Chess.com should add more game variants.

Hello fellow Enthusiasts,

I hope you all are well.  I suppose I should introduce a bit about myself.  I am EmmesySquire, as people know me here, but my name is Craig, I am 19, from America, and have been playing chess since my father taught me years ago.  While I strongly urge any friends of mine to join this community, because chess.com is spectacular, I see an opportunity for this to improve.  I have been looking into other forms of the game, and would love to see them in action in this community.  I'm not referring to the near impossible ones like bi/tridimensional chess, or that atrociously hard circle chess game for 3, But there are a few that I think would be very cool to try, and see if they can become popular.

I am a serious fan of Portal Chess.  I Came across a wikipedia article, talking of the 3 different forms it takes, and I hope I am within right to quote it on this site, or link it, but I will try to, for those interested, at the end of my post.  I think the Ian Buckley verson would be the most exciting, but all of them have merit.

I have found a genuinely simplistic design for a 4-person game of Chess, where 3 rows are extended from a regular board, each player having the same space they are used to to set up their pieces.  Hard to explain, but I will find a picture.  This gamemode adds challenge, due to the unknown tendency to open yourself up to attacks from any side.  The game may be harder, but it is a lot more fun, and sometimes you encounter alliances that battle as one.  It seriously is incredibly fun, but you have to play a lot to get the true experience.  And in live chess, can you imagine having a tournament of 4 players, with each player having just 3 minutes to win, or die trying?  Talk about intense!

Other than those, the suggestions would be variations of the rules, few making changes to the board and pieces.  If I were to list them all, it would bore the public to death, so I will post a link to a site containing almost 100 variants of the original game, with the hopes that the founders/owners of chess.com would please look into, maybe even consider.  I am on pretty regularly for discussion, and welcome it openly.  Thank you for your time and consideration as users, for reading this through (hopefully), and providing feedback.  A very warm thanks and round of applause to chess.com, for their unyielding work and support and time they've put into this to make something unique.  And with that I close, leaving my references, findings, examples, and what have you.  Adieu.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_Chess

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BRQY7XMVaA

http://www.chessvariants.org/misc.dir/chessvartext.html

Chess boards may look like that in the future. But the problem is if one color check mates the other, do they both stop?

That's a good question.  I think it would be neat if you checkmated one color, the King for that color comes off of the board and you get to utilize his pieces as your own (that person is out of the game).

what if its 3 colors total againsnt 1? Say one person is really high rated going against low rated players.

Wolverine, being the best at what it is he does, would say, "I like those odds, bub."  Snikt!!!!

Well, before I opened the video, I expected the player who was checkmated, was finished, and would either:

1. Collect his pieces from the board, and watch the rest play.
2. Be therefore declared finished, and leave his pieces upon the board while the rest play, making the argument that removal could interfere with other players.

It would obviously be up to the makers to decide what rule basis they use, but there's a form called "Regicide Rules," where in order for the player to be considered "out," their king must be captured, as opposed to just checkmated.  Meaning they could still play until their king has fallen, and then are terminated.  Wikipedia states:

• Players can only move their chess pieces on their turn.
• If a player is placed in check, that player must wait until their designated turn before that player can respond to the threat.
• Pawns move forward only, unless attacking in a diagonal forward manner.
• In the event a pawn reaches the King's row to the left, right or directly across, that pawn shall receive all the privileges of a pawn reaching King's row during a traditional chess game (i.e. promoting to a queen (most commonly), a rook, a bishop, or a knight).
• It is illegal for two or more of the players to team up (by combining their pieces) against one, unless stated before the game starts/ unless the game is team based.

I also read that in partnership, which brings on a whole ruleset of itself, evidently, the best sounding version said that if the king is captured (seeing as checkmate can be countered by your ally, so the king's defeat solidifies it), only the king is removed, and all forces of said player's possession are inherited by their ally.  That sounds like something to experience, suddenly having 2 partial sets of playing pieces.  Seeing as Chess.com has the time mechanic, I think it makes sense to have the ally inherit their time as well, logically needing extra time to use strategy for the new added pieces.  

Anyways, sorry for the second ridiculously long post, but hope that helps.  Let me know if it needs more detail.

--Emm

And to answer the question about 3v1, it wouldn't be a factor, and, if it were me making this, I would have partnership versions of 2v2, and then 1v1v1v1.  The latter would need rules to ensure no ganging up occurs.  Also if someone goes inactive/leaves/resigns, it should act as though their king was captured, and allies inherit pieces, or the pieces are stalemated in singular.

this post is not so relevant, only to your name. One of my favorite Far Side cartoons.

Rofl, I love Far Side so much.  If I didn't print a partial page of The L.A. Post just for the jumbles and crossword, I would've signed up to it, regardless of the price for the paper.  I don't live in California, but I said the L.A. post to conceal my identity, naturally

ontopic: Im afraid that chess.com will not easily adapt any variants, as it is a request that requires a huge deal of programming before it works to the standard of chess.com. Even when a variant is not that difficult to program, it is to program it so that it works close to flawless when multiple 100s (or even 1000s) of people are using it at the same time.

Chess.com has said that this year Chess960 and Bughousechess will be implemented to Live Chess. Thats nice :) (and Id like to see more variants too)

Ok, well, that is true.  These aren't plans that are immediate-Heck, they're not even plans, for that matter.  I think it would be cool to have other forms to play as well, and just invite feedback.

                I agree; I suggest  3 dimentional, 4-way random.

Well while multidimensional games are fun, they would take a gigantic amount of programming just for regular games, god forbid live chess.  Add in a 4 player factor, and then you have something that is so tedious and mindscrewing, that it's almost shameful to look upon.  You might as well ask chess.com to crown you supreme chancellor of the universe.  Okay that's drastic, but I'm sure you see the point.  They've perfected 2d live chess, and are now trying for a 3d element, just in the regular.  While we can all agree these ideas are kind of improbable, and will be a while before we ever would experience them, it's nice to communicate about ways and means, with a chess community.  :D

I think they should add Peasants' Revolt variation

by R.L. Frey (1947). White has a king and eight pawns (the peasants) against Black's king, pawn and four knights (the nobles). Black has the advantage.^[9] To narrow the contest, the game has also been played with three knights (on b8, c8 and g8) instead of four

There are several game types which I assume can't be too difficult to accomodate for. It would sure increase the population of this site. 

Well, that's my entire thinking, is that it will bring people in, even if it's just to try it out, and then if they like it, they'll try another.  And us experienced players have something else to callenge ourselves with.

But...What about... bughouse?

Thanks for the link on Alice Chess. But if chess.com did add any variations they most likely be availabe in groups or in tournaments here. They already have variations of chess games in groups and tournament using a Thematic set up.

Yes