IANAL, but I don't think you could patent it, though with his the patent system is today, maybe you could.
You would have copyright on the rules and could trademark the name and implementation.
Then, you could use that to go after people that try to implement an online version.
Have fun trying to figure all that stuff out.
You will have to look at a lot of junk like I had to.
You will not find a straight answer anywhere on the net.
The really funny thing was that when I showed somebody my game they always started asking me questions about that sort of stuff.
My standard response these days is silence.
Regards
Warlord
Final Wars
p.s. but I have done quite a lot of things :)
It has been done before. Examples are Gothic Chess, and Falcon Chess. The point as I understood it is that in the U.S. you can patent anything, as long as it is not a perpetual-motion machine. You could even patent the wheel. Just pay the fee, and you get the patent. There will only be any investigation into the reality of your claims when the patent is challenged. This is why the filing fees are relatively cheap. When it is challengenged the lawyers have to step in and the cost counter surges ahead.
But no one will bother to challenge a patent on a Chess variant that only a hand-full of people play. Or no one has ever even heard of. So the Gothic Chess and Falcon Chess patents were never challenged. At some point the patent holders got tired of paying fees for a patent that served no purpose, and stopped paying the fees. After which the patents expired.
Of course a U.S. patent only protects you against competitors in the U.S. People abroad could still use the same thing with impunity. You would have to patent it in many countries separately. Over here the patent system is a lot more demanding, and it will cost you a a 5-digit figure to obtain one. Because they really check it against 'prior art'. Which probably means that if you use standard Chess pieces, they would throw it out immediately.
Good to know.
IANAL, but I don't think you could patent it, though with his the patent system is today, maybe you could.
You would have copyright on the rules and could trademark the name and implementation.
Then, you could use that to go after people that try to implement an online version.
https://patents.google.com/?q=chess&oq=chess
What I really want to know, since my variant of chess involves only the regular board and pieces, do you think it will be possible to limit the ability for people to program it? I mean I am taking something that already exists (chess) (albiet to a certain extent). Without giving anything away about what it is I intend to do. I want my version of chess to be somewhat of a monopoly - i'll let other sites mention it and stuff but I want to be the only live version. If anybody in here knows the laws concerning this it would be a big help.