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Credit to @wolyn and other people gave me advice. THANKS! : D Warning: if you don't know how pieces works well,read Piece Dynamics in Custom Variants; if you are a beginner who even don't know what are fairy pieces,read The Fairy Pieces. If you don't know what zombies are,read Zombies part below.  If you don't know what do different kinds of zombies do,read the custom variant page and find them.  Introduction This forum is about using bricks and dead pieces. They may build a new tactic,make the variant unique,etc. Using a brick correctly,and perfectly,is one of the advanced skills of being an experienced creator. Here I will discuss in 2 ways:why,when,how do we use bricks/dead pieces,and some facts about bricks/pieces,with some good and bad examples,and some little quiz. Open variants/custom/ and press 10x10 again. Before you throw away those dark sussy grey things around the board,do you wonder what they are? Or,do you find two different squares that don't look like a "piece"?Then they are probably-- Bricks There are 2 bricks(by definition,there are 3--guess which one is a brick-like piece!)in chess.com until now. The fancy grey one look like this: Whoa!That's HUGE! And another one,called transparent brick: [ ] Isn't there just spaces?Actually there is a brick!(meme I cannot hear the bass)Transparent brick shows as a space, or a place holder.  You cannot capture a brick,or go through it(most of the times). Two questions:Why when and how do we use bricks? and What are special about bricks?  Come on!Let's go find them! Why and when do we need bricks? In short,I find 4 reasons. Block the ways. Sometimes we don't want players to go to somewhere specific(e.g. go checkmate a timer bot).Then we use bricks. [Examples:Forsaken City,The Pestilence's Conquest,Thermopylae] Shrink the board. If you don't like default square board,but you want to make the board smaller,then we use brick(almost all transparent bricks,which makes the variant prettier). [Examples:Sergeant's Checkers II,1.21] Decorate. This don't need to explain in detail. Only use bricks this way in a large spaces,and no piece can drop inside.[Example:The Watcher] Be a part of game. This is the most complex way using a brick. We also have 4 minor things about this: Brick royal. (If you don't know what if FEN4,please read the pinned forum.)Read FEN4 and find an X(uppercase or lowercase are all ok![Edit:3/31])and add a lowercase letter: r for White/Red,b for Blue,y for Yellow/Black,g for Green,in front of the X.Then load it.After that,press "set Royal"and click that brick you chosen. [Examples:Stereo Jungleness,Broker] Non-royal bricks.Same as Brick Royal. Useful when Fog of war,bare piece rule or prevent checkmate in a non-royal game. [Exploit: add " 'dim':'xxx' "in the brace,(xxx = the size of board,the format is num + "x" + num,num = odds from 6 to 14)and the team tag for a transparent brick you sure it won't be threatened. Because of the length limitation,I don't explain more here.][Example:Sergeant Dodo,] Promotion. If you let a pawn promote to brick(ducks don't count,see the declined reason of Duck Party-maybe you can solve it),your variant will be very unique!3 reasons to promote to bricks: 1)Block the ways,make opponent get stalement (loss)/in a losing position,or make yourself get stalement(win).[Examples:The Camouflage(stalement loss),Runway(stalement win)] 2)As a timer bot,make teams and lose through bare piece rule/let players have only have a few moves to mate the enemy king. [Example:Spy Party] 3)This doesn't occur a lot. With Crazyhouse,let your opponent can't capture that pawn,and less place to push the piece. More useful when setup was enabled.[Example:Ferz's Tiny Blitzkrieg] How do I use a brick in my variant/in a game?  In a variant,treat the bricks like a simple piece. just click on it,and press a space to push that brick. By the way,although you can see a transparent brick in the editing interface,you cannot see them later if you leave it, play a game with transparent bricks,or something else. (Meanwhile,bricks and dead pieces will be placed 4 simultaneously around the center,but alive piece just 1 according to their teams,when symmetric editing is on,you know a lot,right?) Bricks are a special kind of piece--you can neither move them even they're yours nor push them by setup,crazyhouse,seirawan,or anything with a bank. Duck chess is the only exception for players--they can move one of the ducks anywhere.Zombies can push a brick with crazyhouse,but only crazyhouse. (see Wild). What are special about bricks? I did say one of the details here:you cannot capture a brick,force it move,or go through it most of the time. But most of us already know them. Let's find something different: You can cast spells on a brick or a duck(but not transparent brick). [Example:Phantom Rooks](btw,xiangqi horse and dragon Bishop cannot go across a brick using its Knight's ability even you cast a jump spell on the brick in front of xiangqi horse. Maybe bugged. )(clear the meaning.thx @BiggishDragon !) If a transparent brick royal,you can't see the sign of Royal on the brick. But,respectively,a simple brick or a duck will be shown. This leads to an extra thing we wanna do: set a transparent brick royal,regicide and stalement loss,then you get an non-royal bare king!(question inspired by @wolyn.Thanks!) Regicide(including Duck chess)with a brick Royal:if n-check,you must exhaust all the lives of the royal because you cannot capture that. If not--Good luck!(you can still win by claim win and other rules)  When Giveaway is enabled,even your only "legal" move is to capture an enemy brick(see part Royal Brick),you can move other pieces instead of get stalement. Destroy a brick:when Atomic and pawns capture to promote to a brick,they explode themselves,and the brick gone.  Bricks worth 0 points(how to test: set a amount of red's brick and duck,and test with game of points +3,red cannot claim a win).  When activating Duck chess,if there are more than 1 duck(promotion or default),chess.com will choose one randomly. If you don't wanna move that duck,you can click on another duck and move it(drag or click.) When Duck chess and KotH were enabled,even you have a duck royal,nothing happens when you throw the duck to the hill. When Petrified and =K(when no default royal),you claim the hill when the king reach it even the king dead after the pawn captures,or make a dead brick Royal after capture.  Quiz Time! Take a look at the variants below(of course they're very old now).They are Sandglass Battle(by @larrysupercpu) and Glass House(by @1marker2maker3). Although there are some good strategies and unique ideas ,they have the same major flaws among other issues. Without seeing the decline reason of both,can you find what's their mistakes of using bricks? 1.Sandglass Battle 2.Glass House(yeah I didn't spin that) You can use the editor to play some moves to analysis the variant and...bingo! You got it! Dead Pieces  We believe you have learned the dead pieces. If don't,skip this.   In this part,we don't talk about petrified/stone commonly because they are just uncaptureable obstacle.  There are 2 kinds of dead pieces:Bounties(dead players' pieces) and Dead Pieces(Generic walls that can be captured). They are similar,only one thing different:when game of point enabled,you gain points by capture bounties[Examples:Barricade,Jungleland of Horror,Harvesting] but nothing happens when you just capture a dead piece[Examples:Acheron,Phalanx].  How to add dead pieces if you cannot throw them: Add d and/or a team(if dead) tag( r,b,y,g ,but most of the time if you did push the piece by clicking them,you don't have to) in front of it(e.g. dyQ for dead yellow queen,and dU for a dead xiangqi horse with no team). You can even choose a dead piece in an alive team as a royal. It can be checkmated,or be captured yourself.  Most different dead pieces are for points farm or just aesthetic,but here are some unique things about them: Dead Grasshoppers checks an alive royal when self-check (when Regicide) is enabled.  (waiting) Zombies Actually,zombies are nicknames,they are just bots moving by its behavior. No matter the preferences the bot have,they refuse to capture/checkmate other bots. There are now 10 different type of zombies: Rando:Moves randomly,with no preference. This is not useful most of the times.  Pusher:Moves randomly,but push pawns. Pawns include both pawn and fairy pawns.  Checker:Moves randomly with checking preference. It checks as much as it can,but didn't care of which player to check(because it's still a rando bot) Muncher:Moves randomly with capturing preference.  Ranter:50% moves like a Rando(random moves),50% like a Futer(Great but not computer best moves). This is sometimes useful when you want to make a pure luck game or just doing it cause using a futer is too strong. [Example: Pac Chess] Futer:A (beatable) 4pc computer. That simply means it try to play the best move every time it can do(but always a little worse). They do not sacrifice at all if they are immune(or just I didn't see yet?). Patzer: Patzer plays the worst Futer move. Nothing explain here. It captures your pieces when you were teams while any capture is enabled,or blocks itself to make you laugh.  F-Pusher:Futer with pawn push preference. It trys to move pawns all the times,and do the best choice.  F-Checker:Futer with checking preference.  F-Muncher:Futer with capturing preference. It's more careful and capture dead pieces first if it wasn't immune,but take a bunch of players' pieces(and usually only one player) when it is.  Zombies are useful someways,such as Slow down/quicken the game speed[Examples:Herd in Swarm(faster),Grasshopper Soccer(slower)]; Blocking the ways,make you must take 1 turn to free your way to attck[Example:Resources Chess]; Be your partner,either make you in a better position or give you up(joke)[Examples:Uneasy Alliance,Utopia F-6/RP-7] Let CGAs crazy lol[Do we need an example?Zombies on Your Lawn lollllll] Immune zombies are kinds of moving bricks--if you do think so. You can neither capture them nor try to threaten them(because they seldom stalements). And they have something special like bricks(see part What are special about bricks ). However,they also have unique features. When Atomic,they explode their piece capture,but the surrounding piece won't explode. Pawns capture dead/bricked because of Atomic(+Petrified). When they capture,promote to king when no royal,reach the hill immediately,nothing happens because they exploded. But in Fatal/Petrified+Atomic Mod,they win by KotH even the king dead/bricked. (If they capture promote and become a transparent brick,they just self-explode but show a brick on the place where the pawns were.Must be a bug.) When Fatal Capture,they kill their piece capture. When Petrified,they turn their pieces capture into stone.  They can't capture themselves when Any Capture.  Joke time!When a pawn promote to a duck and exploded itself by Atomic,we call it Ducke Nukem(by @wolyn) (plz wait) Hooray!You finished reading this forum!We learned something about using a brick better,and try solving problems of bad brick usage. I'll keep adding new facts of bricks as time goes on.Post your ideas and advices in the comments!

'hj

Hi all, just wanted to do a quick poll on piece styles! I'll keep the discussion open here in the comments, but as always remember to be civil, there has been a recent uptick in banter (both on-topic and off) so just something to keep in mind since we do try to moderate this forum as much as possible Loading...

5 check but you have 1 rocket which you can use to give a check to the opposing king.

how do i make my own variant.

Hello qilp wondering if we can make a testing thread 2????

This is my new variant: https://www.chess.com/variants/custom. 

do you like my idea? KOTH, goal is to checkmate by returning to where the king would be in normal 4pc or get through the pawn wall to the hill

WoF: Cornered

how is this?

I want to make custom pieces like wildbeast rider, queen + knight rider, etc

There should be a piece editor allowing you to make your own piece

Hello! @Martin_Stahl I am referred here, after chess.com will release the variants from the live server. Last month, we had the 6th Edition of the Passport 241 Series (number 28, yes, we've been doing the monthly variant series every second weekend of each month for almost 3 years).On Chess.com/Variants, will there be an option for clubs to upload tournaments?

Regular chess except there are portals. If a piece goes on a portal, they teleport to the other portal. Pieces can travel through portals. Kings cannot use the portal if it is in check when it teleports to the other portal

Rules: 12-check promotion to AEHOM 8th rank Time control 1|1 R-0,0,0,0-0,0,0,0-0,0,0,0-0,0,0,0-0-{'royal''g7','g8','h8','h7'),'lives'12,12,12,12)}-3,yE,yO,yH,yM,yA,yH,yO,yE,3/3,yδ,yδ,yδ,yδ,yδ,yδ,yδ,yδ,3/14/bE,bδ,10,gδ,gE/bO,bδ,10,gδ,gO/bH,bδ,10,gδ,gH/bA,bδ,4,bA,yA,4,gδ,gM/bM,bδ,4,rA,gA,4,gδ,gA/bH,bδ,10,gδ,gH/bO,bδ,10,gδ,gO/bE,bδ,10,gδ,gE/14/3,rδ,rδ,rδ,rδ,rδ,rδ,rδ,rδ,3/3,rE,rO,rH,rA,rM,rH,rO,rE,3 Description: Careful of these flying pieces all of them are long-ranged. Notes: This may not seem like a WOF and may feel more like an NCP. But I think red has an advantage if it is ncp. My 15 links played over a span of 24 hours and 31 minutes. Actually there are 18 but 1 is aborted and 2 are quickly resigned. https://www.chess.com/4-player-chess?g=5198129 https://www.chess.com/4-player-chess?g=5198092 https://www.chess.com/4-player-chess?g=5208655 https://www.chess.com/4-player-chess?g=5207946 https://www.chess.com/4-player-chess?g=5207917 https://www.chess.com/4-player-chess?g=5202732 https://www.chess.com/4-player-chess?g=5202550 https://www.chess.com/4-player-chess?g=5202415 https://www.chess.com/4-player-chess?g=5198583 https://www.chess.com/4-player-chess?g=5198523 https://www.chess.com/4-player-chess?g=5198409 https://www.chess.com/4-player-chess?g=5198245 https://www.chess.com/4-player-chess?g=5198209 https://www.chess.com/4-player-chess?g=5198173 https://www.chess.com/4-player-chess?g=5202620

Hi! @TimeVeteran had an idea to make forums explaining bugs and exploits, so i'll make one. He made a forum explaining Double Royals and more, and it used another bug called Restricted Crazyhouse, which this forum is about. How it works. If there is a dead piece in a player's crazyhouse bank, the player can't drop a piece of this type onto the board. In this crazyhouse bank, it seems like red has 7 wazirs. However, since there is also a dead blue wazir, red actually can't drop any of them. However, they can drop a ferz, because there is no dead ferz in the bank. This can be very useful in many gimmicks, and rawly used also gave me an acception. This also allows a cool tactic: In this position, a trade of ferzes in not a fair trade. Why? Because red will be able to use their ferz in the bank, however yellow not. Setting this up is easy, however remember to use a colored dead piece, not a grey one cause grey one prohibits checkmating. Thanks for reading!

We need a better way to suggest than a single forum where they just get buried. Do we have any ideas?

Yeah, I hope you can understand what the title means.  Please black out the results, so people don't get spoilers. If demand exists, I might make a form in Microsoft, because why not. Chapter I: Previous Names. Excluding troll names like RANDOM PIECE JUMPSCARE #6217963918, name all names a variant ever had. I will provide submission codes, good luck. 1308 905 867 827  811 805 (good luck) 798 Well, I won't tell answers to these, but I feel some people would know all of em. Chapter II: True/False questions 1. There are 3 bugged variants, with their submission codes as follows: 20, 375 and 711. 2. allanzixi2077 does not have a single non-sequel submission. 3. Acheron was inspired by Ashtandrez. 4. The rules for a Lobotomy variant is atleast 6 Pusher bishops, and the bot should be red. 5. All accepted submissions in the past 12 months are people from the club Experienced Variant Players (If existing, players who are eligible of joining but not present does not count.) 6. All accepted submissions in the past 6 months are people from the club Experienced Variant Players (If existing, players who are eligible of joining but not present does not count.) 7. There has been 4 Qiang-XiangQi Revisions. 8. At least half of the top 10 Extreme demons in GD is taken as variant names, or is proven ineligible by Pending Reply submissions. 9. The most recent 3PC NCV submission is Triple Threat. 10. Lester's Fight was an existing pre-merge variant. Well, that was hard isn't it? Chapter III: Acception. 1. What were the 3 longest-taking acceptions in 2024? This means submission date is in 2024, not the acception date. 2. Was Tidal Wave accepted without any revision? 3. What was the date when the most variants were accepted in 1 day? 4. Is the placement of the dead pieces in Harvesting random? 5. How many accepted variants are a member of Pocket Chess? 6. What is the amount of accepted FoW NCV's? 7. What is your predicted number of acceptions that will happen in 2025? This is it for now, I have no more ideas help. Below are dots to prevent spoilers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

All variants used will be referenced as their current name. Submissions used will mainly be imchesspro0930 variants. If from the same submitter, even in a part of a collaboration project they are considered friends. . (also the setting is that acheron and armageddon are good friends, they have similar origins) . Strategy Warehouse: Hello, I am the organizer of the party, I have a giant warehouse us to enjoy! Acheron: Nice to see everybody here. May you guys say your names? I will start. I prefer the current name of Acheron, but you may call me as Demising Battlefield, if you wish. Hilly Jungle: I am Hilly Jungle I. Hilly Jungle II: I am Hilly Jungle 2. (hilly jungle 3 was not invited) Pointy Garden: Hilly Jungle? ew. Pointy Garden it is! Tidal Wave: I am better than Acheron lol, I am Tidal Wave.  Cataclysm: I am Cataclysm, and I used to reign GD, well those days have been demised. Please call me Crystals as I don't want to be reminded of those memories. Acheron: Armageddon... Speak! Armageddon: ... Acheron: Cmon, our friends are everywhere, just speak! Armageddon: So... I go by lots of names... Armageddon: But just call me Armageddon. The Well of Fate: Vish's Isabelle's Arkhangelsk's Andrew's Armaggeddon's *Insert GD demon name here*'s Warfare's Airbases's War Armageddon: I quit. Stereo Madness: I think he forgot Slaughterhouse. Acheron: Anyways, it's a party! should we just rant about how lower quality members (submissions) are flooding VW, our entire group chat? Playtime: That is pretty harsh, let's switch topics. Acheron: Oops, a game of Acheron is currently happening, and as a chess variant set of Acheron, I must go to let them play, I will return after the game ends! Threaded Turns: I hope that happens to me too sometime. Leapers: I will now lead this party, is that okay for you all? All variants: okay Leapers: Do you guys have any struggles towards acception, or lack of popularity? Explosive Magic: "carefully raises hand" I think my variant is struggling on popularity.. Enchanted Woodland: You shut up. *after a series of conversations the similar variants have all formed a group* The group of imbalances Contrasting Strategies: Unfair Strategies, you helped me succeed so much. Unfair Strategies: It's ok brother, if one of us gets in, we both get in. Unequal: Hello guys, my name is Unequal! Divergence: I am the middle child here, I am Divergence. Unequal: Wait, why are you guys all from the same place? why does your piece arrangements seem familiar? Am I hallucinating? Why do they all look the same? Hilly Jungle: Not me, although I kind of lack quality, gush these generals are making me sick. The Well of Fate: I am kind of dizzy, I need to get my bricks right. I might have been a bit harsh to 805 though. *The Pocket Chessers* Everyone: What? are we twins? We all look the same! It's almost like kpop idols! Beehive: Don't get me into this, I am the OG. Solarion: I mean, I have freeze spells... Cataclysm: you don't have a say in this Acheron: Neither does you. Acheron: Anyways, Alfarracks you seem shy, do you want me to show you the lounge of accepted variants? Alfarracks: Sure! Wait, why does The Triune Wasp not have a fourth wall? The Triune Wasp: I broke it. *acheron just vibing with the other variants Unison: *cries in unpopularity Acheron: It will be fine, someone will shine a light on you Villagers Chess: That is true, when the right person loves you with his heart, you will see your golden days again. *acheron leaves Alfarracks: well... that was overwhelming... Acheron: I am worried that I might end up like Unison again. Acheron: Oh, Armageddon's back. Armageddon: is Stereo Madness anywhere? Acheron: Oh, he's at the room of GD submissions. Acheron: Speaking of GD, we can both go there, let's go! *both goes in and surprised Solarion is here Stereo Madness: Sorry, but how are you here? Solarion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fh9MlCONns&ab_channel=zof Stereo Madness: not as iconic as me, but okay. Acheron: Tidal Wave, come out. Tidal Wave: wait what who are you you top 3 Acheron: You're just long, I have better and harder raw gameplay! Tidal Wave: womp womp *all GD levels get into a fight as of who's the best* Solarion: I want to get out of here. Acheron: Tidal Wave, why not go to the chamber of revised variants? Tidal Wave: sure! Barricade: autodecline to autoaccept let's go! Uneasy Alliance: he's so arrogant, ugh. Contrasting Strategies: when will this end? Rookmate II: Atleast you have decent CGA data, mine does not. Alfarracks: Hi, my only friend. I was too overwhelmed. Barricade: I have friends everywhere! i might continue this idk

I will go in aphabetical order, and I will add more details to it as time passes. For now, I will only write this down to G, and further questions are for yourself to answer, although we can help. Amazon: This is a general tabooed piece to use, and I generally only advise to use it for bounties, or as pieces where if you collect it, you instantly win. Or, use it as an absolutely ruling piece in a wacky board, like Battle of Castles. Bishop: One of the more versatile pieces, mainly used to be a colorblind but strong piece across all board sizes. Although, polarity can sometimes be a problem, or if you're andrew, call it a feature. Although you may need to sometimes add or remove walls for it to have the right power, it is overall a recommended piece to use across many variants. Camel: First of all, don't use this in pocket chess unless you are 1000% sure of what you're doing. Otherwise, I think it is a fine piece to use as a colorblind army, or sometimes if you know what you're doing, as a royal piece! Also, be careful of the polarity of the camel, because it is also a colorblind piece and can effectively traverse through most kinds of boards, although if the board is large I sometimes recommend you a camel-rider. 1-point queen: First of all, this can be used to make point spread more interesting and dynamic (Limited Life), or as decorational purposes. You basically use it in a GoP game where you want the queen to matter less in terms of point spread, like in Blast Processing, as a 9 pointer queen will sometimes get players >30 points, but other than that not much uses.  Chancellor: This is the piece you use when you want a clunky, or a slow developing but still a strong piece. I recommend you to use this instead of a rook as a better substitution. I mean, look at my creations for how I use them. I strongly advise this piece in atomic variants trust me. It is one of those filler pieces you use when you need something strong. Ferz: This is one of those pieces that should really only be used for Pocket-Chess sized creations. ANYTHING bigger than a 10x10 should never have a ferz unless you are 1200% sure of what you're doing. It is also colorblind so polarity stuff matters but not as much. It is also a piece I strongly advise for Crazyhouse variants. For 8x8 variants? Try, but if it doesnt work probably just remove it. Grasshopper: This is one of the hardest pieces to use correctly. If crazyhouse is there in a grasshopper-included variant, make sure the board is always atleast semi-closed. (I mean this also applies outside of crazyhouse but still), and PLEASE make sure there are always mounts that can make the grasshopper useful for atelast some time. a good implementation of this is Saturn's Rings, with those rings that can always be used for grasshopper mobility, and a not-so-good implementation is Alfarracks, where grasshoppers had nothing to hop for most times, and cannot be used effectively as much. Archbishop: A very versatile yet strong piece, and a very strong checker. It absolutely reigns in a cramped board, but can sometimes be tradey.  Yeah even this took me way too long