Forum

Introduction Learning how to use pieces when building a custom variant is one of the most important skills a creator must have, but, respectively, is also one of the hardest to master. Here I will discuss a few common ideas with each of the current 25 available pieces (pawns not included), uncommon concepts that you can try to apply yourself, a few good/bad examples of piece dynamics in action, and even some quiz questions to test your intuition. Common Terms Below is a list of common terms you will see throughout this article to help you in your understanding of piece dynamics: Colorblind | A piece that can only move to squares of one color complex (i.e., the bishop or the ferz). May also refer to a board of this kind. Double Colorblind | A piece that is colorblind and is further restricted to half of the available squares of a normally colorblind piece (i.e., the dabbaba or alibaba, and their rider counterparts). May also refer to a board of this kind. Hopper | A piece that cannot move unless there is an obstruction to "hop over". Only the grasshopper is considered a hopper. Leaper | A piece that moves to a square that is a fixed distance away, jumping over all obstructions in between (i.e., the ferz, the dabbaba, the camel, etc.). The so-called "step movers" (i.e. the ferz and wazir) are also considered leapers without loss of generality. Rider | A leaper that has its range expanded infinitely in all directions that the leaper itself can move to. Semi-Colorblind | A piece that is not colorblind overall but must switch color complexes every move (i.e the knight or the wazir). Triple Colorblind | A piece that is double-colorblind and is further restricted to half of the available squares of a normally double colorblind piece. Only the alfil and alfil-rider are triple colorblind. May also refer to a board of this kind. The Pieces If, at any point, you are confused as to how a piece move or some of its other mechanics, please refer to this article by @ChimpReturns. It has some great visuals that helps explain how the pieces work. Alfil (Rider): Excluding the pawns, the alfil is by far the weakest piece in the editor. Being triple colorblind, you would need 8 of them to reach every square on the board. Alfils and alfil riders are thus generally used on smaller board sizes or colorblind boards where attacking and defending is much simpler.  Alibaba (Rider): The alibaba is a double colorblind piece; you would need 4 of them to reach every square on the board. However, because of its leaping ability, it is nevertheless a piece that rivals the knight in capacity. Alibabas are often paired with bishops or archbishops because of their strong color complex control. The rider variant is most useful only in larger boards. Amazon: The amazon is the most powerful piece in the editor, with movements that combine those of the knight and the queen. In this manner, it is both a leaper and a rider at the same time. Because of its incredible board coverage, an amazon can forcefully checkmate a king without another piece to help it. It is for these reasons exactly that the amazon is not used very often, except on the largest of boards where it is one of the only major pieces for each player. Archbishop: The archbishop is a very useful piece in all board sizes, except the very smallest. Unlike a normal bishop, the added knight movement allows it access to both color complexes and thus it is not colorblind. The archbishop is commonly used with normal bishops, alibabas, or other colorblind pieces as a leader and also a support piece, showing its incredible prowess in all aspects of play. Bishop: The bishop is the strongest colorblind piece in the editor. Given that it is technically a ferz with infinite movement in those directions, the bishop is classified as a rider. Bishops are strongest when there is another on the opposite color complex to compliment it, or on colorblind boards such as in Mini Forest. Bishops are strong on boards of all sizes, and are often combined with ferzes or alibabas on the smaller boards and archbishops or queens on the larger boards. More than two bishops, however, is generally not recommended. Brick: The brick is technically not a piece, since it has no movement, but it is commonly used as obstruction. Bricks are mainly used to defend oneself from the opponent when pawns are not present, but they are also used in many other creative ways. For example, they can be used to trap pieces that can only be "unlocked" at a later moment in the game, or they can be used to block pieces, forcing a choice in the player's rerouting strategy. Camel (Rider): The camel is another colorblind piece, but its incredibly long range makes it a strong attacker on larger boards. Consequently, the camel is a poor piece on smaller boards, sometimes only being able to practically utilize a few squares because it is simply "too big to fit". Camels are often strong with another on the opposite color complex, but they are also all-rounding pieces that work with many other pieces nicely. Chancellor: The chancellor is an interesting piece. It is incredibly strong by itself, but lateral movement is quite hard to utilize until the late middlegame/early endgame. If there is even a slight opening, however, the chancellor will completely ravage the opponent. Therefore, it is important to consider many factors when balancing a game involving a chancellor as one of the major pieces. Dabbaba (Rider): The dabbaba is the generally considered the second weakest piece in the editor after the alfil, as it is double-colorblind, though the ferz and wazir are also commonly awarded this title. Dabbabas are mainly used on smaller boards to support colorblind attacks. Dragon Bishop: The dragon bishop is slightly weaker than the archbishop due to the special xiangqi knight movement, but the same general piece dynamics apply. Duck: The duck is very rarely used like a brick, but apart from pure aesthetics and the Duck Chess gamerule, it functions exactly the same as a brick. Gamerules are discussed later in the article. Ferz: The ferz is one of the weakest pieces in the editor, which is why it thrives as a defensive piece on a small board or as a royal piece on a medium-sized board. Because of its close range movement and its little value in comparison to other pieces, it is well-suited for forming fortresses with pawns. General: The general is usually the weakest of the four orthodox knight variants, but it is incredibly useful as both an attacking and a defensive piece. The general covers all the squares within a one-square radius and 75% of the squares within a two-square radius, making it apt for attacking the enemy's royal or defending one's own. This flexibility in usage makes the general an all-rounder piece that can be used in almost any situation. Grasshopper: The grasshopper is the only piece currently in the editor that is of the hopper piece type. It requires some form of obstruction, whether it be another piece or a brick, to jump over and land on the square immediately behind said obstruction. This mechanic makes the grasshopper one of the only pieces that cannot always go back to the same square after leaving it, but it also allows it to access squares that it previously couldn't, allowing for a variety of rerouting strategies in dynamic or positional variants. King: When not royal, the king is a strong defender, though obviously not as much as the general. It is also useful for attacking multiple pieces at once in the opening stage when pieces are close together. Having more than one king where the kings are in close proximity is usually frowned upon, since they are quite redundant because of their limited mobility. There are, of course, many exceptions, such as the most obvious War For Throne. Knight (Rider): The knight is best known for its tricky movement and jumping capability, making it a strong piece in attacks and in positional binds where it controls important squares. Knights are also the reason the fork tactic is so well known, so consider using it in your variants! The rider variant is used much less often, simply because it is really only useful on a large board. Queen: The queen, of course, is the most famous and most commonly used major piece. Because of the queen's combined bishop and rook movement, it is complimented nicely by the bishop pair and/or a pair of rooks in attacking ideas. The queen is also a strong defender, though it is not recommended to have it in a defensive spot in the starting position itself. The queen also works well with many other pieces, making it an all-rounder piece. Rook: The rook is the weakest of the major pieces, which makes it very useful as a support tower (literally!). With the queen, chancellor, and/or another rook, it can form batteries and completely ravage the opponent's position, though the double rook pair is not seen commonly in middlegames. The rook is also very strong in tandem with a bishop, where it can deliver discovered checks to the royal and windmill tactics. More than two rooks, however, is generally not recommended. Wazir: The wazir is one of the weakest pieces in the editor, though it is generally stronger than a ferz because of its full color seeing ability. The wazir thrives as both an attacker and a defender on a small board, but it performs very poorly on a larger board. Wildebeest: The wildebeest is very strong in closed positions where there are a lot of holes in the position that can be easily exploited. The wildebeest is also very good at delivering perpetual checks to an enemy royal, which makes it a useful tool in N-check variants. However, because of its strength, it is typically barred off by a wall of well-defended pawns and thus is quite weak on a smaller board. Xiangqi Knight: The xiangqi knight is slightly weaker than the regular knight due to it being unable to jump over obstructions. However, this very mechanic makes it useful for designing atomic or stalemate-reliant variants. Examples of Piece Dynamics in Action Take a look at this recently declined variant, Contrasting Strategies by imchesspro0930. While the concept is very unique and the game is strategically detailed, there is one major flaw (among some minor ones) that involves piece dynamics. Without using the Decline reason on VW, can you get a feel for the problem here? You may use the editor to play out some moves to help you in your analysis of this variant. I'll continue adding more material as time goes on. Meanwhile, post some of your ideas in the comments!

every 5 moves, you piece evolves. Pawn=> knight=>bishop=>rook=>queen=>queen forever

Hi! Let's chat!

speaks itself. if cgas say yes,i can draw some lol

Normal chess, but there is a file behind the pieces on each side that cannot be moved into. This is the jail. If a piece captures a piece, it can choose to keep it as prisoner or deliver. Delivering is where the piece is teleported to the backmost row(1/9) and prisoners are put there. Prisoners cannot leave, but deliverers can leave jail. If a piece has multiple peices prisoner(max 3), it can deliver all. If a piece with prisoners is captured, the prisoners return to the piece bank

since queen is technatly the best no king piece instead replace the king with a queen

Many of you know that the Custom Games Admins (CGAs) are appointed as representatives of this club, and are responsible for fairly basic yet vital tasks such as moderating the forums, creating arenas on the Variants server, and testing and reviewing variants.  However, what many of you might not know is that becoming a CGA has many various side effects — some positive, others… not so much. These side effects seem to be virtually unexplainable according to great scientists like Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein (ignore that they’re both dead), so today I will show you what they are.  Effect #1: Profile Views Upon becoming a CGA, your profile views will be greatly multiplied. The multiplier can range anywhere from a measly 1.25x (like me) to an extraordinary 5x (like ChessMasterGS). This is because of two things: a) the fact that this club has over 10,000 members and that many of those members are definitely interested in random people’s profiles, and b) the shiny blue badge that CGAs get on the server, which leads unsuspecting Minihouse players to go “ooh whats that?”, resulting in your profile automatically getting clicked each time you play a game.  Effect #2: 4PC Temptation When granted with the shiny blue badge, you will feel extremely tempted to play 4PC whenever possible. Especially ones like War For Throne, Labyrinth 82, and Chaturaji. You will play more games of 4PC than you thought was previously possible, and you won’t even know it… Effect #3: Variants Gameplay Strength The moment you become a CGA, your previous variants strength will also be multiplied quite heavily. This multiplier seems to range anywhere from 1.5x to a shocking 3x (*cough* GS). You will beat opponents that you thought you could never beat. You will excel in variants that you never even dreamed of playing. You. Will. Conquer. Effect #4: Custom Variants Material Once you’re a CGA, you are doomed to check the club forums and variants.world at least 10 times a day. Why? So you can lock spam forums, delete weird comments, and actually look productive. Oh, and also so you can decline whatever gets submitted. Except whatever gets accepted.  Effect #5: Lifestyle Eventually, as a CGA, your life will instantly become twice as busy as it was before. Whether it’s writing a random 4000 word essay at midnight or attending a boring Zoom meeting that nobody cares about and really could’ve been an email, your life will not be the same. In fact, the NCV Testers might even pester you to test stuff, ignoring the fact that you just got your daily 15-minute break after a full 8-hour shift.  Effect #6: Custom Positions Finally, you WILL be tempted to rename your custom positions that you’ve saved. How? This is how. Do you see that symbol next to the “Custom Title”? That means that only those with CGA permissions on the server can do that. Which means you can’t do that! Haha. So nah-nah-nah-boo-boo on you. This has led to… very interesting game titles. I’ll leave those for you to find. So yeah, those are some of the effects of becoming a CGA. I swear, I’ve felt every single one of these effects since the moment I became a CGA. *Disclaimer: Don’t take this too seriously ;)

should people play variants

 so got an idea 

Rando and Futer say they're all "busy" even tho only 1000 people online and only 200 games

Green > Yellow > Orange > Red > Purple > Sakura. >80% 80%-50% 50%-20% 20%-5% <5% Auto-Decline. Name Color Reason Ilusión‌ Green "At least I hope it will be" PR change time control. Maybe.  The Broken Mirror Red Balanced Inequity. Not unique enough.  Creepy Crypt Purple "This is a spam for spam" ~ @TimeVeteran Cornered Orange This is not bad for the concept itself, but it was a bit drawish because soldiers can't defend each other and they can be deadlocked easily. Hard to advance in the middle game in the center,especially pieces like knights are traded off.  The Hunt is on. (Boulder Field) Sakura I rather go for hunting for an small butterfly, and cook it with a timer and some coins. They are delicious! Solstice Yellow Actually, the submission itself wasn't that bad, but the reuse of an already accepted variant seems not able to be accepted again for CGAs.  What's more, a small board isn't really good for a strong pieces fight(for here,queens)although you have sleepy - i mean freeze spells.  Frozen Lake Yellow Better a WoF Combination Attack Red This, unfortunately, looks like Uneasy AllianceAlliance. And this seems nothing much for players to do.       

i didnt know that it was against TOS

We all know there are accepted WoFs(Wheel of Fortune) variants and they are weekly updated in special arenas. Some variants are good, but most of them are declined. But, why they cannot be played with a name casually instead of randomly searching a game called "Sideways Custom Position Hill Game of Points"? That's why i suggested this. It could be linked to a former suggestion called "Custom Names for Custom Variants"(idrk), but only for pending accepted wofs. If a single WoF get +2 or more positive vote(No matter how many 0s and -1s exists) but still declined, CGAs may post a vote for that if people like to play it casually. Then it will be "half-accepted" and could be played in the arena, but only casual. This may let players' variants being more worthy, encourages people from not only focusing on the big title "Declined", and let them create more. Bot and player versus Bot and Player cannot be accepted this way.

I am @Joowon2015. I am currently using my friend's account. As of Support doesnt work for me. I have some questions and an appeal. Firstly, Why does the Support of Chesscom dont work for me? When i click on the chat. It directly teleports me to the Chess.com starting site. Then, why does the dev team dont answer to me when i contacted them on the email. And, Im sorry for making the alt WOF CGA. All i want is just my account unbanned. credit to parkthecatfamily for me to borrow his account@Joowon2015

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jm_yhwvwY_QKZUf-dTc8AhkKrjotccbvsIZRbXnfz14/edit?gid=0#gid=0 The link above is a Google Sheet that I have created that includes all currently accepted NCVs on chess.com. It will be consistently updated shortly upon the acceptance of any new NCVs. It includes: -Variant names and authors -Player/zombie counts -Links to each individual variant -All applicable rules for every variant -Instructions to make a personal copy and sort the variant data Now you might be wondering, "Why did he take so much time to do this? And why?" I made this because I was scrolling through the Variants page one day and I was like, "These variants are so cool... but it must take a long time to get to know them". So I made this to make knowing the rules of variants more efficient, rather than having to scroll through the Variants page and select each game mode individually to learn more about its rules. As for why I spent so much time... Because I could. Hopefully, this can enhance your Variants experience by allowing you to find new variants (if any!) and can help newer players find variants that they like. It also helps me personally with knowing which variants are 2-player and which are 4-player. ...Enjoy.

Clinging chess is a variant where whereever your piece rook/queen/knight/bishop. moves. (not including pawns.) if theres another piece in a 1 square radius. they both cant move for 2 moves. and instead of checkmating you must capture the king, making this is a game of strategy.  when a PAWN captures a piece everything in a TWO block radius gets clinged. if a pawn captures another pawn this may not happen.

what if its 4 player chess but each side has all the pices in a row at the bottom kings then queens then bishops ect. ending with pawns

I love Chess and I've been playing it for a long time, but what if I told you there is a circular chess board? That's right, there is one. Circular Chess Rules: Just like chess, but there is a circular chess board. Pawns home ranks are 3 and 4. Pawns on a5, a6, j5, or j6 can en passant twice if there is a pawn on b4, b7, i4, or i7 and a pawn on c3, c8, h3, or h8. That is the only time pawns can en passant twice due to the position. In regular chess, pawns can only en passant once. The circular board means that without corners/edges, it's harder to checkmate. It also means that Queens have fewer safe spots when it is at the edge. At ranks 1 and 10, kings always have a maximum of 4 moves, if no piece is in the way and no piece is attacking the king's moves. That's all!

COMMENT

Short story: I GRINDED