTC on Saturdays, including: 3 "Golden WoF" arenas, consisting of the winners of Votes #1, #2, and #3.  1 Platinum Variant arena, featuring the winner of Vote #4 (more info below!) What you're voting for: Weeks 1-3 (June 6, 13, 20) will include Wheel of Fortune variants; Votes #1 and #2 will have candidates from the iconic "Pocket Chess" challenge, a community driven initiative to create variants with a common theme of a 6x6 board; Vote #3 will have candidates from the newly minted "Wheel of Fortune" section on the variants server, featuring some throwbacks from previous years in the world of Custom Variants. Week 4 (June 27) will be the Q2 edition of the Platinum Variant arena, which will be held on the last week of the month. The winning variant will also be pinned to the top of the "Extra" list for a determined period of time! What is Platinum Variant? Platinum Variant was introduced in 2024 as part of the revival of the Golden Variant cycle. Platinum Variant votes are special votes held once every 3 months (quarter, hence "Q1", "Q2", etc.) Candidates are the five Golden Variants with the most arena activity from a given quarter Winners of the Platinum Variant vote are considered the fastest rising variants and are projected become even more popular in the future Previous winners include: Minihouse (by @MrKheese, 2024 T1 Winner) Ambush (by @coolthing, 2024 T2 Winner) Saturn's Rings (by @asthebird, 2024 T3 Winner) Explosive Magic (by @BN1208, 2025 Q1 Winner) And more to come! What are the candidates for this quarter? In no particular order, announcing the Q2 candidates... Leapers (by @imchesspro0930) Enchanted Woodland (by @2bHNST) Infiltration Danger (by @RALRAL3333) The Pestilence's Conquest (by @JkCheeseChess) Ashtandrez (by @martinaxo) Get ready to vote for your favorite variant! Prizes: Pending staff sponsorship approval, the Platinum Variant arena will have membership prizes for the top 3 finishers! 1st (tentative): 1 month membership 2nd (tentative): 1 month membership 3rd (tentative): 1 month membership The voting process: Copied from last month: "Because [March's] voting format using Chess.com's forum comment reactions have shown to be much more popular and accessible [than StrawPoll], we will continue to use them for future votes." For example: The 4 comments below this post will be the voting platform; use designated reactions to vote for variants! You may vote for more than one variant on each vote! The winners of each vote will be selected; there will be only one winner for each vote this month, and each of the winners will be featured in their respective assigned week. Reminder: The winner of Vote #4 will become the 2025 Q2 Platinum Variant! The polling for Votes #1, #2, and #3 will close on June 6, 0 UTC The polling for Vote #4 will close on June 20, 0 UTC Happy voting and may the best variants win!

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: 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. 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.

Unfortunately if you live in a country where YouTube is blocked, this video won't work, but if requested I'll make a version that doesn't use YouTube as the embed provider

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. 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

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. 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-mays-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/2025-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 2025, along with arena dates and announcement posts from each month. 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-2024 This is a compilation of all of the variants (both WoFs and NCVs) accepted in 2024 by a CGA, along with some extra statistics and fun facts! https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/2024-golden-variant-schedule This is a list of all variants that were featured as a Golden Variant or Platinum Variant in 2024, 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

2024's Schedule: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/2024-golden-variant-schedule This is a resource page that will be locked and will be linked on Golden Variant announcement posts (since the list was getting too long last year), and will be updated monthly in 2025 after Golden Variants for a month have been decided on.  Relevant announcement posts for voting have also been included below. (Dates are based off the PST/PDT timezones and are in Month/Day format) 2025 SCHEDULE Week 1 (1/3): Sergeant's Checkers II Week 2 (1/10): The Lake Week 3 (1/17): Explosive Magic Week 4 (1/24): Cross Derby Week 5 (1/31): Acheron Week 6 (2/7): Rookmate Week 7 (2/14): Villagers Chess Week 8 (2/21): Euler's Game Week 9 (2/28): Phantom Rooks Week 10 (3/7): Red Sentinels (CGA Picked WoF) Week 11 (3/14): Barricade (CGA Picked WoF) Week 12 (3/21): Cloister (CGA Picked WoF) Week 13 (3/28): Explosive Magic (Platinum Variant Q1) Week 14 (4/4): The Pestilence's Conquest Week 15 (4/11): Leapers Week 16 (4/18): Inferno Week 17 (4/25): Enchanted Woodland Week 18 (5/2): Simplicity (FFA) Week 19 (5/9): Villagers Chess II Week 20 (5/16): Infiltration Danger Week 21 (5/23): Ashtandrez Week 22 (5/30): Emperor's Tomb Week 23 (6/6): TBD (Pocket Chess WoF) Week 24 (6/13): TBD (Pocket Chess WoF) Week 25 (6/20): TBD (Listed WoF) Week 26 (6/27): TBD (Platinum Variant Q2) Week 27 (7/4): TBD Week 28 (7/11): TBD Week 29 (7/18): TBD Week 30 (7/25): TBD Week 31 (8/1): TBD Week 32 (8/8): TBD Week 33 (8/15): TBD Week 34 (8/22): TBD Week 35 (8/29): TBD Week 36 (9/5): TBD Week 37 (9/12): TBD Week 38 (9/19): TBD Week 39 (9/26): TBD (Platinum Variant Q3) Week 40 (10/3): TBD Week 41 (10/10): TBD Week 42 (10/17): TBD Week 43 (10/24): TBD Week 44 (10/31): TBD Week 45 (11/7): TBD Week 46 (11/14): TBD Week 47 (11/21): TBD Week 48 (11/28): TBD Week 49 (12/5): TBD  Week 50 (12/12): TBD Week 51 (12/19): TBD Week 52 (12/26): TBD (Platinum Variant Q4) Italics indicates a variant not eligible for the Platinum Variant vote, e.g., Golden WoFs. ANNOUNCEMENT POSTS January: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-januarys-golden-variants-2025 February: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-februarys-golden-variants-2025 March: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-marchs-golden-variants-2025 April: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-aprils-golden-variants-2025 May: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-mays-golden-variants-2025 June: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-junes-golden-variants-2025 July: TBD August: TBD September: TBD October: TBD November: TBD December: TBD

Hello variant creators! Today I will be taking you through the different tools and options in the new variants server board editor. Most of these tools are exactly the same as they were before the merge, but their locations may have changed and there are still some people out there who don't know what they do anyway. Hopefully, this makes the creating process much faster and easier. We'll start off by first finding out where the editor is. Previously, there was a button that took you right to the analysis board, but this time you'll have to go onto the variants homepage and click on "4 Player Chess" (it doesn't really matter which one actually, you just have to click on one of the games to reach the analysis board). You can also use the hotkey "A" (enable keyboard shortcuts first) to get there quickly. You can click on any of the games listed on the homepage to access the analysis board and editor. You will be taken to a page that looks like this (focus on the right sidebar): This is the page mentioned above. Click on "Edit Position", as shown above, to access the board editor. Once you've done that, you can see all the options to create your custom position. The first option you will see (disregarding the "Analysis" and "Play" buttons which are self-explanatory) is the "Symmetric Editing" button. If this is enabled, based on how many players there are in the game, whenever you place or remove a piece or wall in one square, it will automatically add or remove three other pieces (they are the same) or walls on squares in such a way that it creates 4-way symmetry. Many custom variants are symmetrical in every direction, such as Ocean's Mini or Arena of Legends. You can use these as references if you don't understand what I'm talking about. The button is right below the green "Analysis" and "Play" buttons. Below that, you have the dropdown menu for presets. Most of these are listed custom variants, but some are miscellaneous, such as "Empty 8x8" and "4P Giveaway 960". This is the preset dropdown menu (not all presets are shown). Right below the preset dropdown menu are these other dropdown menus and buttons. There are two dropdown menus and two buttons. The two dropdown menus consists of even numbers ranging from 2 to 14 (not odd because that messes with symmetry and promotion), which you can use to specify the board size. For example, this is what a board with size 4 x 12 would look like: Note that the board itself will always be square, which is why there are transparent bricks around the board to create the effect of it only being a 4 x 12 board. If you want to remove these, click the button next to the dropdown menu, as explained below. The first button is just a board expansion button—when pressed, it expands the board to a square with transparent bricks (as shown above) and when pressed again shrinks it back to its preset size, which in this case is 4 x 12. This next button is the "Edit Rules" button, which is self-explanatory: press the button and you can access game rules (and yes, more presets, including some of your own templates). This is the "Edit Rules" button, located below the presets dropdown menu. This is the menu for selecting game rules for your custom variant. Experiment with different game rules and create cool concepts revolving around these rules. This is a list of more presets (again, not all are shown here). This tab is where you can save your game rule presets as templates. I currently don't have any saved, however, as I don't find this option all that useful. These buttons are where you select the game mode for your custom variant.  Depending on which game mode you have selected, the game rules will change (i.e., self-partner in teams, diplomacy in FFA). Once you're done with selecting your game rules, you can click the green "Close Rules" button. Below that is the menu where you can select pieces/bricks and place them on the board. As you might notice, there are a total of six buttons. Four of them are for the four different colors—one for each color, though this varies based on how many players you want to have in your variant—one of them is for dead pieces, and one of them is for bricks. This is the menu for selecting pieces and bricks. Notice the two buttons, whose purposes will be explained shortly. The button underlined in green is another expansion button, which simply shows all the pieces for all the colors in the same menu (including bricks): This is the expanded menu (without fairy pieces). The other button, underlined in red, shows all the fairy pieces. The expanded menu with fairy pieces looks like this: This is the expanded menu (with fairy pieces). For a list of all the fairy pieces, their names, and their move sets, you can read through this useful article. Moving on, we reach one of the final and most important sections, where extra options are located. This section is where the player to move can be selected, which colors are dead (not playing, do not get a turn), and more, which can be see by clicking the grey "More Options" button. The "More Options" button isn't shown here, however, the options that can be seen after clicking the button are shown. If you set a certain color to be dead, you can still gain points for capturing pieces of that color, but that color cannot move. (To set dead pieces that you cannot gain points for capturing, see the piece menu above.) Here is an example: In this image, red is dead, but red pieces are still worth points. Blue is also dead, but blue's pieces are grey, and thus are not worth any points. The next button is the "Set Royals" button, which is self-explanatory. You press the button, then click on four pieces to set the royal pieces for each color. This is the "Set Royals" button. This is what the menu looks like after pressing the button. After that, there are three rows of switches. There are four switches in each row—one for each color. The "Kingside Castling" and "Queenside Castling" switches are self-explanatory, so I will only be explaining the "Zombie" switches. Note, however, that players can only castle in both directions if the royal piece is in between two rooks. If you set a player to be a zombie, that activates extra options. That color playing as the zombie is alive and is worth points but isn't controlled by a human, rather a computer that plays like the one specified in the dropdown menu (shown below). If a zombie is set to be immune, other players (human or computer) can't capture that zombie's pieces. Regular zombies are depicted by circles around the pieces and immune zombies have squares around their pieces. This is the extra options menu for zombie players. Notice the dropdown menu where you can choose what kind of computer the zombie plays like, such as a Muncher, where the computer captures pieces whenever possible, or a Checker, where the computer attacks a player's royal whenever possible. The default setting is Rando, where the computer makes 100% random moves. The next two menus are related to pawns. The "En Passant" dropdown menus aren't all that useful, unless you want to have en passant available on the first move for each player, which (I'm pretty sure) none of the already listed custom variants have. I suggest you disregard these options, but you can still use them if necessary. Disregarding the "En Passant" menus, we are left with the "Pawns Home Rank" dropdown menu, which is basically where you choose the starting rank of the pawns—again, self-explanatory. Whichever rank you choose as the starting rank—and the rank behind it—is where pawns can move two squares on their first move.  The home rank for the pawns in this position is the 5th rank. Therefore, pawns on both the 5th and 4th ranks can move two squares on their first move, but neither the pawns on the 3rd nor the 6th can. And finally, we've reached the FEN4 of the position. The FEN4 of the position is like the "code" for the position. Every position has a distinct FEN4 which you can change if necessary, although I don't tend to do it. There are some "extra" options that you can have in your custom positions that you can only change with the FEN4 and PGN4, but those are complicated, so I might make another post just for them. Those are all the options in the board editor, so once you're done creating your variant, click the green "Analysis" button all the way at the top to go back to the analysis board. Once you've done that, you can save it as a template, or save it to your device by clicking the "Download PGN4" button on the right, as shown here: This is the "Download PGN4" button. Make sure to name your position, as it will be much easier to find when you come back to it later! After you've saved a PGN4, you can open it by clicking the "Open" button and finding your variants. You can also edit the PGN4 directly and load the changes by clicking the "Load" button. There are also the "Clear PGN" and "Copy PGN" buttons, symbolized by the trash can and the double squares. And that's all there is to it! Feel free to message me if you think I missed something that should be added. Anyway, thanks for reading all the way through this guide and I hope it helps you with your creating process!

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 submit your NCV or WoF for consideration, make a new variants.world post 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.

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

Why can't humans set up bricks/ducks in game when futers can in analysis? I'm trying to recreate Amazons (look up Elwyn Berlekamp) which revolves around this feature (sort of). https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/84275858/12/3

Very hard puzzle!https://www.chess.com/variants/tinyhouse

I will give 4 variants, try to find one thing that they all belong on.  These aren't nessecerily accepted NCV's! These will get harder as they go, when someone gets one correct, I will put the next variant lists. First one: XXL Chess Sparks of Hope Behind The Mirror Unison Solver: BlueYoshi21 and jackityjackjack Set 2:  Rubicon Pit Racer Minihouse Crazy Cavalier Solver: BlueYoshi21 Set 3: Salvation Bastions Villagers Chess Ambush The Triune Wasp Solver: wolyn Set 4: Counterturn Unison Salvation Bastions Storming The Castle Solver: NoWellOkay Set 5: Enchanted Woodland Villagers Chess The X of Tricks Behind The Scenes Solver: NoWellOkay Set 6: Golden Ratio Tag Team Blind Box Rookmate Solver: NoWellOkay Set 7: Courier Chess Chaturanga Atomic Chess 960 Solver: NoWellOkay Set 8: Thermopylae Villagers Chess Inferno Warp Speed Unison The Four Horsemen THIS IS OPEN, YOU WILL GET A POINT FOR THE PATTERN. Solver: NoWellOkay Set 9: The Lake Every End Warui-Shogi Saturn's Rings Solver: NoWellOkay Set 10: Grasshopper Arena Color Blinds Throne War Mini Together Solver: VishTheFish771 Set 11: Euler's Game Racing Kings Caught In A Snag Phalanx Solver: wolyn Set 12: The X of Tricks The Four Horsemen Detour Inferno Solver: VishTheFish771 Set 13: Castle on a Hill Salvation Bastions Chaturdrez Behind The Scenes

Hi everybody, I don't know if this is the right place to ask this, but I was wondering why this rule was present in the crazyhouse settings. Of course, once one player times out the game ends, but if the opponent only has a king left (or a Knight or Bishop, even though I didn't test these), then it is a draw, while he could still grab some pieces from his opponent, and make them appear. Imagine for example that white, with let's say a Bishop on the board and nothing else except for a king, forks two rooks. Then black could just wait for his clock to run out and time-out, while white has insufficient material ? I don't really get it... If anyone could explain why this rule is as it is, it would be much appreciated... Thanks !

-2 points???????

Here's an idea for a new variant:The chessboard is expanded to 14x14You still have the same pieces, plus three of two new pieces, the Princess and the Prince.Other than that, the game also requires a D20 to play.The new pieces work like so:The Prince allows you to move like the queen - but only up to four spaces.When moving, roll a D20.----Roll a 1-3: Moves in the exact opposite way you said it should (. 3 tiles SW would turn to 3 tiles NE)----Roll anything else: NormalIf there is no princess on the board:----Roll a 1-8: Moves in the exact opposite way you said it should----Roll a 9 or 10: Self-destructs----Roll anything else: NormalNow for the Princess; the Princess has a unique moveset that only triggers when a Prince is targeted.It may capture any piece that threatens a Prince (aka, putting it in "check"), but with some downsides:When moving this piece, roll a D20.----Roll a 1 or 2: Self-destructs----Roll anything else: NormalIf more than one Prince is alive:----Roll a 1 or 4: Self-destructs----Roll a 5: Kills a random Prince on your side----Roll anything else: Normal

Y-0,0,0,0-1,0,1,1-1,0,1,1-0,0,0,0-0-{'resigned'null,true,null,true),'zombieType''comfuter','checker_comfuter','comfuter','muncher_comfuter'),'dim':'10x10','noCorners':true}-x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x/x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x/x,x,yR,yN,yB,yB,yK,yN,yR,X,gδ,gR,x,x/x,x,yβ,yα,yγ,yδ,yγ,yα,yβ,X,gB,1,x,x/x,x,7,X,2,x,x/x,x,10,x,x/x,x,7,X,X,X,x,x/x,x,X,X,X,7,x,x/x,x,10,x,x/x,x,2,X,7,x,x/x,x,2,X,rF,rα,rβ,rδ,rδ,rγ,rW,x,x/x,x,bQ,1,X,1,rE,rH,rK,rH,rE,1,x,x/x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x/x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x (Not sad face there but more code)

why did the points split? https://www.chess.com/variants/4-player-chess/game/84188493/168/2