Can chess variants help?

Lately, I've been playing some chess variants for fun at http://www.pathguy.com/chess/ChessVar.htm and I was wondering if, in your opinion, chess variants help your normal chess playing?  Why or why not?  If so, examples?

Thanks,

DJ

As much as I like Chess variants, why would you think they would help your Chess game? You may improve in areas relevant to Chess, but you will also improve in areas irrelevant to Chess. On the other hand, if you just work on Chess everything you're improving in is relevant to Chess.

I think chess960 is good because it forces you to plan and explore first-hand the opening part of the game, rather then relying on text book openings. I know that the actual opening in 960 won't have any relevance to chess, but training your mind to understand the opening is invaluable. Of course, many people will do this for real chess aswell, so they wont benifit. Its one of those tools that will help some people, and not others.

I've recently been playing a bit of Informant Chess where pawns can be promoted on the 7th or 2nd ranks, but only to rook/knight/bishop/pawn (queen only on last rank). This makes endgames different to normal chess, and removes stalemates when its P&K vs K. I like this variation because I can still work on my opening and mid games (which sets ultimatly determine the course of the game), but there is just that extra element of danger with passed pawns. However, Ive played a few normal chess games again and found that i was relying of this "half-promotion" and this cost me a number of live games, so I'm stopping with this variation.

I've played this before: I think it's good for knight vs pawn endgames practice, however I'm pretty sure black is winning.

I literally dont get why people are so adamant in saying that chess variants dont improve overall chess skill, if you want to get better at something you dont practice the thing at its whole, you practice bit by bit.

for example, profesional gamers (some) use aimlab to practice aiming, of course, they could just play the game, but in the game you need too focus in running dodging, moving tracking, etc. so they can play 12 hours a day for a month and improve next to nothing, while 1 hour a day in aimlab have literally gotten people banned because the game detects it as aimbot, (there are examples of this on the internet, look it up, its really crazy)

another example, look at any sport and when players are training they dont just play for the whole training session, excluding pure physicall workout (wich is also kind of speciallised training by the way) in soccer youll see players practice shooting to the goal, in basket the same, in baseball, pitching, catching, etc, and doing it once and once again, of course theyll play some games, maybe many, but a big portion of the practice wont be just playing the game.

now on chess, I think Im over rated, I suck, but I defeat players that are better than me because I can visualize pretty deep into the game, its my strongest point I would say, my weakest? understanding of the game, I suck at pawn use, yesterday I lost a game where I had all my pawns and the oponent had only a rook, according to stockfish, I shouldve won that easily, but I just dont see it, the variant Horde is perfect for me, I can practice pawn use, if youre too good at openings but your midgame sucks, playing chess960 will help you a lot, youll stop wining games because of your opening knoledge and start practicing your understanding of the game.

So I would say, they do help, and not just a little, they are exelent tools to practice.

Late, but I thought I'd add my $0.02
Do they help as much as standard modes of play, practice and study? No.
Some variants arguably only marginally less.
Do they help more than doing any non-chess related activity? Massively.
If you have more time than you have capacity/focus to study and play standard, but you have some extra in the tank to play variants, you'll definitely improve a lot more than you would if you did something else instead.

Playing Crazyhouse then going over the game with the computer's help can likely substitute for doing tactics problems. Or at least supplement. Fun too.

I think so, I improved my FIDE chess alot while developing/playing my own chess variant for close to a year now.

They can help

No, I don't think they might help. chess variants are different games although they are derived from chess