Golden Variant is a weekly arena that aims to feature all community-made custom variants on the chess.com variants server! This resource page will be periodically updated throughout 2025 as Golden Variants for each month have been decided on through CGA nomination and/or voting by the community in forum votes.
If you got here from the variants server through the game chat link, please consider joining us here in the official chess.com-run Custom Variants club using the link below to learn how you can submit your own variants for review and for updates in the world of all things chess variants:
This page will be linked on Golden Variant announcement posts and in Golden Variant arena game chats. It will also be pinned on the Forums page in this club for easy viewing and is also included in the Club Directory.
Relevant announcement posts for voting have also been included below.
(Dates are based off the PST/PDT time-zones and are in Month/Day format. Arenas generally start at 5 PM PST on Fridays / 0 UTC on Saturdays and run for no more than a week.)
Italics indicates a variant not eligible for the Platinum Variant vote, e.g., Golden WoFs.
Asteriks (*) denote a variant which was predetermined by the Custom Games Admin team.
ARENA FORMAT
Most Golden Variant arenas are voted on by the community in a monthly plurality or ranked-choice vote, although some may be pre-determined by the Custom Games Admins. Usually, these arenas will be 72 hours long, or 3 full days. Sometimes, there may be a "Golden Variant All Week" arena, featuring the newest accepted NCVs, or "Golden Fortune"/"Golden WoF" arenas; in those cases, arenas will be 168 hours long, or 7 days.
Platinum Variantselections are decided every quarter year, voted upon out of the top 5 played (based on their arena performance in terms of games and players) Golden Variants of that quarter cycle in a winner-takes-all vote. These arenas are also 168 hours long, and also grant a membership prize (usually 1 month of diamond/platinum/gold) to the top 3 finishers.
The standard time control for any arena is generally 5|2, although 3|2 and 1|2 may be used for variants which work better with a shorter time control (e.g., Minihouse, Amazon Jungle, etc.). On the contrary, Wheel of Fortune arenas (even "Golden Fortune") will always use the time control suggested by the creator during submission or similar.
2024's Schedule: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/2024-golden-variant-schedule
Welcome to Golden Variant!
Golden Variant is a weekly arena that aims to feature all community-made custom variants on the chess.com variants server! This resource page will be periodically updated throughout 2025 as Golden Variants for each month have been decided on through CGA nomination and/or voting by the community in forum votes.
If you got here from the variants server through the game chat link, please consider joining us here in the official chess.com-run Custom Variants club using the link below to learn how you can submit your own variants for review and for updates in the world of all things chess variants:
https://www.chess.com/club/custom-variants/join
GENERAL INFO
This page will be linked on Golden Variant announcement posts and in Golden Variant arena game chats. It will also be pinned on the Forums page in this club for easy viewing and is also included in the Club Directory.
Relevant announcement posts for voting have also been included below.
(Dates are based off the PST/PDT time-zones and are in Month/Day format. Arenas generally start at 5 PM PST on Fridays / 0 UTC on Saturdays and run for no more than a week.)
2025 SCHEDULE
Italics indicates a variant not eligible for the Platinum Variant vote, e.g., Golden WoFs.
Asteriks (*) denote a variant which was predetermined by the Custom Games Admin team.
ARENA FORMAT
Most Golden Variant arenas are voted on by the community in a monthly plurality or ranked-choice vote, although some may be pre-determined by the Custom Games Admins. Usually, these arenas will be 72 hours long, or 3 full days. Sometimes, there may be a "Golden Variant All Week" arena, featuring the newest accepted NCVs, or "Golden Fortune"/"Golden WoF" arenas; in those cases, arenas will be 168 hours long, or 7 days.
Platinum Variant selections are decided every quarter year, voted upon out of the top 5 played (based on their arena performance in terms of games and players) Golden Variants of that quarter cycle in a winner-takes-all vote. These arenas are also 168 hours long, and also grant a membership prize (usually 1 month of diamond/platinum/gold) to the top 3 finishers.
The standard time control for any arena is generally 5|2, although 3|2 and 1|2 may be used for variants which work better with a shorter time control (e.g., Minihouse, Amazon Jungle, etc.). On the contrary, Wheel of Fortune arenas (even "Golden Fortune") will always use the time control suggested by the creator during submission or similar.
ANNOUNCEMENT POSTS
The currently active / upcoming soon voting thread has been bolded.