✓ NCV ︱ Minihouse

Yep, your above comment is fine; we'll add this variant soon!

Now available at  https://www.chess.com/variants/minihouse

Well done @MrKheese!

@MrKheese I only played a couple games but I love it!
I will keep playing it for sure

One thing that surprised me is the ability to drop a pawn on the 1st rank, as that's different from chess/crazyhouse and it feels strange. So I wanted to ask if you considered these ideas:

1. Not allowing pawns dropped on 1st rank
2. Allowing it, but then pawn can push 2 squares from there

and how would they impact the game.

I think those are outside of the reach of the creator, that would have to be coded in and explicitly mentioned in the gamerules by the developers

@pepe_chessable Thanks for the kind words! I am glad you are enjoying the variant.

The first option is definitely not currently possible with chess.com's variant editor, unfortunately.

The second option is possible and something I considered, but I thought when most players encounter it they would not know if it was an intentional feature or not. Since a pawn on the first rank comes up so rarely in the first place, I decided best not to potentially confuse people.

10000000000000/10! Nice small and unique variant!

Nice variant, although I always lose. Link shows my opponent's quickest K.O: https://www.chess.com/variants/minihouse/game/45491920

This is my favorite chess variant ever. I have achieved a rating of 1805 elo in it and have studied my own theory regarding it. Thank you so much for a wonderful variant MrKheese!

It's such a small world

By the way for those curious, Minihouse is currently averaging around 900 games daily, making it easily one of if not the most popular 2P NCV ever on chess.com

@MrKheese I'm consistently hovering around 1900 and I haven't seen anything in this forum about the bongcloud opening (minicloud?), namely 1. Kc3:

The natural move for Black here would be 1. ... Nd5+, however, 2. Kd4 puts the knight in a position where it can't check and must either move or be defended. If 2. ... Be6, White has Bc4 and a skewer. If 2. ... Rf5, White still has 3. Bc4 and Black is on the defensive once again with an early bishop-pawn fortress for white.

Suppose Black opts instead for 1. ... Bf5. White counters with 2. Bc4, which forces an exchange of rooks and bishops because after 2. Bc4 Bxc2 3. Kxc2 ... Black has nowhere to move his rook without losing material.

It is a great variant version.

@MrKheese Love the variant, but I'm confused as to why the pawn is not allowed to move two spaces from rank 2 (rank 3 internally), while also being allowed to be dropped on rank 1 (rank 2 internally).
I looked at the rules and saw that the "pawns home rank" is set to "1st", which is in practice rank -1, causing this behavior.
My question is whether this is intentional or not? Is the game better design-wise with these rules?

@anakondaaaaaaaa glad you like the variant, and thank you for your question c:

This was a compromise with chess.com's editor as both the area where pawns can be dropped and where they get to move two spaces is defined by their home rank. There was also no way (at least at the time the variant was made) to just disable their two step move option, which was what I would have preferred.

Most importantly for the game design, if the pawn could move two spaces from where it starts in Minihouse it would start the game 3 moves from promotion and that would've made promoting it a much easier to achieve goal. I felt it would take too much focus away from the other aspects of the game, (this is also one of the reasons it cannot become a queen).

I ended up deciding to also prevent the two step move on the first rank, as I thought it would end up just feeling weird to players if the two step move and en passant could only happen in these rare instances where it was dropped on the first rank after being captured. Also, since this would be something that a player would do defensively it would be a bit less punishing if they could also get the pawn advancing quickly after it served its defensive purpose.

Of course, I'm sure the way it is ended up feeling confusing from some people's perspectives too, haha.

@MrKheese Interesting, so IT IS intentional game design for the pawn to be unable to move two spaces from rank 2.
I felt that pawns being able to move two spaces from rank 2 wouldn't impact the game that much, as doing so as your first turn would just get it captured by the opponent's bishop and also because you can drop a pawn on the 5th rank, 1 space away from promotion. I'll trust you though, as you definitely spent more time on the game than me.
The reason I was asking was because I'm making a physical version of the game, because I like it so much, and wondered if certain rules were intentional or were simply a limitation of the editor. With a physical game you don't have any restrictions that the editor might have. I'll probably still test a few games with my friends, where you can move pawns two spaces forward on rank 2, while also being unable to drop the pawn on rank 1 (crazyhouse rules).
While I could use the regular chess board and pieces, I want to make shogi-like chess pieces, with a white piece (or rather symbol, the shogi pieces are flat) on one side and the black piece on the other, so you can just flip the captured piece, instead of having to exchange it for the same piece of your color.