Vote #1 (for April 18 / Week 18)
React with 
to vote for Blackletter Chess
React with 
to vote for Courier Chess
React with 
to vote for Pit Racer (Self-Partner Teams)
React with 
to vote for Underground War (Self-Partner Teams)
React with 
to vote for Inferno (Self-Partner Teams)
Vote #2 (for April 25 / Week 19)
React with 
to vote for Warui-shogi
React with 
to vote for Enchanted Woodland
React with 
to vote for Behind the Mirror
React with 
to vote for Castle on a Hill (Self-Partner Teams)
React with 
to vote for Salvation Bastions (Self-Partner Teams)
Glory for Salvation Bastions!
Recommendation: keep a dedicated Pocket Chess challenge slot in the stats section (but Im biased 
)
You can vote for multiple variants, but at least you can’t vote multiple times anymore
Who will win... GS OR THE CHICKEN!?!?!?
Custom variants rap battle album releasing mid-2025
salvation bastions is the only good option
salvation bastions is the only good option
Its not even symmetrical. And warui-shogi and enchanted woodland are on the list...
salvation bastions is the only good option
Its not even symmetrical.
that's intentional. otherwise RY have a large first-move advantage
And warui-shogi and warui-shogi and enchanted woodland are on the list...
god forbid I make a sarcastic remark while expressing my opinion
if its such a complex variant that I cant understand the basics of it after eyeballing it for 5 seconds, its not beginner-friendly enough.
if its such a complex variant that I cant understand the basics of it after eyeballing it for 5 seconds, its not beginner-friendly enough.
you think inferno is less complex than this? Structurally speaking this is the simplest teams variant because it is quite literally a copy of standard teams with a few different pieces and a smaller board
that also isn't exactly the quality needed for a game to be beginner-friendly...otherwise the only beginner-friendly variants would be gamerule variants of normal chess
if its such a complex variant that I cant understand the basics of it after eyeballing it for 5 seconds, its not beginner-friendly enough.
you think inferno is less complex than this? Structurally speaking this is the simplest teams variant because it is quite literally a copy of standard teams with a few different pieces and a smaller board
I didn't look at inferno I just dont like 4p variants
i mean that's fair but that doesn't validate your argument
i mean that's fair but that doesn't validate your argument
4p variants just aren't beginner-friendly
i mean that's fair but that doesn't validate your argument
4p variants just aren't beginner-friendly
as long as you understand the move order mechanics, which is really the only major difference from a 2p variant, many of them are very beginner friendly
Post for the previous month's vote:
https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/vote-for-marchs-golden-variants-2025
Not sure on what some of the terms in this post mean? Have any other questions? See any typos? Feel free to ask and comment below!
(Scroll down to the start of the bold text if you want to know how to vote without reading my entire post 😀)
Hello Custom Variants community!
This month's post will be a bit shorter, but we're going to be trying out something new again following some feedback on the last month's post.
First off, I'd to congratulate the winners of 2025's first Platinum Variant, which was the first of now 4 to have membership prizes (more info here):
1st Place (1 month of diamond membership): @wolyn
2nd Place (1 month of platinum membership): @hutianmin1
3rd Place (1 month of gold membership): @Trinhnguyenbinh15
In addition, thank you to everyone who plays in the Golden Variant / Platinum Variant arenas. Variants is quite a niche topic on chess.com, and it's good to popularize a variety of variants, or at the very least encourage the play of them so that more people in the variants community know about them!
Also some more congrats to our creators, who continue to be creative! Making submissions definitely isn't my strong suit anymore, but new ideas are always there for those who can imagine them. Even the Pocket Chess challenge is still going strong with 7 accepted variants now!
To end things off, here are some short CGA stats for this month! (As of the posting of this announcement)
This month's format:
Platinum Variant Q2 format:
This month's voting process:
Happy voting and may the best variants win!