Chess Variant Ideas ♟️

Sort:
jdcxxy

I recently became interested in chess and started looking into different variants. I came up with three variant ideas that might intrigue some players. I believe these are new and thoughtfully designed.

Four Square

Rules:

  • The objective of the game is to position four of your pieces within the central four squares of the chess board or the four corner squares of the board. 
  • Everything else follows standard chess rules

Reanimation Chess

Rules:

  • The objective of the game is to capture all of the opponent’s pieces 
  • If you have less than eight pawns your King can summon a new pawn that goes on your first rank  (if a free square is available) (Doing this counts as one turn)
  • Kings do not get checked in this game, but they can be captured.
  • A pawn is removed from the board after it captures any piece other than a pawn.
  • Each new pawn moves as normal, and can go forward two squares on their first move.
  • Win through capturing pieces or by having more remaining when the time expires
  • This variant creates an incentive for aggressive play and strategic captures

Novelty Chess

This chess variant adds two new rules to the game, similar to castling and en passant. The idea is to add more variety and creativity to the tried and true game.

 King-Queen Exchange:

On your turn, you can swap the positions of the King and Queen on the board

The two pieces must be in their original starting positions

Neither piece can have moved before the swap

The King cannot be in check (before or after the move)

Can be performed once per game, similar to castling

Does not disable the player’s ability to castle Kingside or Queenside

 

Royal Decree: 

The King moves two squares on the board (in any direction - both moves)  in one turn

The King cannot be in check (before or after the move)

Must travel over empty squares

The King cannot capture pieces on this turn

Allowed once per game

Thank you for reading, if you have any thoughts or comments let me know!

SadRedBall

Demotion

when any piece other than a pawn or the king is captured, it turns into a pawn, and is sent back to its starting space when it is captured

Everything else follows standard chess rules.

SadRedBall

an example of demotion chess is here

then a pawn would appear on F1