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You've probably seen a message like this while browsing declined variants:    Just a short reason! Did the CGAs fall asleep before writing the decline reason??  Then you look at the time the variant was posted: an hour ago!  What are autodeclines?  The scenario you just saw was of an autodeclined variant, and you might be wondering a lot of things about how they work and why they exist! A variant is autodeclined for a variety of reasons, and we'll touch on 6 of the major reasons in this post, as well as give real examples of them:  Reason #1: Forced Win/Draw  Reason #2: Forced Opening  Reason #3: Lack of Strategy  Reason #4: Requirements Not Met (RNM)  Reason #5: Similarity to Previously Accepted/Declined Variants and Reusing Concepts  Reason #6: Plagiarism  An autodecline is when a variant is declined before testing or after a very short test, and is done only by a CGA, and not NCV Testers. CGAs will never autodecline a variant without being confident, as this is an individual decision that still requires mindfulness of the guidelines. We don't autodecline a variant because we dislike the creator, or because of any other personal bias. Autodeclines happen because CGAs identify key features of a variant that are flawed enough to warrant immediate feedback; after all, it would be a shame to wait potentially weeks for the entire official testing team to vote on a variant, only to find out that there was a big issue there the entire time...  (Note: In variants shown today that have Fog of War, the fog will be removed so that the screenshot can be clearer.)  Reason #1: Forced Win/Draw  (Variants used as example: https://variants.world/posts/288 and https://variants.world/posts/314)  Generally, saying that a variant has a forced win for one side or that it's a draw is hard to do because a human mind can't take into account all the possible lines. Of course, we have Fairy Stockfish on our side, but that's really only viable in some cases. The testing team of CGAs and NCV Testers still need to examine the variant for a variety of things, past just using an eval bar.  However, there are some cases where the CGAs can easily look at the variant and analyze it, with "WoF | Foggy Valley" and recently declined "WoF | A" being an example.  In Foggy Valley, we start with this position, and immediately we can see an issue: since this is Fog of War, there is no way for Black to know if White's amazon is checking the Black king. For example, when White plays Af5+:  Black is now faced with a dilemma of whether or not to move Kd3. Again, they have no idea whether or not White is checking them. For all they know, White could've moved Ae5 instead, in which case they would be moving their king into check, losing the game.  In this case, White would almost certainly have a forced win, as they play this psychological game on their opponent. The game is neither fun nor balanced.    In A, players must place down 2 pieces: an amazon and a king, on the two backmost squares. Because there aren't many options for moving, it's again pretty easy to tell with just a bit of analysis what will happen. With perfect play, this is the position reached on the 6th move:    And now, no side can make any progress, due to the blockade! Thus, we can confidently say that this is a forced draw.   Reason #2: Forced Opening  (Variant used as example: https://variants.world/posts/215)  Although this is one of the main features of a forced win or draw, it's definitely deserving of its own reason just because of the wide variety of scenarios it can occur in.   Forced opening autodeclines generally occur when there is a distinct line of opening moves at the start that make the starting position redundant. Confused? Just ask yourself when looking a variant: "Would this variant make sense if the position after the opening was made the starting position?"  Let's look at "NCV | The Chaotic Structure" as an example.  Here, you are given 120 points and a piece bank to setup pieces before the start of the game. Sergeants can be placed on the 5th and 6th rank. Now, because this has atomic and fog of war as gamerules, getting "cannon fodder" (basically, pieces you can just throw at your opponent) is really important. As a result, this is what the position is after the 16th move:  Going back the question I posed at the start and changing it up a bit, let's ask: "Is it really necessary to make players sit through these 16 moves just for the same position to be reached every time?"  If you answered no, then you'd be correct. Although this variant is not necessarily a forced draw and has some decent gameplay, the opening is basically redundant, which is why it was autodeclined.  Reason #3: Lack of Strategy  (Variant used as example: https://variants.world/posts/292)  Lack of strategy is applicable whenever a variant is simple enough that a player can make random or the most basic moves and still keep the balance going.  This is usually tied into Reason #1 as well, but there is another definition that is not as related: lack of strategy can also be apparent when it relies too heavily on bots deciding the outcome of the game (usually those that you can't manipulate, and especially those that are immune to being captured).     In "WoF | Race to Liberty", Yellow moves first in this battle for KOTH on the furthermost rank, and Blue and Red are immune Futers that move toward Yellow and Green. This is an important thing to remember for later on, since it can really affect the outcome of the game.  Generally, Yellow will win by default since they will reach the Hill first. In that case, this variant would be autodeclined mainly because of Reason #1, but see above for a possible position...  Here, Yellow did nothing wrong and kept moving their king up. However, the blue xiangqi horses blocked the path, letting Green finish first by pure luck.   When we are discussing WoFs (being short for Wheel of Fortune), they're fast-paced variants that may have a small element of luck, in a way that makes the variant fun to play. This does NOT mean that variants can be forced, or that a player's complete dominance of a game can be instantly reversed by no fault of their own by a bot's moves.   (See here for more information: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/4pc-wheel-of-fortune-information-1)  Reason #4: Requirements Not Met (RNM)  You might be asking me now: "GS, wasn't the RNM tag removed once we moved to Variants World (https://variants.world)?"  Well, yes, but also not quite.  Since we moved to Variants World, the system has been great at automatically detecting when requirements aren't being met. For example, if you tried to submit a variant where the gamerules were different in every game, you'd be barred from even submitting that variant.   However, autodeclines for RNM can still happen after a variant has been posted, for a few small reasons:  The variant's testing games were played with the intention of toeing the requirements (e.g., the requirements state games need to be at least 5 moves long and not have early resignations, and someone plays a game that is 6 moves long on purpose.)  The title of the variant is a default name (e.g., Custom position Giveaway Hill).  The title of the variant is irrelevant to the variant, inappropriate, political for no reason, controversial, and/or offensive (e.g., the 69th Battalion of the Federalist Party of Flat Earth Spider-Man)  The shape of the variant is clearly obscene and/or meant to offend others (e.g., a variant that uses walls to spell out "KKK").  There actually haven't been many variants declined for these reasons, and so there's not much need to give an example here, as it seems pretty straightforward already.  Generally, the CGAs will give 24 hours notice for the author to explain why the issues are present (e.g., was it an accident, can this issue be fixed, etc.) before declining the variant, but in some cases they won't do so.  Reason #5a: Similarity to Previously Accepted/Declined Variants  (Variants used as examples: https://variants.world/posts/24)  "NCV | Knightchess" is one of those classic examples that every variant creator should know! I mean, it's even on the NCV Tester Application, which hasn't closed yet, and yet here I am spoiling the answer to that question...  "Knight Chess", "Upgraded Chess", "Fairy Knight Chess", etc., are all names for variant of a similar concept where pieces in a standard position are replaced with their fairy counterparts.  For more scenarios where variants can be autodeclined, check out the guide I made back in February of this year:  (See: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/how-not-to-make-a-variant)  We can't really accept this variant because: a.) we already tested variations of this variant in the past and they weren't fun to play and were declined and b.) no effort was put into actually creating the variant.  Reason 5b: Reusing Concepts  (Variants used as examples: https://variants.world/posts/10163 / https://variants.world/posts/326, https://variants.world/posts/231 / https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/ncp-thermopylae-1)  This is a tricky one to explain, mainly because this is something that usually used as a reason for declining after the entire testing team has tested a variant, and not an autodecline. In addition, it's not something that we started autodeclining for until March of this year.   Regardless, @qilp (our head CGA)'s announcement/guide is extremely helpful. It even has a TL;DR, which explains it much better than I could've, and I strongly urge anyone reading this to read that as well.  (See: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/how-to-make-new-variants-accepted)  Here's one example:  In "WoF | ☉" (shown on the left), the premise of the game is to gain control of the board by utilizing sergeants. In the variant, you have to strategically plan captures in order to not blunder or allow KOTH, checkmate, or promotion. In "WoF | Lobotomy Force" (shown on the right), a similar thing is happening, where sergeants battle it out in the hopes of getting to the other end and promoting in order to checkmate the enemy royal.   Both of these are using the same concept of "board of sergeants battle to try to get to other side", and while ☉ was accepted, Lobotomy Force was not, since it didn't really feel like it added a lot to the concept. In other words, it's a discussion of "why should I play this variant when this really similar and better implemented variant already exists?"  In a similar fashion, we can also see this in "NCV | Thermopylae" and "WoF | Fun Chess". Try to see if you can see why Fun Chess (on the right) was declined by noting the similarities and differences in execution of the concept!  Reason #6: Plagiarism  We all know what plagiarism is in writing from our language arts classes in school, but how does that work in custom variants creation?  In variants, plagiarism, in essence, is taking someone else's work without crediting them and/or without putting your own twist on it. In some cases even if you credit someone, it's still plagiarism. See below for our definition on it:  If you...  submit a variant that someone else made before they got to submit it, it's PLAGIARISM (even if you got permission!).  submit a variant that you worked with somebody else on and didn't credit them, it's PLAGIARISM (by dictionary definition not necessarily, but it's still rule-breaking!)  submit a variant that has already been declined or accepted, it's PLAGIARISM.  submit a revised version of a variant that has been declined and the author didn't give you permission, it's PLAGIARISM, unless the post is extremely old. Contact a CGA if you have concerns.  submit a "sequel" to a variant that has already been accepted, it's NOT PLAGIARISM.  Again, this should be pretty clear, and it's a (potentially) bannable offense, so I'm not going to give any real examples on this either   What can I do to avoid getting my variant autodeclined?  To answer that question, don't be too stressed about it! These are things you should already be looking out for when testing variants in general. Getting autodeclined isn't common per say, so this post was just made to address the small rise in variants that fall under the category. The #1 thing I will ALWAYS recommend is to test effectively! Some tips that I always found useful while creating variants (3 of which have been accepted, although others have more than 10) before I became a CGA and some things I learned are:  While testing, experiment and test with multiple time controls. Slow time controls (like 10|15) are good for weeding out balance and opening issues, and fast time controls (like 1 min) are good for seeing if the variant is still fun to play in speed chess (and in the case of WoFs, just in general).    Test with people of varying skill levels. In many cases, inviting a CGA to your testing sessions is one of the best things that will ever happen to you, especially if you ask them to give honest feedback. A random player who accidentally stumbles into your variant might give you some insight on how a new player might play your variant if it were accepted, but they aren't going to give you any personal feedback.    When testing with a friend, for some of your testing games, delegate one person to be attacker and another defender. This is really helpful when testing to see if one color can win by force, shuffle and force a draw, if the strategy is too dry, etc. The defending player can also play for a draw, and see if draws can be forced, especially on small boards and simple variants like "WoF | A", which I talked about in earlier this post. CGAs love to use this when testing variant submissions, and you can do it too!    Go wild: Try the most ridiculous ideas, like moving your king immediately out into the open in KOTH variants. You never know if you're missing out on a forced line that could've been easily found, or a new strategy!  With that, thank you for reading through this entire guide! Please comment down below if you have any feedback or found this useful!  (P.S., I already know some of you are going to be mad that I made this post and instantly downvote. Autodecline has been around since the start of Custom Variants. If you have criticism, please give constructive feedback instead of just telling us "autodecline should not exist".)

A suggestion: Once a pawn promoted,it can keep moving and get the second promote on a specific rank. Or,  Once a piece reached the back rank,it can promote to another piece. Or, Once the pawn reached the back rank,it stays there,zugzwanged,then need to cost 1 turn to get promoted.

Rules: =KINGSSACRIFICINGGOTTA,Ox10000,Blindfold,Ghostboard,Checky chess,Atomic,1.145141919810|4.1 Notes: 1)this is good.rules:1.must be blindfold or fog of war2.no fairy pieces THATS ALL!!! 2)CaGs can test this in a 114514|1919810D tc. links game 1 game 2-game 10

so the pieces and the board are the same color squares also if you move your opponents piece(because they are the same color because if you try to move a piece and it doesn't move then you know its not yours)They can accuse it end and the game, if they falsely accuse you they lose if they are right they win!This is fun!

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

pls help pls help ...___...

I am pretty sure that this group has lasted for atleast a year and we only got 1 new variant?! CHESS.COM ADDD THE SUGGESTIONS NOW  Like what're we doing I am bored from these variants and no one plays the underrated variants like chaturanga

I have no clue how

Greetings! I'm creating this forum post to propose a variant idea. I’d love to implement it myself, but due to exams and lack of time (and, admittedly, a bit of laziness), I haven’t been able to go through all the documentation needed to do it properly. So I’m putting this idea out there in case a kind and patient member finds it interesting enough to take on! As you may know, standard Giveaway Chess has been solved with a forced win for White starting with 1.e3 — reference here: http://magma.maths.usyd.edu.au/~watkins/LOSING_CHESS/ That’s why I’d like to suggest Giveaway Chess 960, a variant that introduces randomized starting positions (just like Chess960). This would restore balance and make the game more winnable as Black, keeping things fresh and interesting. Surprisingly, this variant doesn’t seem to exist yet in the Variants section and I think it has great potential. Thanks for reading, and I hope someone out there might find the idea worth pursuing!

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)

Post for the previous month's vote:https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-marchs-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! This month's post will be a bit shorter, but we're going to be trying out something new again following some feedback on the last month's post.  First off, I'd to congratulate the winners of 2025's first Platinum Variant, which was the first of now 4 to have membership prizes (more info here): 1st Place (1 month of diamond membership): @wolyn 2nd Place (1 month of platinum membership): @hutianmin1 3rd Place (1 month of gold membership): @Trinhnguyenbinh15 In addition, thank you to everyone who plays in the Golden Variant / Platinum Variant arenas. Variants is quite a niche topic on chess.com, and it's good to popularize a variety of variants, or at the very least encourage the play of them so that more people in the variants community know about them! Also some more congrats to our creators, who continue to be creative! Making submissions definitely isn't my strong suit anymore, but new ideas are always there for those who can imagine them. Even the Pocket Chess challenge is still going strong with 7 accepted variants now! To end things off, here are some short CGA stats for this month! (As of the posting of this announcement) There are currently 55 posts Under Review (UR) 30 (54.55%) of those variants are NCVs and 25 (45.45%) are WoFs 13 of the currently UR posts were posted since last calendar week The CGAs and NCV Testers finished reviewing 13 variants since last calendar week This month's format: 4 arenas, starting in April at 5 PM PST on Fridays (12 AM/0 UTC on Saturdays), including: 2 "Golden Variant All Week" arena of the variants The Pestilence's Conquest, and Leapers respectively, the most recently accepted NCV submissions, on April 4 and 11. 2 "Golden Variant" arenas of variants voted for below this post, on April 18 and 25. Platinum Variant Q2 format: April marks the start of "Quarter 2" of the 2025 Golden Variant cycle. The 5 variants featured as Golden Variants from April and May will be selected as candidates for the "Platinum Variant" vote.  Platinum Variants are pinned to the top of their category's list for a few months, are featured in a weeklong arena with membership prizes (note: regular Golden Variants do not have membership prizes), and are recognized as one of the most popular creator-made variants on the server. For more info, see last quarter's example here and the schedule for Golden Variant here This month's voting process: Due to concerns with cheating on last month's vote, this month's vote will be conducted entirely on chess.com. We may use StrawPoll or another similar voting platform again next month with enhanced security measures (e.g., CAPTCHA). The 2 comments below this post will be the voting platform; use designated reactions to vote for variants! You may vote for more than one variant! The 2 top variants with the most votes out of the 5 options in each of the 2 polls will be selected as the Golden Variants for this month! The polling ends on April 17, 0 UTC. Happy voting and may the best variants win!

pls i dont no how to do this can you help me

We know that a variant will be hidden if it has the tag #deletecandidate, and what they (might) be soon deleted. But that's a bit ...unfair. They are just lack of popularity(bad variants will be just deleted or declined),not mean they're not high-quality.  So can we add a vote when necessary to show the #deletecandidate variants back in the menu without searching? The vote may be held once in 3 months,and the variant with the highest vote will be shown back.  Just a opinion though because not everyone search the tag if needed... 

I made a varient but does not know how to submit it

We all know that an event called The Merge that happened in 2022 that wiped half of the positions, but what were those positions? I have tried my VERY best to gather as many links as possible, and I will say variants that I was ultimately not able to acquire the links of, and I need your help. The link is above the respective title of the variant. https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/10565328/58/1 Sandworm https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/8709673/0/1 Hnefetafl https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/9337260/0/1 Arena of Heroes https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/9830870/0/1 2-Player chess 2.0 https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/10373273/25/1 2-player chess upside down https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/3423724/0/1 Chaturaji BNRK https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/10777938/0/1  Capablanca Chess https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/9314497/0/1 Checky Chucky https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/9104588/0/1 Dead King Labyrinth https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/6727855/0/1 Foursquare https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/3701780/0/1 General War https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/11261153/0/1 Octagon https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/4746309/0/1 Smothered Kings https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/5192630/0/1 Spiral Flower https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/9443026/0/1  Triad https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/10283329/0/1 Hade’s Stallion https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/11374384/0/1 Field of Archers https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/11278632/0/1 The Eyes of Horus https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/11277437/26/1 The Colosseum https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/6014727/0/1 Max’s Game (Credits for @2bHNST for the link) https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/11574322/0/1 Knightmare https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/11175517/0/1 Typhoon https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/25363651/81/1 Bells and Whistles https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/8106936/0/1 Gatekeepers (gotten from submission thread) https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/9702895/0/1 Charybdis (same deal as above) https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/9213043/0/1 The Burning Maze (same deallll) https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/10747740/0/1 Sunset Sandstorm (Link by @wolyn) https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/11159922/0/1 Tic Tac Toe https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/9388767/26/1 6 Placemeltilë https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/10117875/0/1 Battle of Twins https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/25287003/0/3 4P Fog of War (Credits to @ChessMasterGS) https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/8802502/0/2 Stupnik's Complete Army (Credits to @Red_Kangaroos) https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/10208645/24/1 Hailstorm (now a Wheel of Fortune variant) I have went through 4 people's archives, ChessMasterGS, noahfavelo, stupnik_2_0, and GellartGrindleWind. Thanks for all 4 of those people. . Missing Variants: Giveaway in the Fog, Atomic Fog, Atomic Hill, Fog of Atomic Giveaway. I would really appreciate game links of those games.If possible, may CGA's add this to the Historical section of the directory?

Any thoughts?

Just joke i won't make it a high quality challenge The main rule is Crazyhouse+Setup, with a board larger than 8x8,and dead pieces/bricks in the center should be used.Either Blind or checky must be used too.The more the game rule there are,it have a higher probability to join this changllange. Feel free to downvote lol