Forum

Just one question to test your Variants knowledge -> Who made Chess 960?

1 sneaky pawn boi or a Amazon (Queen + Knight)

Only Choose 1 variant 

This is my new varient

Unfortunately, this post will be without diagrams because images of classic chess pieces are not suitable for describing this game. That's why I'm linking my blog here on the site where you can see the visuals of the game. Of course, I could provide links to third-party resources (like BGG) where the rules are published, but these links will not be displayed here. Imagine a game where the board is filled to the brim with pieces. They do not move. They are static protocols with a fatal trigger. Your move is not about where to go, but about which of your own pieces to erase first. They disappear one by one. Each disappearance is not a loss, but a calculation. Strength becomes vulnerability. Victory is the art of planning your own annihilation one move ahead of your opponent. Its complexity is not light, not medium, not advanced. It is paradoxical. The rules fit into a single sentence. Its depth lies in the exponential branches untouched by Go or classical chess. This is not a new game. It is a new operating system for conflict. It uses the language of chess to tell a story that chess could never tell. Introducing. EXPTIME CHESS. Chess played by deletion. The only way to move forward is to erase your pieces from the board. A system where your erasure is the tactic. EXPTIME CHESSQuick RulesObjective: Leave your opponent with no pieces at the start of their turn.Board & Pieces: Standard 8×8 board. Each player has 32 pieces:8 Recurser8 Anglitch8 Domerror8 Kernelix Setup (Mirror Placement)The game starts with an empty board. Players alternately fill ranks, mirroring each other.1. White places any 8 pieces on the 1st rank (a1–h1).2. Black mirrors them on the 8th rank (a8–h8).3. Black places any 8 pieces on the 7th rank (a7–h7).4. White mirrors them on the 2nd rank (a2–h2).5. White places any 8 pieces on the 3rd rank (a3–h3).6. Black mirrors them on the 6th rank (a6–h6).7. Black places their last 8 pieces on the 5th rank (a5–h5).8. White mirrors them on the 4th rank (a4–h4).The board is now full (64 pieces: 32 White, 32 Black).  Player's TurnPlayers take turns, starting with White.An attack is mandatory if possible. Your piece can move along its trajectory onto a square occupied by ANY other piece (friendly or opposing). You must choose one such attack.WARNING! When attacking, your attacking piece is immediately removed from the board. The attacked piece remains in place (does not move, change color, or owner).If no attacks are possible: Make a standard move with any of your pieces to an empty square. How Pieces MoveRecurser (NN): Makes several consecutive knight leaps (2+1) in the same straight-line direction (Nightrider).Anglitch (B+NN): Moves as a Bishop or as a Recurser.Domerror (R+NN): Moves as a Rook or as a Recurser.Kernelix (K+NN): Moves as a King (one square in any direction) or as a Recurser. End of Game: The game ends when it is a player's turn to move and they have none of their own pieces left on the board. That player loses. Core Principle: You do not capture — you sacrifice your own pieces to force your opponent to do the same. Victory goes to whoever better calculates the sequence of these forced sacrifices. As you can see traditional capture is replaced by a mandatory self-deletion protocol. The state vector of the game evolves not through piece movement, but through the controlled removal of one's own units. Each turn, a player must select one of their pieces to erase itself by initiating an "attack" on any intersecting target — ally or foe. The target remains; the aggressor is deleted. This creates a dynamic where positional advantage stems not from controlling space, but from orchestrating sequences of forced self-sacrifice. Victory is achieved not by eliminating the opponent's army, but by engineering a terminal state where the opponent is compelled to delete their final unit on their own turn. The board is static; the combinatorial explosion is absolute. So, folks, if you are interested in this game, you can read more about it here.

For those who haven't noticed, here's what you are really looking at ..point being the 4pc supports a boatload of variants already, but was lacking "2 player friendliness".All 4player games will eventually move over here to variants and the old 4player chess server will retire.

So this is a Rhombicuboctahedron: I'm imagining something like 64 smaller square tiles within the "square face" and the triangle faces are unused (to keep things simple - but of course you can add triangle tiles within if you wanted to). Each army (up to 18 players, suggested for equal proportional distance to other players: 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12), inhabits one of the shapes square faces in a formation suitable for the amount of players playing. I haven't thought of how the armies should be positioned or how things like pawn promotion would work but this is the basis of the idea and you can make variations out of it as well. Mostly I was trying to go for something that would look like Chess on a Globe but without the annoying super thin tiles up at the North and South Poles. I came up with this. Feel free to come up with set up suggestions. Here's one I'll make that an army could have on one face:

Please add this as another option to play 2 vs 2, add the button Teams Extra Defence : I want it as another option in 4 Players ( Teams Extra Defence - Teams - FFA ) I hope the people would like this. Thanks in advanced !God bless you, and thanks for reading this !

Hello all! 👋 Over the last year or two, I've built a platform for hexagonal chess, and would love some feedback and beta testers! You can log in with your chess.com account. https://www.hexchess.club Please give it a try and share your thoughts!

Mine's Chesstrap (I think it's the youtuber's channel name)

Is 4pc ffa coolest example how game theory works?

Any feedback on problems with the rules is welcomed! Pieces transform on stepping on randomly shuffled squares). kafkachess.com And the variant itself: Setup* Board: 8×8 classical. * Ranks 1–2 and 7-8: filled with metamorphs (round tokens). * Ranks 3–6 — "Metamorphia": every square displays a piece card — a shuffled layout of all 32 classical chess pieces (no color division) shown as outlined transparent fill symbols, one per square. * Chrysalis (outside the board): available piece supply (limited to starting counts of the classical 16 per color) — drawn to transform on piece cards in Metamorphia (ranks 3-6) and restored here when a piece changes type. * Quietus (outside the board): permanent graveyard of captured pieces; also the first source for promotion choices. Pieces* Metamorphs (round tokens, 16 per player): Move 1 square vertically toward, no captures, no jumping, not capturable. On landing in Metamorphia (ranks 3–6) they transform into that square’s piece card if available in the player's Chrysalis and disappear; otherwise they remain metamorphs and may keep moving vertically later. Could move on any rank, but not promotable if they reach the last rank. * Rooks / Bishops / Queen / Knight: Standard chess movement, but confined to ranks 3–6. * King: Standard chess movement, but confined to ranks 3–6. King safety: a king is immune to capturing on the opponent’s immediate next turn after it appears on the board; an enemy king can't be captured unless one's own king is on the board. * Pawns: Standard chess movement and capture. The only pieces except metamorphs allowed to progress outside Metamorphia (ranks 3-6). On reaching the last rank they promote to any available piece (taken from Quietus first, else Chrysalis). The promoted piece must return to ranks 3–6 according to its classical movement next turn or it goes to Quietus. Rules* Seting up and starting: Metamorphs are put on the board. Pieces are ordered in each player's Chrysalis. The 32 piece cards are shuffeled and dealt by the white player on Metamorhia's ranks 3-6 (order: a6 -> h6, a5 -> h5, a4 -> h4, a3 -> h3). White moves first. * Metamorphia interactions: Landing on a piece card instantly transforms the unit into that piece only if your Chrysalis has one available; otherwise it stays as-is and will auto-transform later if it remains on that square and stock appears. * Speacial rule for not blocking king piece cards by a metamorh: If a player has an active king piece in the Metamoprhia, it is forbiden for its metamorphs to step on an unoccupied king piece card. * Board restrictions: All real pieces must stay on ranks 3–6; only pawns may enter outside. Metamorphs move only one square vertically toward the center and never capture or jump. * Chrysalis (piece supply): Limited to starting counts (K-1, Q-1, R-2, B-2, N-2, P-8). When a unit transforms, the new piece is taken from the Chrysalis and the previous piece type is returned back to the Chrysalis (never exceeding limits). * Quietus (captures): Captured pieces go here permanently. Promotion takes the chosen piece from Quietus first, otherwise from Chrysalis. * Promotion rule: On reaching the last rank, a pawn promotes to any available piece in Quietus or Chrysalis. The promoted piece must return to ranks 3–6 on its very next turn or it goes to Queitus. * Edge metamorph rule: Moving a metamorph 1 -> 2 or 8 -> 7 does not transform it. * King safety and capture: A king is immune to capture on the opponent’s immediate next turn after it appears. You cannot capture the enemy king if your own king is not on the board. * Classical exceptions: 1). No castling,  2) no en passant, 3)  no checkmate (since taking the king - and hence moving into check - is allowed, 4) no classical chess stalemate (same reason) - a metamorphic stalemate instead, explained below. Victory conditionsCapturing the king.Opponent has no king and (no pawns or all pawns immobile) and (no metamorphs or all metamorphs immobile).Metamorphic stalemate (a sole king is blocked by opposite metamorphs and/or own pieces which are blocked by opposite metamorphs) while the opposite player is kingless. (Example here >>)Threefold repetition when the opponent is kingless.50-move rule when the opponent is kingless. (The metamorphs have the same status as pawns regarding the rule - any move by a metamorph resents the count.)Draw conditionsMetamorphic stalemate (both opponents are kingful, one of the kings is blocked by opposite metamorphs and/or by own pieces which are blocked by opposite metamorphs). Example here >>Threefold repetition when both players are either kingless, or kingful.50-move rule when both players are either kingless, or kingful.Mutual agreement. * Online playable version: kafkachess.com

What is your favorite Variant?

I found out the chesscraft link but I don't know how to make variants using chesscraft

Hi all, I am building my first (and only) chess video game: a Game of Chaess. It's a wave chess game with a survival mode (endless waves) and a story mode (Monty Python meets Tolkien on a chess board). The game is a variant where blacks pieces all move in their turn and according to a fixed move pattern. You play as white and pieces work just like in standard chess.  Things are progressing really well, but we could use some people to test the (almost) beta version of the game. It will be to test for any bugs, glitches or any other issues. Here's a demo of the current state:  December demo - www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyffmDmeXi0Anyone interested can follow us on Discord: https://discord.gg/zz2aQGTQ7x

If Duncan MacLeod from "Highlander" played chess, he wouldn't choose the classic game.Why would he need check or mate when his eternal law is far simpler and more merciless: "There can be only one".He would choose a game where there is no crown to protect. Where every piece is an immortal warrior, forced to fight at the first opportunity. Where victory is not a subtle maneuver, but the final blow that takes the strength of all defeated opponents. A game with a single rule: capture is mandatory. I call it — Survival Chess: Tartan Grid.Because this is survival of the highest order. You calculate how the vibration from your first choice will travel through the entire connected network, how a crack will run through the pattern. You survive not in spite of the chaos, but by controlling its spread. And at the end of this game, as at the end of time, there can be only one. SetupThe game is played on a regular chessboard of 8 files by 8 ranks.The initial position is as follows (from a1, White's perspective): Each player has six rows of pawns. PiecesThe types of pieces are the same as in standard chess.All pieces move and capture as in classical chess. In the initial position each side has 24 pawns:Pawns are arranged in a checkerboard pattern across six central ranks, forming an extremely dense, intertwined design reminiscent of Scottish tartan. The board is almost completely filled. White (24 pawns in total): Pawns on squares a7, c7, e7, g7 (first line), b6, d6, f6, h6 (second line), a5, c5, e5, g5 (third line), b4, d4, f4, h4 (fourth line), a3, c3, e3, g3 (fifth line), and b2, d2, f2, h2 (sixth line).Black (24 pawns in total): Pawns on squares a2, c2, e2, g2 (first line) and b3, d3, f3, h3 (second line), a4, c4, e4, g4 (third line), b5, d5, f5, h5 (fourth line), a6, c6, e6, g6 (fifth line), and b7, d7, f7, h7 (sixth line).The 1st and 8th ranks are empty. RulesThe game follows standard FIDE chess rules, except for the following: The Main Rule: Capture is mandatory. If you have a legal opportunity to capture an opponent's piece, you must do so. If multiple captures are available, you may choose any one of them. The King is an ordinary piece. It has no special status: it is not given check, it is not the objective of the game, and it can be captured like any other piece. There are no concepts of "check" or "mate." There is no castling. Pawn Promotion: A pawn that reaches the last rank (8th for White, 1st for Black) must be promoted immediately. The player may choose a king, queen, rook, bishop, or knight. Pawn's Initial Double-Step: Any pawn on its starting rank (the 2nd rank for White or the 7th rank for Black) has the right to move forward two squares on its first move, provided the path is clear (a tribute to classical chess).  The en passant capture rule is in effect. Objective: Eliminate the opponent's last piece. The player who captures the final piece wins. The game begins with White's first move, which must be a pawn promotion. White can promote any of their four pawns that are already on the 7th rank.From this moment, The Main Rule (Capture is mandatory) is in full effect. The extreme density of pieces means that any move will trigger vast, cascading chains of forced captures. Calculation becomes a matter of predicting wave-like reactions through the entire grid. Players use their pawns from the lower ranks as a strategic reserve, advancing them to promote into new pieces and support attacks. The Board as Scottish Tartan. This is not a metaphor. It is architecture. The pattern PpPpPpPp and pPpPpPpP, repeated across ranks, creates a perfect checkered grid of mutual destruction on the board. Each of your pawns stares into the eyes of an enemy pawn. These are not armies—this is a single, dual organism, ready to explode from the first spark. Perfect Equality and Symmetry. This is the fairest and most mathematically beautiful start of all proposed. There are no "better" flanks. There is only pure topology and the calculation of chains. 48 pawns. Not eight, not sixteen — forty-eight. They have filled the space, turning the board into a single, breathing mass. This is not a tartan pattern on an empty field. This is tartan bedrock, a monolith you are called to split with the very first blow. In the starting position, there are only four possible first moves — and all of them are promotions. For White, these are the squares a8, c8, e8, and g8. This strict limitation does not impoverish the game; it concentrates it. You are not simply "moving a pawn" — you are defining, from ground zero, the character of your future army. This is the choice of the detonation point. You decide at which node of this great web you will sacrifice a pawn so that, upon promoting it, you give it the chance to capture a neighbor and unleash a wave through the entire connected structure. More details here

A few months ago I launched a website for a chess variant I made.  I called the variant Siege Chess, and host it at https://siegechess.net.The site has some basic features for creating, joining games, and challenging other users. It supports a maximum of up to 8 players, and allows the users to customize the size of the board and apply some custom settings. To briefly describe how the game works, it begins when the host of a gameroom clicks on Start Game:1) Players take turn placing their fortress. 2) Players take turns placing their king.3) Players are given some gold to purchase their starting army. Other players will not be visible during this step. They will click 'Ready' once they have selected their army and are ready to begin.4) When all players are ready, the game will officially begin.At the start of a players turn, they will get one gold. The player can choose to move, capture, or spawn pieces.There are two ways to put a user in check. Either attack the king like you would in ordinary chess, or attack the stationary fortress with three pieces. If either condition cannot be resolved, then it is checkmate.  If a player is in check, they cannot spawn pieces. If the fortress is attacked by any number of pieces ("siege"), the user does not earn gold. I've had a lot of fun playing the variant with the people I have shown it too, and want to grow the playerbase a little bit. I hope you guys enjoy the variant! These are some screenshots that I took to show off the game:

I mean, why not add a new variant that is Chess and Christmas?

WE NEED TO MAKE SOMETHING LIKE CHECKERS VS CHESS OR SOMETHIN

Does anybody still play Therompylae hyper? I used to #1 in it idk if I still am. Looking for someone to play in it.