I am thinking about a variant which has three paths. Center, left, and right. You attack down center but can send pieces down the flank to help with the attack. (Or defense) is this a good idea or is it not? 
Avatar of Aurora_Borealis_BST
Aurora_Borealis_BST 18 days ago
original bank and then below i was like "wtf, why it autodeleted the rest of my bank" WHY THE HECK AM I FREAKING DOWN TO ONE SOLIDIER AND ONE SERGEANT THAT I CANNOT FREAKING PLACE comments. any ideas? I hope we can all fix this issue together!
This guy is hosting many challenges, and disconneting like crazy, what is going on?He seems to have a normal profile
Avatar of JustNick111
JustNick111 21 days ago
Post for the previous month’s vote: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-februarys-golden-variants-2026Not sure on what some of the terms in this post mean? Have any other questions? See any typos? Feel free to ask and comment below!(Scroll down to the start of the bold headers if you want to know how to vote without reading my entire post 😀)Welcome back to another month of Golden Variants, Custom Variants!This month includes the coveted Platinum Variant vote, crowning the first variant to receive this honor in the year 2026; as always, the event features membership prizes for the top 3 finishing players in the week-long arena. 1st Place: 1 month membership2nd Place: 1 month membership3rd Place: 1 month membershipPSA: We’ve had cheaters and people using alt accounts try to win these prizes in the past, so typically we wait 2-3 weeks before awarding in order to perform a Fair Play and background check.We have one final Golden Variant vote to find out the last candidate (which will be a rapid-fire vote ending in just a couple of days after the release of this post), as well as a Golden Fortune vote to round out the schedule for March.Currently, the lineup of Platinum Variant candidates include:Rose (https://www.chess.com/variants/rose)Rookmate (https://www.chess.com/variants/rookmate)Cross Derby (https://www.chess.com/variants/cross-derby)Arena of Legends (https://www.chess.com/variants/arena-of-legends)…and the 5th and final candidate will be selected in this month’s vote!On the variant reviewing side of things, we know we’ve been very slow recently and have a sizeable backlog of variants still needing to be reviewed, including some that have been under review for multiple months; there’s also a couple of bugs with the new updates to the text editor that make it much harder for us to format text (e.g., change its color) without the end result being glitched. We’re hopeful that the developers over at Chesscom Beta will be able to address these issues shortly so that the issues outside of our control can be fixed as well. As always, our progress on reviewing variants can be directly tracked through the Variant Verdict Feed (VVF), at: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/variant-verdict-feedNow, onto this month’s voting!Format of this month's GV cycle:Week 6 (March 6-20): Golden VariantWeek 7 (March 20-27): Golden FortuneWeek 8 (March 27-April 3): Platinum VariantAll 3 of these selections will be voted on by the community this month!See https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/2026-golden-variant-schedule for more info.The voting process:Three comments will be added below this main post with a few variants listed each. You may use the hyperlinks on the variant names in order to see what the variant is if you are unfamiliar with any of them!Simply react to the comment with the emoticon corresponding to the variant you want to be featured to vote for it! You may vote for more than one variant in both votes.The winner of each of the votes respectively will be selected as one of the honored variants represented in the upcoming Golden Variant arenas, starting on March 6, March 20, and March 27 (PST).The tallying for the Golden Variant arena vote will close at 0 UTC on March 6; the arena may be delayed by a few hours to allow the vote to end.The tallying for the Golden Fortune arena vote will close at 0 UTC on March 13.The tallying for the Platinum Variant arena vote will open shortly after the final Golden Variant is selected, and the vote will close at 0 UTC on March 20.See an example of a previous vote below:Happy voting and may the best variants of 2026 win!
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ChessMasterGS 21 days ago
i was thinking how pawns promotion fight could be more interesting and more between all the players at the same time, instead of almost just the player on your path, as it is in chaturaji. i came up with this starting position idea: my idea is that promotion is on the last rank as in chaturaji, and can be choosen between RBN (i can't see this option in the rule editor). another idea is that double checks (checking 2 kings at the same time) would give 5 points. this would incentivate sacrifices for points. king captures would still be 3 points as in chaturaji. triple checks could worth 10 points
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MAFAB_Mason 22 days ago
There are more of this below. Is this a glitch?
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JustNick111 24 days ago
Well, there are Prize tournaments in Chess Variants on Chess.com, where you can get am Membership-Prize e.g. Platinum or Emerald Variant. As you play in these, you often play against 1800-2000 rated Elo players who have 200IQ strategies to win. But honestly, it isnt a BIG problem. The BIG problem is, because they are good, they can farm a LOT of wins on new Players, which means that if you even are good though, (1600~) you haven't a chance to win against them and the new players are often scared of the tournaments because of often unfriendly and too good players. So the tournaments are kinda only made for them, not for normal 4PC players. That is sad and can constantly remove the fun of playing different variants and etc. because the Variants Community isn't doing anything against that at all, ’cause technically, it isn't cheating at all, it is just better tactics and that stuff’ but we all know what is going on.  BUT: I'm not only complaining, I have an idea which could the tournaments alive and fair to all rating rangers again. Well, the simplicity is the enemy of complexity. The Variant community can just add rating ranges. 100-500, 500-100, 1000-1500, 2000-2500, 2500-3000 and 3000-3500. It isn't about doing differnt Tournaments, it is about adding a barrier, if a 1200 elo player wants to play in a tournament, but there is an 1800 Elo rated one, then he should wait until another rating-ranged player appears. Next point is, to do little adverting of Variants and Prize tournaments. I guess, at least 2500 people here don't know that something like that even existed. It can be simple reminders in that club or creating forums in the outside. I really hope, that someone who can change things or who could give this letter to an 4PC Variant worker would respond or help me. This isn't bait to get Views or I don't know what, it is a real problem.  P.s. if you have any Ideas then write it here too. Thanks for reading and hopefully responding and sorry that I did it so long. MossStoneIM 
it should have diagonal symmetry, so your side opponents having your starting position mirrored. exactly as it is in 4 player 960 games. it is wrong and much less balanced that bishops and queens are not starting in the sames diagonals. and you waste 4x the time having to edit all color position without using symmetric editing
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chessmath_1 29 days ago
So my last game's id is 99992565, which is really close to 100000000! Let's guess what type of game would be the 10⁸th game : 4p (chess) : Other 4p games : Common variants : Featured : Custom variants Answer: Atomic!
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noahbowah1 29 days ago
So Yall i think we should make fog of war 4 players as it will be more fun
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ronarid960 29 days ago
Given some submissions in the past year, I thought it'd be appropriate to make a guide (both as a joke and for serious reasons) on some trends in variants creation that aren't that great, to say the least... below every point I'll attach a (fictional) example, and a reason why the variant wouldn't be accepted. Obviously, this doesn't encompass everything, but it's a good starting point to avoid some rookie mistakes present-day. 1. "Upgraded" Chess Why: We don't like horses Okay, I'm joking. We get this submission maybe once every year or so from different people, and it's just not that original or fun to play either. P.S., this applies to variants in general that are slight variations on standard chess, gothic chess, etc. Although using them as inspiration is fine, we've seen a lot of variants that have somewhat interesting play but really nothing innovative. 2. The Overlord Bot Why: You might be thinking, "nobody's that stupid!", and you're right, this is just an exaggeration; but I've seen a lot of variants where the game is solely decided by the bot and is just a luck battle to see which side it'll attack. Learning how to implement bot manipulation is key to having a good WoF in most cases these days; respecting the process and utilizing test games and feedback to make revisions doubly so. 3. 1000 KINGS VS 1000 QUEENS (amongst other variations) Why: Long emotional message time! As a variant enthusiast, it's always sad when clickbait YouTubers just make positions like these and roll out videos of Futers playing the position out. Sure, it might be funny the first time, but it's a trend that has genuinely destroyed seriousness of variants on the platform. Same applies for custom variants; this is an auto-declinable position. 4a. "The Sandwich", "The Human Wall", "1v2", etc. Why: This basically applies to any FFA variant where the only strategy to attack a player that's smack in the middle of 2 or 3 other players. These variants are never balanced (and I say this fairly confidently); dead draws would be pointless for a different reason, and if one side is stronger than the other, then it's just unfair. 4b. Kingmaking Time! Why: Alright, I said I wouldn't use positions from real variants, but I feel that this is the best way to show this without the position being too complicated. In this scenario, we have somewhat of a prisoner's dilemma where double checking is mutually beneficial and keeps the game going, whilst triple checking or capturing kings creates distrust and is seen as a selfish move to avoid being last place. Of course, any player could just troll and outright capture kings, and whether any individual player wins isn't up to them. This type of stuff happens in standard 4 Player Chess as well, but at least don't make it this obvious... 5a. Where's the Bridge? Why: Your pieces don't grow wings. If you're going to make a variant with "islands", add more than just the base two, and make sure there's a bridge between them. Doing this incorrectly will just make a shuffling variant. 5b. The Two Battlefronts Why: This is a distinct but related concept to what I said previously; often I will see variants where there are "battlefronts" with the king on one side and a severely unequipped army on the other. Even if you set promotion to knights, the little to no interaction between the two battlefronts just makes a boring variant once again. 6. Unbalanced Asymmetry Why: Asymmetry is not always balanced; that being said, equal points is also not necessarily always balanced. I've heard a fair few people pointing out asymmetry in accepted NCVs and assuming that it's then fine to make any random combination. 7. "Don't bring a knife to a gunfight" Why: If you find yourself using a ton of small range movement pieces, chances are you won't be needing a big board. Shuffling is always a problem, in addition to inability to deliver checkmate. Using a combination of pieces with distinct purposes is always better than spending the first 30 moves of a game accomplishing nothing other than basic development. What is my #1 tip? Don't take testing games for granted. In the words of former 4PC Admin @GustavKlimtPaints: "Making up a position and posting 10 games with a computer opponent that reflects almost nothing of what the position will look like in play is really just a waste of everyone's time. Play dozens of games and get some people to be interested testers." Testing is where you pick out errors and get feedback, not a tedious process that has no meaning. Likewise, getting a variant declined should be used to make your future variants better; in some cases, revising a previously declined variant and taking the time to do so could make a huge difference in simply starting over and ignoring every comment. Here's some resources you can refer to if you need more help: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/good-custom-position-bad-custom-position-dos-and-donts-for-ncps-1 https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/new-position-workshop-testing-thread(PINNED THREAD) https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/variant-design-patterns https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/how-to-make-new-variants-accepted  https://variants.world/(Search "declined" in the search bar, or "accepted", and observe what works and what doesn't) (By the way, I'd love to hear from y'all in the comments! If you disagree with anything here, you can mention that as well)
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VarostTheFlail 29 days ago
rules: normal chess but with a spell named protector that protects a piece when its not protected. contents: 4 protectors and all pieces of standard chess,
its chess but there's a dragon attacking the chessboard, you can take your queen off the board to tame it, and then you can choose which 9 tiles it eats the pieces on, but if you make it eat your king, then its yours for the rest of the game, and it gets bigger, now instead of a 3x3 area, its a 5x5 area it can eat, but if you run out of pieces after it eats your king, you lose
Avatar of Ender-Dragon-Palyz
Ender-Dragon-Palyz Apr 2, 2026

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