Make your own chess variant! | Full guide for beginners

Forum Writter: @ChocoCaramelPawn

Original Blog

Chess is a game of art, where the board is the canvas and the pieces are the colors of our imagination. (Unknown)

https://www.chess.com/variants/custom to make variants!

Chess. A game of 64 squares, 32 pieces and 2 unpredictable minds. In my previous blog, I talked about the beauty of some variations of chess made by talented people. But what if we give you a try? I will go through every process of creating this type of chess art in detail and at the end you will make your own chess masterpiece! Turn on some relaxing music, and let's start our journey!

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CHESS ART SCHOOL

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(Transcendence by Alexander Nakarada | https://creatorchords.com https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

The galaxies of ideas

The most important thing in chess is to think about the ideas behind the moves.*

Mikhail Botvinnik

Before we take off, we need to understand where we are heading. A great idea will inspire amazing chess variants! This might be solving a specific problem in normal chess or making a game more dynamic, tactical, etc. Maybe you just want to create a complete opposite, possibilities are endless! So, let's look at some examples for inspiration:

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Chess960 by Bobby Fisher

Bobby Fisher suddenly started popularizing his variant in 1992. As a result, in 1996 he called it "Fisher Random". The idea was quite simple: instead of memorizing opening lines, you have to show your understanding of chess positions to win the game. The variant was tested against some strong players like Susan Polgar and is still popular right now because of how Fisher predicted "The drawish death of Chess" due to computer opening lines.

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Setup Chess

Very creative idea! Instead of solving classic chess problems, you create your own game! This is a good example of how such a simple idea can result in such a complex yet fun variant. But here's a thing - actually, you don't even need your idea to be related to chess!

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Hide & Seek Chess

No way this is real, it isn't even a chess game now, right? Wrong! With enough creativity, you can create your own game and it doesn't matter how far you go from normal chess setup. This is a really good example. I actually played this game a few times and loved it! Even with the idea not related to chess you can create a masterpiece!

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Conclusion

Alright, I gave some amazing examples of ideas and their results! Did you get some inspiration? Are you ready to make your own idea come true? Write it down and come back to it later if you need it.

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My idea is: 

Chessboard Planets

The chessboard is a world of its own, where every piece has its role and every move tells a story.

Unknown

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After visiting many galaxies, I'm pretty sure you came up with your own, unique idea. Now you have to learn the first step to creating your art: drawing a chessboard. Interesting ideas require hand-made, beautiful boards, and that's what these planets are all about!

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Jupiter | Square boards

A classical choice. These boards are a great way to re-imagine a game that existed for centuries! You can rather increase the board to add more pieces, rules and tactics or go the other way: make the board small and leave only the most important pieces.

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These boards go well with:

• Positions, close to normal chess
• Games with symmetrical placement of pieces
• Boards with few pieces

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Mars | 4 player chess boards

4 players chess is one of the most popular chess variants out there, and the board is a great inspiration! A 14 by 14 board with "eaten" 3 by 3 squares in the corners looks amazing and even if you don't like it, you can use it as base for your own custom board!

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This board suits:

• Games with more than 2 players
• Games with a lot of pieces
• Games with asymmetrical placement of pieces

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Saturn | Long & Wide chessboards

One of the most interesting chessboards! It's been rarely used and usually for a good reason: cramped space is not good for strong pieces. So I wouldn't suggest using this, unless:

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• Your chessboard won't restrict the movement of strong pieces for no reason
• Your chessboard will have plenty of space free from pieces
• There is a specific reason or design that you want to make

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Neptune | Custom boards

For all the artists out there, this is the best option. An opportunity to create something not only appealing to the brain but also appealing to the eye is a superpower, unknown to many people. That's what freedom is!

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Custom boards are good at:

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• Design. If you are trying to make a chess game but you want it to feel different from chess, this is your chance.
• Progression. Custom boards usually have a predetermined path for pieces to go to marked with dead pieces or surrounded by stones, which can help beginners.
• Decoration. You can even add some decorative elements:
•   Stone. Can be placed anywhere on the board to prevent pieces from moving to this square. Pieces can still jump over it though.
•   Invisible stone. It is the same as a stone, but you can't see it when playing (used in the variant shown in the thumbnail to add holes)
•   Duck. Same as the stone, but after each turn you can move the duck to any free square. (Quack!)

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Chess Pieces Glossary

A chess piece is not just a piece; it represents a strategy, a plan, and a vision.

Unknown

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If you are an Elon Musk who chose to colonize Mars or whatever other planet, you need to understand one thing: a planet without good conditions is not a good planet. Same goes for chess variants: every piece, every stone and every duck on the board changes how the game feels a lot.

So, this will be your hardest mission yet, but I will help you. You have to select pieces that will go well with the board. To make it easier for you, I will give 3 tips:

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1. Every piece should be in harmony with the other pieces.

2. Every piece should have its own path and goal.

3. You have to select one of the pieces as your king.

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Classic Pieces

•  Pawn - A good choice in almost every situation (unless you don't count its variants). By setting up a custom promotion rank you can make something interesting!
•  Knight - An excellent piece for dominating custom and square chessboards.
•  Bishop - In small and custom boards usually it is weaker than a knight. But on big boards, it is unstoppable
•  Rook - Same as a bishop, but it is a little bit stronger.
•  Queen - A really strong piece but it is really bad in harmony with most weak pieces.
•  King - The interesting thing is that you can decide which piece is a king! So your knight or a rook can be a king, and your king can be a normal piece. It is really solid in small and wide boards, but not more than that.

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Combinations of multiple pieces

•  Amazon - Moves like a queen + knight. This is the strongest piece you can get, so be careful when using it in your designs!
•  Chancellor - Moves like a rook + knight. A really cool combination of pieces, and it works out quite well in some cases...
•  Archbishop - Moves like a bishop + knight. This is one of the very few pieces that can checkmate your enemy's king without any help!
•  General - Moves like a king + knight. This piece is good at short-range attacks as it almost controls every single square in 5 by 5 space, but its value decreases the bigger the board gets.
•  Dragon Bishop - Moves like a bishop + knight, but it can't jump over pieces that are next to it. This can be a replacement for Archbishop which might be just a little too powerful in some cases.

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Pawn variants

•  Berolina pawn - a pawn with swapped squares for moving and capturing pieces. It is used really often in custom chessboards.
•  Soldier - a pawn that captures how it moves. It is barely used in designs because it moves like a checker and chess players don't like checkers (I'm kidding)
•  Stone General - a pawn that moves how it captures. It's a pretty strong piece compared to a normal pawn, ready to break everything in its way.
•  Sergeant - a pawn that can move and capture forward and diagonally, being the strongest pawn ever.

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Knight variants

•  Camel - moves like a knight but instead of going 2 squares in one direction and 1 square to the side, it goes 3 squares in one direction and then 1 square to the side. This piece is famous for being able to deliver a funny checkmate when the king is surrounded by pieces.
•  Xiangqi horse - moves like a normal knight but it can't jump when there is a piece next to it. It is a lot weaker than a normal knight, but it is less dangerous.
•  Wildebeest - moves like a knight + camel. As twice as strong, as twice as dangerous
•  Grasshopper - jumps...oh, sorry, I mean it hops in any direction moving over the first piece/stone/duck and hoping right over it.

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Bishop and Rook variants

•  Ferz - moves one square diagonally in any direction. Don't use it unless you are designing a small board or a board with cramped space because you will fall asleep until your ferz will cross the entire board.
•  Alfil - jumps two squares diagonally in any direction. Chess variant professionals call it "triple colorblind" and they are not wrong - this is the weakest piece to ever exist!
•  Wazir - moves one square horizontally or vertically. Again, it is okay for small boards, but please don't bring a knife to a gunfight.
•  Dabbaba - jumps two squares horizontally or vertically. This piece is a little different, but it is still "triple colorblind".
•  Alibaba - moves like alfil + dabbaba. It is as twice as strong as alfil, but still useless in most cases.

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Riders

Riders are a version of jumping pieces that can continue jumping in one direction until the path is blocked. The bigger the board gets, the stronger riders become.

•  Knight-rider - can jump like a knight in one direction multiple times until the path is blocked. It is a really cool piece and would like to see more people using it.
•  Camel-rider - can jump like a camel in one direction multiple times until the path is blocked. There is no point in using this rider unless the board is really big, but even after that it just gains control of random squares that you probably won't need.
•  Alfil-rider - can jump like an alfil in one direction multiple times until the path is blocked. Didn't see how this piece works in practice, but the idea is really cool.
•  Dabbaba-rider - can jump like a dabbaba in one direction multiple times until the path is blocked. Same as the alfil-rider but rotated 45 degrees.

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Okay, it seems that you are done... but not yet. Now we go to the most important part: choosing the right square for the right piece. But first, let me give you an idea of how to work with this editor.

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Go back to your art studio. I would like you to pay attention to a colorful button on the right below presets. For me, it says 4PC which means 4 player chess. If you are planning to make a game with only 2 players, make sure to switch it to W&B which stands for white and black. With this problem out of the way, we can start placing pieces!

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On the right you can see a menu with pieces that I talked about. If you hover over a piece, you can see its name. Find the pieces that you selected and drag & drop them onto the board. Really intuitive! There are a few tricks:

• • You can enable symmetrical editing if every player is going to have the same pieces in the same spot.
  • You can use a trash can on the bottom right to get rid of unnecessary pieces.
  • If you hold your mouse over a piece for a second, it will change its color.

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Take your time and choose the best setup. You can try to play your setup online or analyze it using the green buttons on top. It is important to say that these buttons won't appear in case you set up a position that is illegal.

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Chess Rules Glossary

Chess is not like life... it has rules!

Mark Pasternak

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My congratulations, you made it to the last step! At this point, everything is already ready in your mind and there is one thing left to be made: game rules. This is your final touch to your art, and it depends on what variant are making, so put a check on rules that you like!

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Basic Rules

•  Bare piece rule - players with 1 piece left lose. If your endgames are very drawish, this rule might be a way to go.
•  Allow passing - quite self-explanatory.
•  Game of points - instead of playing for checkmate, you earn points for capturing pieces and delivering checkmates. It is really fun and makes drawing games nearly impossible.
•  No en passant - very clear to understand.
•  Opposite castling - both opponents can't castle to the same side. This can make the game a lot sharper and dynamic.
•  Torpedo - pawns can move two squares up at any time. An excellent rule to add to big boards.
•  Taboo - giving checks and checkmates is illegal. Usually, you use this rule with other rules because otherwise, the game is a draw before it even begins.
•  Capture the King - capture the king to win the game. This rule might completely change a game with 3 or 4 players.
•  Any capture - you can capture your own pieces. If you pair this with crazyhouse then it will be as twice as fun!
•  Sideways pawns - pawns and their variants can move one square sideways. Not much, but that means that for the first time, pawns can fix their structure without any help!
•  Promotion rank - set how far pawns need to go before they promote.

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Complex Rules

•  Duck chess - by the end of every turn you can move any duck to any square, free from pieces. (if you have a duck, of course)
•  Play for Mate - to win the game you need to get the most amount of points. You can only get them by checkmating - 1st checkmate is worth 48 points, 2nd is worth 32 and 3rd is worth 24.
•  Giveaway - The first person to lose all the pieces wins! Capturing is compulsory.
•  Takeover - if you checkmate someone, you gain control of their pieces. This is another rule to make the game sharper.
•  King of the Hill - get your king to the center to win the game! This idea was born as a joke, but then it became a real chess variant, and now it is a chess rule that you can add to your game!
•  Atomic chess - when you capture a piece, every non-pawn piece in a 3 by 3 radius gets exploded. Pawns only explode if they participate in a capture. Kings can't capture pieces.
•  Stonewall - pieces that get captured turn into bricks.
•  Spell chess - each opponent has two spells: jump and freeze. The jump spell allows you to go through a piece like it wasn't there and the freeze spell freezes everything in a 3 by 3 square. Use the spells to your advantage and capture the king to win the game!
•  Fatal capture - non-pawn pieces when captured become gray and can't move for the rest of the game. Kings can't capture.
•  Fog of War - you can only see squares that your pieces can move to. Your goal is to capture the king. You can use this rule to turn chess into an adventuring game!
•  No zombies - resigned pieces don't move. This rule can be applied only for games with more than 2 players.

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Are you done? Amazing! It is time to apply your changes! First, click on the edit rules button above the pieces menu. This will open a brand new window full of different and exciting settings! To not get lost, the first part is about general rules (promotion rank, stalemate, points for checkmate) that are in the game. But to add more rules you use the second part full of different buttons.

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The concept is simple: go back and see what you selected, then find these rules in the menu and enable them. Sometimes you won't be able to combine two rules together. This means that these rules are incompatible and it is impossible to combine them. For example: how would you combine rules capture the king and taboo? You won't be able to check the king, so how will you capture it? This won't make any sense!

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When you are done, scroll down below the piece menu and you will find additional settings. There is some useful stuff here like an option to change who goes first and restrict castling. There are also very advanced features like adding players controlled by computers. I won't go over such complex features in this article, but feel free to try these options by yourself!

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Make your own chess variant and share it here!

Chess is not just a game; it is an art form where you create your own masterpiece with each move.

Viktor Korchnoi

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Now when we went over all important aspects of creating chess variants, nothing is stopping you from creating and sharing them with others!

In the edit rules window click on my templates. Here you will find all variants that you saved. To save it press save current rules as template. This will make it easier to come back in the future! Now you can play this game with anyone! To share this game with others, play a game with someone and then copy the game link.

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I hope you enjoyed this fun journey that you went through, but it is not over yet! You see, I am also a big chess variants enthusiast and would like to suggest a deal: you will create your own variant, and submit it in Variants.Universe!⠀

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You chose to make a simple square board, good choice! Open your art studio in another tab, click on customize and then edit position. In presets, you can choose an empty 8 by 8 board if you want a small board, or a 14 by 14 board if you want a big board. 

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Then, under the presets, you can choose how many lines and files will your chessboard have. Make sure these numbers are equal so they make a square! If you want a N by N board but can't set it using these handles, select a  Transparent brick in the pieces menu and put it around the board until you make a smaller square and here you go!
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You are done

You chose to make a board for 4 players, that is the easiest one by far! Open your art studio in another tab, click on customize and then edit position. In presets choose 4 player.

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And you are done! It's that easy!

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Then, under the presets, you can see how many lines and files will your chessboard have. Make sure these numbers are unequal so they make a good-looking rectangle! If you want a N by N board but can't set it using these handles, select a  Transparent brick in the pieces menu and put it around the board until you are happy with your rectangular board!

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After following these steps carefully, you will get your own chessboard, isn't that cool?

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You decided to draw the board by yourself, a really creative choice! Open your art studio in another tab, click on customize and then edit position. In presets choose a 14 by 14 board. 

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Now it is your time to customize the board! Select any kind of brick or a duck from a piece menu and start forming your own board! If you are going for a lot of bricks, I strongly recommend using transparent bricks because they look cool, otherwise use a brick or a duck!