Chess Variants

Accentuated Chess

Accentuated Chess

1. Queens are now Medusas that freeze any unit seen, but cannot capture anything herself. (Medusas, however, can’t face or freeze each other.)

2. Rooks are now Capricorns (Butters) that capture by moving to any square adjacent to an opposing unit. They may capture multiple units, Atomic Chess style, but without blowing up themselves.

3. Knights are now knight riders, able to move multiple knight moves away going in knightly straight lines.

4. Bishops now capture Rifle Chess style, from a distance, and not by displacement.

5. Pawns are now sideways pawns. They simply add the power of being able to move sideways one square.

6. Kings have the added ability of fleeing checks by making a knight move. Kings cannot capture as a knight as they flee, but only move like a knight when in check.

Big Fish Chess

1. Normal set up and objective.

2. Queens must capture rooks if such a capture is possible. Rooks must capture minor pieces if such a capture is possible. Minor pieces must capture pawns if such a capture is possible.

3. If several such captures are possible, the player whose turn it is chooses which compulsory capture to make. As usual, getting out of check takes priority. If a compulsory capture gets one out of check, such a capture must be played.

4. If there are no checks or compulsory captures available, then the player is free to make his usual move.

5. Neither kings nor pawns are obliged to capture anything.

Bojangle’s Chess

  1. Regular armies, array, and objective.
  2. When attacked, a unit may move as the attacker moves into the cell or square with the attacker. They are now cellmates.
  3. Either color may capture the paired units. In this case, the captor replaces both units previously occupying the square.
  4. A unit that enters should be turned into a small unit, as in “Infect Chess”. This smaller virus unit cannot capture from there.
  5. The host controls the movement of the paired units.
  6. The host cannot shake loose the virus unit.
  7. A virus may exit the host and inflate to normal size and status.
  8. No square may have three or more units sharing its space.
  9. Kings cannot shrink into a virus unit and thus evade capture forever.

Chapter Chess

This variant involves 2 stages or chapters.

--When a normal-sized piece is captured, the player who lost the piece gets a small plastic corresponding piece on his drop pad. (There are 7 small plastic pieces: 1 queen, 2 rooks,2 bishops, and 2 knights.) These pieces can be dropped into play on any vacant square that does not immediately check or checkmate. A drop counts as a player's turn.

This is chapter two. Bigs may capture bigs, and smalls may capture smalls, but the king can capture and be captured by either bigs or smalls.

Chess 36

There are 36 combinations when rolling a pair of dice. There are also 36 possible starting positions when the rooks are restricted to the corners (‘A’ and ‘H’ files) and the king is restricted to the ‘E’ or ‘D’ file and bishops are of opposite color. This lends itself to creating a table to determine the starting position with the roll of a pair of dice. I feel it’s a good middle position between orthodox chess and Chess 960. There are a variety of starting positions, but not so many that one cannot begin to develop theory for these 35 other starting position. The idea is that opening theory is not the problem. It’s that all the opening theory is based on one starting position. Expanding it a bit, say to 36 starting positions allows for the best of both worlds. (Except for the starting position, Chess 36 is simply orthodox chess.)

In addition, chess 36 could also be used as a platform for numerous chess variants.

To simplify castling, remember that with queenside castling, the king always ends up on the C file and the rook ends up on the D file. For kingside castling, the king always ends up on the G file and the rook ends up on the F file. This applies whether the king starts on the E file or the D file.

Chess 36 piece placement for files B to G is given below. Files A and H are always occupied by rooks. Notice the bolded bishops are in patterns of three. In #1 to #18 the kings are on the file E. In #19 to #36 the kings are on the file D. The knights and queen also follow a pattern. It is 1. N-N-Q   2. N-Q-N   3. Q-N-N. The dice also follow a pattern, gradually going from two to twelve in total dice roll as they move from #1 to #36.

#1 White die 1 Red die 1    B—B—N—K—N—Q        #4 White die 1 Red die 3  N—B—B—K—N—Q

#2 White die 1 Red die 2    B—B—N—K—Q—N        #5 White die 3 Red die 1  N—B—B—K—Q—N

#3 White die 2 Red die 1    B—B—Q—K—N—N        #6 White die 2 Red die 2  Q—B—B—K—N—N

#7 White die 1 Red die 4    N—B—N—K—B—Q        #10White die 3 Red die 2  B—N—N—K—Q—B

#8 White die 4 Red die 1    N—B—Q—K—B—N       #11White die 1 Red die 5  B—N—Q—K—N—B

#9 White die 2 Red die 3    Q—B—N—K—B—N       #12White die 5 Red die 1  B—Q—N—K—N—B

#13White die2 Red die 4    N—N—B—K—Q—B       #16White die 1 Red die 6  N—N—Q—K—B—B

#14White die4 Red die 2    N—Q—B—K—N—B      #17White die 6 Red die 1  N—Q—N—K—B—B

#15White die3 Red die 3    Q—N—B—K—N—B       #18White die 2 Red die 5  Q—N—N—K—B—B

 #19White die5 Red die 2  B—B—K—N—N—Q         #22White die 2 Red die 6   B—N—K—B—N—Q

#20White die3 Red die 4  B—B—K—N—Q—N        #23White die 6 Red die 2   B—N—K—B—Q--N

#21White die4 Red die 3  B—B—K—Q—N—N        #24White die 3 Red die 5   B—Q—K—B—N—N

#25White die5 Red die 3  B—N—K—N—Q—B       #28White die 6 Red die 3    N—B—K—N—B—Q

#26White die4 Red die 4  B—N—K—Q—N—B       #29White die 4 Red die 5    N—B—K—Q—B—N

#27White die3 Red die 6  B—Q—K—N—N--B          #30White die 5 Red die 4    Q—B—K—N—B—N

#31White die4 Red die 6  N—N—K—B—B—Q         #34White die 5 Red die 6     N—N—K—Q—B—B

#32White die6 Red die 4  N—Q—K—B—B—N        #35White die 6 Red die 5     N—Q—K—N—B—B

#33white die5 Red die 5   Q—N—K—B—B—N       #36White die 6 Red die 6     Q—N—K—N—B—B

Chip Chess

  1. Red = an upgraded movement. Pawn can move like a knight. Minor pieces can move like a Rook. Rook can move like a Queen. A Queen or King can move like a Camel (1-3 or 3-1).
  2. White = an upgraded capture. Pawn can capture like a knight. Minor pieces can capture like a Rook. A Rook can capture like a Queen.
    A Queen or King can capture like a Camel (1-3 or 3-1).
  3. Blue = a second move is granted to the unit that just moved. The second move cannot be a capture. However, the first may be a capture. If the first move is a check, the second move is forfeited. The unit may not move back to the square it initially moved from.
  4. Green = allows the switch of position of any two friendly units.
  5. During the course of the game, each chip may be played once and then discarded.
  6. Non-chip moves are regular.
  7. White and Blue chips seem to be more powerful than Red and Green chips. Try giving each player 3 Red chips, 3 Green chips, 2 White chips, and 2 Blue chips.

Commando Chess

(aka Chain Chess/Ding Chess/ CommanDing Chess)

  1. Units can only move if they are in the king’s chain of command. Otherwise, units can’t receive ‘orders’ from the king. So on the first move, the king can directly command the d2, e2, f2 pawns, the queen, and the king’s bishop because they are all a king’s move away from the king. The king’s bishop, by extension, can pass on the king’s command to the g2 pawn. Therefore, the g2 pawn can also move. Also, the queen is a queen’s move from the c2 pawn. So, the c2 pawn can move also. The Queen touches the c1 bishop, so the c1 bishop can also move. The c1 bishop touches the b2 pawn, so the b2 pawn can also move. The rook pawns and the rooks are not connected to the king’s chain of command, so they are temporarily immobile.
  2. Pawns pass on the king’s chain of command diagonally forward one square, which is its capturing move.
  3. Otherwise, it is regular chess.

Dart Chess

1. Each side gets a total of nine darts. Three are green. Three are yellow. Three are red. (Use Focus pieces for darts.) Darts may be recycled when opposing units are captured.

2. Before a unit may be captured by displacement, (the traditional method of capture), a green, a yellow, and a red dart must have already been shot into it.

3. Darts are shot into opposing units in ‘Shoot Chess’ style, from a distance within range of a unit’s capturing powers.

4. The first dart is a green dart, and it does not impair the unit’s moving or capturing power. The second dart is the yellow dart, and it impairs knights, bishops, rooks, kings, and queens from moving backwards. Pawns with a yellow dart become regular pawns. (Pawns start out as ‘Sideways Pawns’. They can also move one square laterally.) The third dart is a red dart. It completely immobilizes the unit. Immobilized units cannot dart opponents either.

5. The first player to capture at least one knight, one bishop, one rook, one royal (king or queen), and four pawns is the winner. An alternative objective is to simply capture or checkmate the king.

6. Castling is as usual. En passant applies. The pawn may be darted on its way forward.

Diced Chess

  1. After each move, roll a die. Move orthogonally any of one’s units, the number of squares shown on the die. This is strictly a move and not a capture. This movement is optional. A player may forego the extra move anytime unless it is the only way to evade the checkmate.
  2. Pawn promotions are nerfed and file-based. Pawns reaching the end of the a or h files promote to rooks. Those reaching the b or g files promote to knights, and so on.

East West Chess

This is a kind of Marseillais or Double Move chess. One movement is by a unit on the queenside, files A – D. The other move is made by a unit on the kingside, files E – H. If no units are on the queenside, then the queenside move is forfeited. Likewise, if no units are on the kingside, then the kingside move is forfeited.

If a unit moves from east to west or west to east on the first move, then the unit that just moved can move again because it is now on the opposite side of the board. Check on the first move does not negate a king capture on the second move, so be on one’s toes!

Elevated Chess

1. Bishops and knights that capture any opposing units demote to a pawn.

2. Rooks that capture any opposing units demote to a bishop or knight. It’s the player who captured and is getting their rook demoted who gets to choose whether his or her rook becomes a bishop or a knight.

3. Queens that capture any opposing units demote to a rook.

4. Each side gets 9 Focus pieces—3 white, 3 gray, 3 black. These are placed in three stacks that from the top down go: white-gray-black.

These allow the elevator to go up…promoting one’s units to higher heights.

5. A player may play from any of his or her three stacks, but may only play one of the Focus pieces that sit atop the stack. (This same concept is found in the game Gobblet, if you are familiar with it.)

6. White = pawn promotes to a knight or a bishop

Gray = a knight or a bishop promotes to a rook

Black = a rook promotes to a queen

7. Playing one of nine Promotion Chips (Focus pieces) counts as that player’s turn. When one has played all nine, there are no more promotions of this type. Pawn promotions still exist.

8. A minor piece capturing on the back rank demotes to pawn, but then immediately promotes to whatever!

9. Checkmate is still the objective.

Far Flung Chess

The two friendly units furthest away from each other, and different in unit type, may move, but not capture, to any square its antipode may move to. If another pair of units is equally far apart, the player may choose those as well.

Calculate how far units are apart based on the sum of orthogonal squares away. For example, from the traditional starting position, the a1 rook and the h2 pawn are antipodal. The h1 rook and the a2 pawn are equally antipodal. So, on the first move, the a1 rook may move to either h3 or h4. Likewise, the h1 rook may move, on its first move, to a3 or a4.

Focus Chess

  1. Usual Focus piece set up on a Focus board. (Familiarity with Sid Sackson’s excellent game Focus is a prerequisite for this chess variant.) In addition, each side places the eight chess pieces on the back and side-most ranks in the conventional array.
  2. A game of Focus and a game of chess occur on the one board simultaneously. There is no overlap of interaction between the Focus pieces and the chess pieces. They cannot capture each other or share squares.
  3. On each turn, move either a chess piece or a Focus piece.
  4. Win either by checkmating opposing king or by having one’s king safely reach opponent’s back rank before opponent does the same.

Globe Hopper Chess

  1. Regular armies, array, and objective.
  2. In addition, there are two blue planes, two purple planes, two yellow planes, and two orange planes.
  3. White places a set of four planes on four vacant squares, and then Black does the same.
  4. If a knight or a pawn on the ‘B’ or ‘G’ files shares a square with a yellow plane, that pawn or knight may move to any vacant square instead of its regular move. In addition, that knight or pawn is immune from capture.
  5. If a bishop or a pawn on the ‘C’ or ‘F’ files shares a square with a blue plane, that pawn or bishop may move to any vacant square instead of its regular move. In addition, that bishop or pawn is immune from capture.
  6. The pattern in 4. and 5. above continues with rooks and rook pawns with the orange planes, kings and queens, and king and queen pawns with the purple planes.
  7. Planes are not captured.
  8. Any unit may share a cell with a plane, but only the matching units are protected and granted the Globe Hopper movement.
  9. Any player may move a plane instead of a regular move.
  10. All airplanes move like camels (3-1 or 1-3).
  11. Each player gets 10 orange, 10 blue, 10 yellow, and 10 purple Focus pieces. These allow for 10 movements of each corresponding plane during the course of the game.
  12. A plane movement may not be negated by reversing it immediately.

Gnat and Camel Chess

1. Rooks, bishops and queens “strain out the gnat”. Here this means they can move as usual, but cannot capture any unit that is only one square away. They may only capture a unit standing two or more squares away.

2. White, and then black declares two of their pawns ‘camel pawns’. Camel pawns move like camels, 3-1 or 1-3, but capture like regular pawns do. If captured, the captor immediately places a camel on any vacant square. Camels move and capture 3-1 or 1-3. Use small plastic pawns for camel pawns and use small plastic knights for camels.

4. Kings not in check must ‘swallow’ (capture) camel pawns and camels if they are able to do so, even if doing so draws them into check(mate).

5. If a king can capture multiple camels or camel pawns, then the king can choose which one to capture.

Hi(gh)-Bre(a)d Chess

1. Pawns on ‘A’ or ‘H’ files move like rooks, but not backwards. Pawns on the ‘B’ or ‘G’ files move like knights, but not backwards. Pawns on the ‘C’ or ‘F’ files move like bishops, but not backwards. Pawns on the ‘D’ file move like queens, but not backwards. Pawns on the ‘E’ file move like kings, but not backwards.

2. Pawns capture, however, like regular pawns

3. Pieces move by sliding one or two squares in any direction.

4. Pieces capture like their normal selves.

5. There are no en passant captures allowed.

6. Pawns promote to the usual pieces but only to ones previously captured and off the board at the time of promotion.

7. Instead of the fixedly defined movement of the pawns based on traditional starting position of pieces, players can choose in version B of Hi(gh)-Bre(a)d Chess to allow pawns a fluidly defined movement based on the current position of friendly pieces. If one’s knight is on the D file then a pawn on the D file can move like a knight. If two or more pieces share a file with a pawn then the pawn may move like any of those pieces as well. If a pawn is on a file without a friendly piece, then the pawn may only move like a traditional pawn. A sub sub variant would be to disallow a pawn to move at all if no friendly piece shares the file.

In version C of Hi(gh)-Bre(a)d Chess players may move their pawns like pieces that currently share a file with them, friend and foe alike.

Infect Chess

1. Regular army, array, and objective.

2. A set of small plastic pieces start off the board. These 8 viruses (2 rooks, 2 knights, 2 bishops, 1 queen, and one king) enter the game via a sneeze. This counts as a turn. A sneeze is like a capture in Shoot Chess or Rifle Chess, where the unit capturing remains on the square it occupies and captures from a distance. But in Infect Chess, instead of removing the opposing unit, a virus enters the opposing unit and the opposing unit thus becomes the virus’s host.

3. Any unit, including pawns, may infect an opposing unit with a sneeze.

4. A player may choose to have his virus exit the opponent’s unit hosting the virus, but then the virus is vulnerable to being captured and cannot re-infect another unit.

5. From inside a host, the virus cannot capture anything. When a virus exits a host, it may capture the king or opposing viruses that have exited their hosts. Viruses can also capture regular units, but doing so means the virus dies with the captured unit. Thus, a virus can capture multiple exited viruses, but only one large unit. Note: viruses do not capture as they exit. The virus must first exit a host and then it may capture.

6. If a unit hosting a virus is captured, both the unit and the virus exit the playing field.

7. Viruses move with a host that moves, sharing the same cell/square. A host cannot shake loose a virus. A host-virus pair moves and captures as the host moves and captures.

8. Viruses outside a body can be captured by regular units with or without a virus, or by other viruses outside a body. Basically, they are vulnerable to capture by any opposing unit.

9. Viruses have latent potential, coming into their own after material has been reduced. The timing and choosing of when to infect which unit with which virus, and when to have a virus exit a host, is all a part of the strategy of Infect Chess. May the fun of Infect Chess be infectious!

Jockey Pawn Chess

Pawns can move like knights, including backwards, until they go beyond the 5th rank, i.e. the 6th or 7th rank. When a pawn, moving as a knight, lands on the 6th or 7th rank, it becomes a pawn in all regards, i.e. it also moves now as a regular pawn, at least until it reaches the 8th rank and promotes, if it manages to do so.

This variant is inspired by The Last Night of the Jockey, a Twilight Zone episode from season five. When Grady (Mickey Rooney) was short of stature, i.e. not reaching the length or height of the 6th or 7th ranks, he could still ride the board like a jockey. But as soon as his great wish of advancing in stature or up the board, as it were, is granted, he can no longer ride his horse, and must walk to the finish line like a common pawn.

Note: jockey pawns, as they might be termed, move as a knight until reaching the 6th or 7th ranks, but always retain their normal pawn capture powers, diagonal forward one square, whatever rank they be on. Additional note: jockey pawns may also access their first rank.

A possible sub-variant would be to disallow any retreating movements by a jockey pawn.

Note: This Twilight Zone inspired chess variant is one of many to come to chessalt.com. One hundred twenty others are in draft form and in need of testing and perhaps winnowing. I hope to include a full set of Twilight Zone Chess Variants on chessalt.com or perhaps on a Twilight Zone Chess website a little while down the road.

Juiced Chess

(Juiced Chess has elements of Bug-Eyed Chess and also Extinction Chess)

1. Each unit may move like any unit of his army still in play.

(This means that initially every unit can move like a knight, a bishop, or a rook.)

2. All units, however, still capture like their ordinary selves.

3. Pawns may promote, but only to a unit previously lost and off the board at the time of promotion.

4. If one’s knights are lost, then all knight moves are abolished for all units. If both rooks and the queen are lost, then all rook moves are abolished for all units. If both bishops and the queen are lost, then all bishop moves are abolished for all units.

5. The rest is ordinary chess.

Mobile Chess

1. Regular armies, array, and objective.

2. All units capture as usual.

3. Each side gets a set of 14 index cards that indicate additional moving options. These extra moving powers are limited in number. Each card is played one time.

4. The 14 cards include two cards that allow any unit to move like a rook, two cards that allow any unit to move like a knight, two cards that allow any unit to move like a bishop, and two cards that allow any unit to move like a king.

In addition, each side gets one card allowing for one pawn to make one double pawn move, one card allowing for one knight to make one double knight move, one card allowing for one bishop to make one double bishop move, one card allowing for one rook to make one double rook move, one card allowing for one queen to make one double queen move and one card allowing for the king to make one double king move.

Note: there are a total of 8 cards that allow any unit to move like rooks, knights, bishops, and kings, and 6 cards that confer a double move once to each of the 6 unit types. The double move is by the same unit and not shared by a different unit even if of the same unit type.

5. Place the index cards face up so that each player can easily see what moving options still remain.

Pawnderable Chess

1. Each side gets 4 traditional pawns and 4 Berolina pawns. Use small pawns for the Berolina pawns.

2. White places his 8 pawns on the 2nd or 3rd rank and then black places his 8 pawns on his 2nd or 3rd rank. However, no doubled pawns are allowed at the outset. (Pawns starting on the second rank retain their ability to move forward two squares on the first move. Pawns starting on the third rank can only move forward one square on their first move.)

3. Each side gets 2 green and 2 red Focus pieces. These go inside four of the squares occupied by pawns. The green Focus piece indicates the pawn has the added power of moving sideways one square. The red Focus piece indicates the pawn has the added power of capturing sideways one square.

4. After each side has placed his pawns, Black places his four Focus pieces, and then White places his four Focus pieces. Only one Focus piece per square is allowed.

5. Otherwise, it’s regular chess. Hopefully this will be a subtle but palatable change for all inclined to give Pawnderable Chess a try.

Pep Chess

  1. Armies, array, and objective are all as usual.
  2. Each unit has enhanced moving powers.
  3. Pawns can also move sideways one square.
  4. Knights can also move like a knight-rider.
  5. Bishops can also move to any vacant square along its diagonal, jumping over any number of units, friend or foe.
  6. Rooks can also move to any vacant square along its orthogonal, jumping over any number of units, friend or foe.
  7. Queens can do like the bishops and rooks as described above in 5. and 6.
  8. Kings can also move two squares in any direction. This move of two squares is a hop, or a slide, but never a capture.

Perimeter Chess

  1. Played on a 10 by 10 board.
  2. Normal armies on the interior 8 by 8. (Use small pieces since the squares are smaller.)
  3. Perimeter squares are ‘safe’ squares. Units may enter for a ‘fight respite’ and later maneuver back into battle.
  4. Pawns promote on the next to last rank, not the last rank/perimeter.
  5. Kings must stay in the 8 by 8 center. This excludes for the king the first and tenth ranks and also the ‘a’ and ‘j’ files.
  6. Pieces on the perimeter move like a rook and can continue around corners if unimpeded by any opposing unit. They may move in either direction and go past units of their own army. In addition, they can re-enter the board and move like the piece they are in this same motion/turn.
  7. Pieces may not capture upon re-entry, but they may give a check as they re-enter.

Piece Pawns Chess

1. Instead of pawns, each side gets another set of pieces on his second rank where the pawns usually go. These pieces are the small plastic ones to distinguish them from regular pieces. The array of piece pawns parallels the piece array. Thus, rook piece pawns replace rook pawns, knight piece pawns replace knight pawns, etc.

2. The piece pawns move like their namesakes, but can only capture the king. (They cannot capture regular sized units nor capture each other.) Regular units can capture them, however, including of course, the king. What Piece Pawns gain in increased mobility is offset by much reduced capturing power.

3. Piece pawns are still pawns. This means that piece pawns promote just as regular pawns promote. Piece pawns, however, only promote to their namesakes. A bishop piece pawn promotes to a bishop. A queen piece pawn promotes to a queen. A king piece pawn promotes to a king.

4. King piece pawns are not royal. Losing them does not mean the end of the game. In the fairly uncommon instance that a king piece pawn promotes to a king, both kings must be lost in order to lose the game. Thus, a player is not really in check unless the player has only one king left.

5. I consider Piece Pawns Chess to be among the most reliably interesting and best tested of the chess variants on chessalt.com. I don’t think you will be disappointed by the simple but engaging difference, replacing traditional pawns for piece pawns makes.

Purchase Chess

  1. Pieces are placed in the usual array's first and eighth ranks. There are no pawns on the board initially because pawns must be purchased beforehand. Instead, a set of gray or other color Focus pieces go on each vacant square in ranks two to seven, covering all the squares not occupied by pieces in ranks one and eight.
  2. Focus pieces are picked up by pieces occupying those squares.
    When 3 Focus pieces are obtained, the Focus pieces are traded for a pawn of one’s color and either placed on a vacant square immediately or placed in the ‘pawn pool’. On a separate turn, a pawn in the ‘pawn pool’ may be placed on any vacant square within the player’s second through sixth ranks.
  3. Sliding pieces, i.e., rooks, bishops, and queens, may not slide over Focus pieces.
  4. The rest is regular chess.

Quadrunner Chess

  1. The board consists of 64 squares or 4 quadrants each a 4 by 4 of 16 squares. The four corner squares of Quadrant 1 are a1, a4, d4, and d1.
    The four corner squares of Quadrant 2 are a5, a8, d8, and d5. The four corner squares of Quadrant 3 are e5, e8, h8, and h5. The four corner squares of Quadrant 4 are e1, e4, h4, and h1.
  2. This sets up the idea or corresponding squares. Each square is a part of a set of 4 squares that correspond. For example, the squares a1, a5, e5, and e1 all correspond. They are all dark squares.For another example, the squares c2, c6, g6, and g2 correspond. These are all light squares.
    An easier way to think about it is that the four corresponding squares form a 5 by 5 square. Each unit may travel orthogonally or diagonally, exactly 4 squares. They may only move, but not capture, these four squares. There will always be exactly 3 squares that a unit may potentially reach in such a manner.
  3. A player on each turn may make a regular move or else make a corresponding transposition.
  4. In the endgame, pawns can promote more easily. To nerf this power, pawns may only promote the piece that corresponds to the file they’ve reached. Pawns reaching the back rank of the A Or H files promote to rooks. Pawns reaching the back rank of the B or G files promote knights, and so on. (Use small pieces to show promoted pieces.)
  5. A pawn reaching the back rank of the E file promotes to a non-royal king, aka a man.
  6. Otherwise, it’s regular chess.

Refractive Chess

1. Regular armies, array, and objective.
2. In addition to a unit’s usual moving and capturing powers, all units have the ability to move, but not capture, like any opposing unit currently attacking it.

Sea Turtle Chess

White’s pawns start on the third rank. Black’s pawns start on the sixth rank. Pawns move backwards one square. If a White pawn reaches the first rank or if a Black pawn reaches the eighth rank, the pawn promotes to the piece whose home file it matches. For example, White pawns arriving at a1 or h1 promote to a small White rook. Black pawns arriving at a8 or h8 promote to a small Black rook. (Note that it only takes two pawn moves to promote to a small piece.) The small pieces are distinguished from the big units that start the game because the big units, except for the king, can only capture other big units. Meanwhile, small pieces can only capture other small pieces and the king.

Just remember that Bigs only capture Bigs, while Smalls only capture Smalls with this exception. Kings can capture and be captured by both Bigs and Smalls. They are the link to an otherwise separate plane of existence.

A sub-variant, Sea Turtles Pawnder, gives to each of the pawns the option of moving backwards or forward on its first move. Once a pawn steps forward it must continue forward. If a pawn steps backward, it must continue backwards. In its original position on the 3rd or 6th rank, a pawn can capture forward or backward because it hasn’t declared its direction intention. It’s still pawndering the matter. Forward going pawns, like backward going pawns, promote to the piece whose home file they arrive at on the back rank. For example, a White pawn promotes to a White bishop when reaching c8 or f8. A Black pawn promotes to a Black bishop when reaching c1 or f1. Forward going pawns promote to Big pieces, not to Small pieces. Forward going pawns can move one or two squares on their first move just like orthodox pawns can.

See Marseilles Chess

It’s simple, really. If a friendly unit ‘sees’ the unit of his that has just moved, then that seeing unit must make a move as well. To ‘see’ a unit means it can protect a unit. (If more than one unit sees, then the player chooses which one moves.) For instance, from the regular starting position, if white plays the queen knight from b1 to c3 on move 1, which white units ‘see’ this knight? Answer? The white pawns at b2 and d2. Therefore, either the b2 pawn or the d2 pawn must also make a move. However, if the first move of the game is c2 to c4, no friendly white unit sees it, so no second move is made. The same would be true if the first move were e4 or f4. No second move would be permitted or required. However, after a first move of f2 to f3, the pawn at e2, the pawn at g2, and the knight at f3 all see it, so one of those three units would also have to make a move. Players must get out of check on their first move. Consider castling a king move. The rest is as usual.

Strat-Capture Chess

1. A player’s 3rd, 6th, 12th, and 15th capture are Rifle Chess captures. The unit that captures doesn't move but captures from a distance. For example, after 1) e4 e5 2) B c4 N f6, White's bishop at c4 could capture the pawn at f7, but the white bishop remains at c4 and does not go to f7. And then the knight at f6 could capture the pawn at e4, but the knight remains at f6.

2. A player's 9th capture is a Capricorn Capture. A Capricorn capture occurs by moving adjacent to an opposing unit(s). If multiple units are adjacent, then multiple units are captured. Again with 1) e4 e5, 2) B c4 Nf6, white could play B e6 and capture the pawns at d7, f7, and the knight at f6! Good thing this powerful capture is only allowed once.

3. All the rest of a player's captures are Conventional Captures (displacement captures a la Orthodox Chess).

4. Keep one's captures neatly in straight rows of three so that both players may know what type of capture is possible next.

5. Otherwise, it's regular orthodox chess.

Switch Chess

This one is very simple. 3 times during the course of a game, each player may switch the position of any two of his units instead of moving. Use counters of some kind to keep track of the number of switches made thus far.

Team-Tuitive Chess

  1. Normal set up and objective.
  2. This is best as a team game. White is dealt the hearts and diamonds. Black is dealt the spades and club. Each player gets a different suit.
  3. Before each chess turn each player chooses a card to be turned over simultaneously. The team with the higher total gets to make a chess move. The player who played the higher card on the winning side makes the move. No conferring is allowed about what card to play among teammates. However, in the event of a tie between players on the winning side, either player may make the move and the teammates may confer.
  4. In the event of a tie between teams, each team makes a chess move, beginning with the team that did not make the previous move.
  5. In the event of a check, the team with the checked king gets to move out of check without having to win a card battle. The two players can confer about how to get out of check.
  6. Played cards are placed faced down. No tedious card counting allowed. Players should use their intuition to remember what cards might remain. When each player’s 13 cards have been played, players pick up their cards and the cycle begins again. TeamTuitive Chess is still strategic, but a bit more light-hearted than orthodox chess.

Three-Bedroom Apartment Chess

1. Three boards—two empty, one with full set of pieces.

2. After a legal move on any of the three boards, the player does an Alice transposition of the unit that just moved and then another Alice transposition of a unit that hadn’t moved. (An Alice transposition is a move to a corresponding vacant square on another board.) If a unit lands on f5 on the board it moved from, the unit must go to f5 on another board.

3. To recap, after each move, there are two transports. The first is by the unit that just moved. The second is by a unit that didn’t move.

These transports are made to either of the opposite boards.

4. The first move made on each turn must be legal for that board.

5. If no legal move is possible for the second move of each turn then that second move is forfeited.

6. The objective is still to checkmate of the king.

Truncated Chess

  1. Played on a Focus board. Twelve corner squares removed, three from each corner.
  2. Each side gets a king, a rook, a bishop, a knight, and six pawns. Pieces go on back rank in any order. Pawns are placed on the second rank. (White sets up his pieces, and then black does the same. Set-up is ‘on the clock’.)
  3. No piece may go backwards except by playing one of his eight ‘go backwards’ cards. (This is a move or a capture.)
  4. Each side gets eight ‘move side-wards one’ cards. (This is a move, and not a capture.)
  5. Each side gets eight ‘move diagonally forward one’ cards. (This is a move, and not a capture.)
  6. Players must keep their cards face-up and neatly countable. Used cards are placed face down in a discard pile.
  7. There is no castling.
  8. Pawns reaching any of the four back rank squares promote to a queen. A queen can move backwards freely.
  9. Win either by checkmate or by having one’s king safely reach the opponent’s back rank.
  10. Otherwise, the rules are as standard chess.

Varsity Chess

  1. Win by checkmate.
  2. In addition to a regular army, each side gets a set of smaller pieces two small rooks, two small knights, two small bishops, and a small queen and a small king.
  3. Pawns go on the third and sixth ranks. Regular pieces go on the first and eighth ranks in the traditional array. The small pieces go on the second and seventh ranks in the traditional array.
  4. Regular units can capture anything. Small pieces can capture other small pieces and corresponding big pieces and their pawns. For example, a small bishop may capture large bishops and bishop pawns.
  5. There is no double pawn move or en passant.
  6. Other than the above adjustments, it is regular chess.

Zest Chess

All the rules are as orthodox chess, but with the following alterations in starting position:

1. The position of White and Black's rooks and knights are swapped. Thus, White's rooks are at a8 and h8. White's knights are at b8 and g8.

Black's rooks are at a1 and h1. Black's knights are at b1 and g1.

2. White’s a2 pawn is now at a3. White's h2 pawn is now at h3. Conversely, Black's a7 pawn is now at a6. Black's h7 pawn is now at h6.

Does Stockfish see a sizeable advantage for White? If so, perhaps some minor compensation can be given to the second player.

However, for mere mortals, this proves to be a zesty middle game position from move one, with plenty of sharp tactics and delicious murkiness.