Chess Variant Creator, if you have questions.

I've invented a handful of variants.

Dark Chess, King Capture, Crazy House and Chess960 (aka Fischer Random Chess), and it's more complicated Double Random (non-mirrored version) were not my invention.  The first two have existed for a long time.

Lau Tzu Chess, Sun Tzu Chess, Chess480, Victorian Chess (a variation on Capablanca Chess), Backwards Stalemate Chess, Chess 4.5, Simplified Chess (aka Rarified Chess) , Strate-Go Chess.  

I've contributed to several other variants, as often there is collaboration between designers.  That list would take me longer to dig up.

well there is no check announced in dark chess, either.  and the goal is also to capture the king.  So isn't dark chess already like king capture?

No.  In Dark Chess you can't move into check.  In King Capture you can.  In Dark Chess you know you've been put into check, in King Capture you don't.

King Capture just removes "check", in any form, from the game.

That isn't how I play Dark Chess, but okay.

I've never heard of any of those variants (except for the ones you mentioned earlier).

lol

And this is why I invented Chess480... not that it changes the solution, but it does only move the King 2 spaces.

true, castling in chess960 can be pretty weird.

Did you contribute to any of these: antichess, bughouse, progressive, special ability, monster, three checks, cylindar, chess 256, peasan't revolt, anarchy, athist, stealth,absorption, plunder, suicide, trust, extinction, black hole, mirror, leapfrog, knightmate, knightmare, blindfold, four-way, three-way, multiple-way, team, return,etc.

I've heard of most of those.

Of course you can move into check, and of course you don't know when you're put into check, unless you can claim control over squares occupied by a checking piece.  I can't imagine the number of games I've lost from poorly timed king excursions and/or stupidly moving defending pieces.  Where exactly are you playing Dark Chess that they try to write such stupid rules into the game?

Yes, however neoliminal plays it where it is illegal to move into check, and you are notified when you are in check.  This helps you know where pieces are.  However I think it is more fun without checks.

Exactly, it helps you know where pieces are without having to control the square they are on, thus negating the very principles of Dark Chess.  It's a stupid idea.

There are two types of Dark Chess.  One is Checkmate, one is King Capture.

Wait...chess 4.5? Chess with 4.5 players? (instead of 4 players in chess 4)

Dark Chess 4 is Dark Chess with 4 players

Chess 4.5 works like this.  The higher level player makes an opening by moving white 5 times and black 4 times.  For example...

 Player One makes all the following moves.

1. e4 c5  

2. Nf3 d6  

3. d4 cxd4
4. Nxd4 Nf6  

5. Nc3

(basically 4.5 moves, hence the name)

The second player now chooses which color they want to play.  

If they choose White, then Player One makes the next move and plays the remainder of the game as Black.

If they choose Black, then Player Two makes the next move and plays the remainder of the game as Black.

The idea is to force the better player to create as balanced an opening as possible to give the inferior player a better chance to equalize against White's first move advantage.

I enjoy many chess variants, and recently I have begun to make programs of chess variants. I would like to know if anyone knows of a creator for these so I don't have to build them from scratch.

Zillions of Games (commercial) is a configurable Chess game that is so general it can handle almost any game (including those involving dice or cards). It requires a game definition in a file to explain it the rules. As I don't have it, I cannot tell youthe defintion format.

Fairy-Max (open-source freeware) is a configurable Chess engine for running under the WinBoard GUI (also open-source freeware). It allows you to define variants on an Nx8 board with almost arbitrary pieces, where you just tell it how the pieces move and capture.

I have fantasized about creating a videogame where there is a campaign mode. In this campaign mode the player has to beat the AI in tens of different chessgames and every game has a different variant of the rules (regular chess is included too).

After you win all the games the cycle starts again but the AI each time is smarter . The replayability value of a videogame like this would be limitless but you have to find a good engine to support all the variants I suppose . If you manage to create something like this who knows ... it could even sell