Why isn't variant chess more popular?

I've come to the point where i feel slightly bored of normal chess. 

In my experience finding opponent is only available online opposed to over-the-board, because in clubs classical chess is always on the agenda. Except for Bughouse/Crazyhouse or Chess960 every now and then. 

I'm interested in joining that group. Last time i checked the invitation didn't work. 

> Chess Variant will become more popular if pieces are available (in case new pieces are used),

That is nothing but wishful thinking, and it is contradicted by the evidence. Pieces have been available for ages. Dedicated pieces for certain variants have been for sale commercially as well (Omega Chess, Gothic Chess.) As have been Chess sets in outlandish styles, which can be combined with standard Staunton pieces to have more different piece types, as was shown here in this forum in connection with an OTB version of Alpha-Omega Chess. And there are also lots of variants that can be played with just an orthodox Chess set.

We sometimes do have OTB tourneys for Chess variants here, providing the necessary equipment, but usually only 8 to 10 people show up for such events.

Chess variants are extremely numerous so only the easiest to play (crazyhouse for instance) are popular

Except that Crazyhouse is one of the most difficult variants to play, of course. The drops change the game completely. And for those who want to play OTB, western Chess equipment is quite unsuitable for it.

I would like to get hold of an "non-royal king" 

 Using a crown-less King to represent the Man is okey but in terms of value, the height is not scaled right. The Man is worth about 3 generally, so it should be on par bishop's height. 

@musketeerchess2017 is this piece something you can consider in the near future. 
 

Also i find the fairy piece "Centaur" or Royal-Knight appealing. 

http://www.chessvariants.com/invention/courier-chess-moderno

fischer random is the best variant.  very rich and interesting games.

I love seeing this variant in the blitz battle matches between top grandmasters. it would be amazing to do a fischerrandom titled tuesday!

if anyone reading this enjoys fischerrandom and lives in aus or the asia pacific region, send me a friend request and we'll find some time to play a few 960 games.  i really want to improve and the only way is to play more games!

i think most other variants are uninteresting and reduce the grandeur of chess rather than adding to it.  especially crazyhouse and 3 check.  but each to their own opinion, it is a subjective preference of course

finally i think it is important to call the variant "fischer random" some of the time to credit the inventor.  i can understand the official reasons that "960" was adopted as the proper name, but consider this:  even though it is an unpleasant machine, we still say "guillotine" rather than "bigchopper" !

Thanks for the idea

I don't know why variant chess isn't more popular. For on-line games, I think it might be growing at least a little. One thing I think it needs is some Superstars - players who have a reputation for being formidable, at least in a class of games.

From my experience Evert823 is a very skilled player, and I've had trouble beating him in many games. Cobra91 also impressed me, especially when he beat me in infinite-chess, and Kosintsev is showing himself to be very skilled in Waterloo. And obviously McGoohan is extremelly perceptive, giving me fits in an infinite-chess variant with crazy-strong pieces.

Also from an active tournament, JunyJunebug and Friedmelon have shown their mettle, and are now in a Championship Game - one or both may be rising stars.

Once we have our Stars - the Pelé of football, the Muhammad Ali of boxing, or the Babe Ruth of baseball, I think variant chess will become way more exciting!

If I neglected or forgot to mention any notable players, feel free to throw in your comments. It's only opinion now - but I believe soon we will have our "Champions".

One of the problems of playing fairy chess on a board is finding pieces that are different from the regular pieces so as not to cause confusion when playing. One solution has been to use some pieces from a completely different set, say a fantasy set, but this upsets the visual symmetry as any new pieces should ideally harmonise with existing pieces but be sufficiently different to be easily identifiable. Commercial fairy pieces don't seem to be readily available so the easiest solution is to make your own.

That being said, personally i find playing over-the-board and online quite different experience . I suppose fairy pieces is difficult to make because it need to be designed and produced somehow. 

Many thanks to Musketeerchess for trying to enhance variant chess. 

Variant chess, such as bughouse, might not be as popular because u don't have full control over the game as u do in regular chess. Also, both boards are playing at different rates/ moves, so u can't think of a guaranteed calculation because u don't know when u will get certain pieces. Now, if they made bughouse where u had to make a move on each board to complete a move, with ONE time control, then it would be just like normal chess, except much more complex and crazy.

No-one has designed a variant with no Squares yet.  

Capablanca & Gothic chess pieces is so well-known, it's virtually like an extension to the glassical staunton design.

 Regarding Centaur and Knightmate, perhaps Unicorn can be used.

Not at all, you just buy them. There are many different pieces in Staunton style, from the superchess.nl site. (Click 'available pieces' in the menu left. For some reason they have hidden the images so that I can no longer link to them for display here.)

I own the Superchess pieces and also all 5 sets of Musketeerchess with 10 pieces. And the 8x10 Gothic-Chess from HOS as well as the 10x10 Grandchess from Mindsports.nl. And much more besides ... I regularly play on Friday with 7 chess friends OTB many different chess variants, already for several years. This is only possible because I have these new pieces and several chess boards from 8x8 to 14x10. Many of my friends (Puritan club players) were initially very skeptical and opposed to chess variants, but over time they have discovered that new variants can be extremely exciting. I also play many variants online on Jocly, but OTB is more fun!

@Nordlandia: Try once, e.g. With an 8x10 chessboard with Capablanca pieces in your chess club, I would be surprised if nobody would play with you OTB.

There are many hexagonal chess games. It's a shame that they aren't more popular, because hexagonal boards work very well for chess.

Musketeer pieces are awesome, and there's a big variety. There's also a website which explains how every piece moves (or at least the original ones - the Hawk being one of my favorites).

My only comment is that Musketeer pieces all seem to be "super-pieces" - they are usually pretty powerful. Next how about some not-so powerful pieces?

Note that the 'Hawk' was used before in Jean-Louis Cazaux's chess variant TeraChess, under the name Antilope.

To make pieces weaker than a Knight you can either give them fewer moves, or make them 'lame' (i.e. with moves that can be blocked). For instance, the Xiangqi Horse is only worth half a FIDE Knight. With fewer moves you have to be careful not to make a 'sick' pieces, i.e. a piece that cannot reach the entire board. Pieces that step orthogonally or diagonally (i.e. just 4 moves) are typically worth somewhat less than half a Knight. But if you give them larger leaps, in diametrically opposite pairs, they will only be able to reach a small fraction of the squares. (E.g. a right-handed Knight can only access 1/5 of all squares.) Such pieces are very annoying.

The Crab is a piece with 4 moves that can visit the entire board: it moves like a Knight, but only has the wide moves in the forward direction, and the narrow moves in the backward direction.

Makruk (and Shogi) have an interesting piece with only 5 moves: 1 step diagonal or straight ahead.

Thanks HGMuller for the info - it's good to hear some theory on not-so-strong pieces.

Not to give Musketeerchess any more ideas on super-pieces, but I noticed this in the window of a comic-book store yesterday. It's a mastodon with 13 warriors on top. If this was a chess piece, and assuming the warriors are more than a pawn, but less than a guard (like 2 points each), and the mastodon was worth 5 (like a rook), then this behemoth would be worth 31 points.

I also didn't notice it till I looked at the picture - there is a trampled down horse at the foot of the creature. Like this thing steps on other pieces and doesn't even notice it.

Just join my forum! We're all fans of chess variants there!

Chessvariantforum.createaforum.com