This page is a list of chess variants. Many thousands of variants exist. The 2007 catalogue The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants estimates that there are well over 2,000, and many more were considered too trivial for inclusion in the catalogue.
Contemporary chess variants
The chess variants listed below are derived from chess by changing one or more of the many rules of the game. The rules can be grouped into categories, from the most innocuous (starting position) to the most dramatic (adding chance/randomness to the gameplay after the initial piece placement). If a variant changes rules from multiple categories, it belongs to the sub-section below corresponding to the later-listed category. Starting position and armies Piece types Midgame rules and end-of-game rules Board shape Number of players Use of hidden information or chance
Names that represent a set of variants are annotated with "[multivariant]" after their name. All variants use an 8x8 board unless otherwise specified.
Variant starting position (rectangular board, standard piece types and rules) Many variants employ standard chess rules and mechanics, but vary the number of pieces, or their starting positions. In most such variants, the pawns are placed on their usual squares, but the position of other pieces is either randomly determined or selected by the players. The motivation for these variants is usually to nullify established opening knowledge. The downside of these variants is that the initial position usually has less harmony and balance than the standard chess position.
Fixed positions Active chess: Played on a 9×8 board, adding a queen with an extra pawn in front. Invented by G. Kuzmichov (1989), whose students tested the game, deciding that the optimal starting position was to place the second queen on the eighth or ninth files. Displacement chess [multivariant]: Some pieces in the initial position are exchanged but the rules remain exactly the same. Some examples of this may be that the king and queen are flipped, or the knight on the b-file is traded with the bishop on the f-file.
Double chess: Two full armies per side on a 12×16 board, the first to mate an enemy king wins. Pawns advance up to four steps on their first move. Capablanca found the game "remarkably interesting". Invented by Julian Hayward (1916). Endgame chess (or the Pawns Game, with unknown origins): Players start the game with only pawns and a king. Normal check, checkmate, en passant, and pawn promotion rules apply. Los Alamos chess (or anti-clerical chess): Played on a 6×6 board without bishops. This was the first chess-like game played by a computer program. Upside-down chess: The white and black pieces are switched so that White's pieces are on the 8th rank, with pawns on the 7th rank, one step away from promotion. The starting position looks like a standard chess starting position, but from the other player's perspective. As the pawns are blocked by pieces in the starting position, the game always starts with a knight move, and smothered mates are common.
Player-chosen positions Casablanca chess: The starting position is chosen from a famous historic game; usually an interesting middlegame position. The position is verified to be approximately equal by a computer, and should have winning chances for both sides. The first Casablanca chess tournament was played in May 2024, and won by Magnus Carlsen. Pre-chess: The game starts with white and black pawns set as usual, but the initial position of other pieces is selected by the players. White first places one of their pieces on their first rank, and then Black does the same. Players continue to alternate in this manner until all pieces have been placed, with the only restriction being that bishops must be on opposite-colour squares. The game then proceeds in the usual way. Proposed by Pal Benko in 1978. Polgar reform chess [multivariant]: In his book Reform-Chess (1997), László Polgár proposed several variants played on board of size 5×8, 6×8, 8×6, or 9×6. The initial piece setup is determined by players in the same way as in Benko's Pre-chess. There are special rules for castling depending on the board. Polgár recommended these variants to train creativity and to speed up the game.
Random positions
Fischer Random Chess (also known as Chess960 and more recently as Freestyle Chess): The placement of the pieces on the first rank is randomized; although there are rules such as the 2 starting Bishops have to be on different colour squares, and the King has to start between the 2 Rooks. The opponent's pieces mirror it. Invented by Bobby Fischer (1996).From laws history page of the CCA Transcendental Chess: Similar to Chess960, but the opening white and black positions do not necessarily mirror each other. By Maxwell Lawrence (1978).Cazaux, Jean-Louis and Knowlton, Rick (2017). A World of Chess, p.324. McFarland. .
Unequal armies In these variants, White and Black do not necessarily begin with the same quantities of each piece type (for example, White may begin with more pawns than Black). Dunsany's Chess (and the similar Horde chess): One side (Black) has standard chess pieces, and the other side (White) has 32 pawns. Black moves first. By Lord Dunsany (1942). Horde chess has a slightly different pawn arrangement, and White moves first. Peasants' Revolt: White has a king and eight pawns (the peasants) against Black's king, pawn, and four knights (the nobles). Black has the advantage. To narrow the contest, the game has also been played with three knights (on b8, c8, and g8) instead of four. By R. L. Frey (1947). Really Bad Chess: An asymmetric mobile video game variant by Zach Gage (2016). Each player has one king and fifteen other pieces selected at random. Weak!: White has the usual pieces, Black has one king, seven knights, and sixteen pawns. Attributed to Ralph Betza (1973).
Variants with fairy chess pieces
Variants with fairy pieces on a standard board Most of the pieces in these variants are borrowed from chess. The game goal and rules are also very similar to those in chess; however, these variants include one or more fairy pieces which move differently from chess pieces. Baroque chess (or Ultima): Pieces on the first row move like queens, and pieces on the second row move like rooks. They are named after their unusual capturing methods. For example, leaper, immobilizer and coordinator. Berolina chess: All pawns are replaced with Berolina pawns, that move diagonally and capture orthogonally. Chess with different armies: Two sides use different sets of fairy pieces. There are several armies of approximately equal strength to choose from including the standard FIDE chess army. Falcon-Hunter Chess: A falcon moves forward as a bishop; backward as a rook. The hunter moves forward as a rook; backward as a bishop. Players introduce the fairies as the game progresses. By Karl Schulz (1943). Grasshopper chess [multivariant]: The pawns can promote to grasshopper, or grasshoppers are on the board in the initial position. Pocket Mutation Chess: Player can put a piece temporarily into the pocket, optionally mutating it into another (including fairy) piece. Spartan chess: Black (the Spartans) has an army headed by two kings, which otherwise consists exclusively of non-standard pieces, and battles the standard FIDE army (the Persians) of white.http://spartanchessonline.com/ by Steven Streetman. Torpedo chess: Pawns are replaced with torpedo pawns, which can move two squares forwards anywhere on the board as opposed to only on the first move. Pawns that move two squares can be captured en passant on the very next move. The rest of the pieces remain unchanged. Way of the Knight (WOTN): Invented by Ralph Betza, incorporating two elements from tabletop role-playing games. Begins with the standard starting position and pieces, however through capturing and advancing up the board pieces can earn "experience", and a sufficiently experienced piece is upgraded to a more powerful one. Upgrades include various fairy pieces, and involve player choices of "alignment".
Variants with knighted fairy pieces: Empress, Princess, and Amazon There are a number of variants which use the empress (rook + knight), also called marshall or chancellor.The Piececlopedia: The Rook-Knight Compound by Fergus Duniho and David Howe.. A number also use the princess (bishop + knight), also called cardinal, archbishop, janus, paladin, or minister.The Piececlopedia: Bishop-Knight Compound by Fergus Duniho and David Howe. A third knighted piece is the amazon (queen + knight). To adapt to the new pieces, the board is usually extended to 10×8 or 10×10, with additional pawns added. Almost Chess: Uses an 8×8 board, with the conventional starting position, but queens are replaced by chancellors (empresses). By Ralph Betza (1977). A related variant is Sort of Almost Chess, also by Ralph Betza (1994), where one player has a queen and the other has a chancellor.Pritchard, D.B., The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants (2007)
Capablanca Chess (or Knighted chess): A variant by the former world chess champion, José Raúl Capablanca. Played on a 10×8 board with chancellor (empress) and archbishop (princess). Capablanca Random Chess: Generalises Capablanca Chess with random starting positions, following a method similar to that used in Chess960. By Reinhard Scharnagl (2004). Embassy Chess: Uses a 10×8 board with Marshall (Empress) and Cardinal (Princess). The starting position is borrowed from Grand Chess. By Kevin Hill (2005). Gothic chess: A commercial variant played on a 10×8 board with Chancellor (Empress) and Archbishop (Princess). Grand Chess: Uses a 10×10 board with marshall (empress) and cardinal (princess). Invented by Christian Freeling (1984). Janus Chess: Uses a 10×8 board with two januses (princesses). By Werner Schöndorf (1978). Maharajah and the Sepoys: Black has a complete army, and White only one piece: the maharajah (a royal amazon). Modern Chess: Played on a 9×9 board, with an extra pawn and a prime minister (princess). By Gabriel Vicente Maura (1968). : A commercial variant, inspired from Seirawan Chess. This variant introduces 10 fairy pieces: archbishop, chancellor, hawk (different rules from Seirawan Chess), elephant (different rules from Seirawan Chess), leopard, cannon (different from Xiangqi), unicorn, fortress, spider, and amazon (also called dragon in this game). Players have a choice of 2 pieces among the 10 possible and method used to introduce them during the game. Seirawan Chess: A commercial variant. Uses a standard 8×8 board with elephant (empress) and hawk (princess). By GM Yasser Seirawan and Bruce Harper (2007).
Other variants with fairy pieces 2000 A.D.: Played on a 10×10 board, features the empress, capricorn, gorgon, chimaera, dragon, minotaur, unicorn, and fury fairy chess pieces. By V. R. Parton. Bear chess:About Bear chess on evochess.com.Chapter 15, New pieces (2) : Pieces with limited range (pages 128—137) from The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants (D. B. Pritchard, ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1, 2007). A 10x10 chess variant, proposed by Mikhail Sosnovsky in 1985 in Kalinin (now Tver).«Медвежьи шахматы могут подвинуть тверского козла» — article in Komsomolskaya Pravda (in Russian)Шах и мат, скептики: западные шахматисты оценили тверской апгрейд — article in Moskovskij Komsomolets (in Russian) The extra pieces are Bears, which leap as N or two squares as R or B; baseline (a1-j1/a10-j10) RNBBeQKBeBNR. Pawns can move up to three squares initially (e.p. permitted). In castling, K moves to c/h files.