Chess Variant
The online chess blog will keep you posted on every new chess variant to appear along with all of the site's latest updates. As it spread from Asia through North Africa and into Europe an ever-constant phenomenon of chess began to emerge. The fundamental basic idea that the game was based on, a struggle for power between two protagonists consistently appealed to any people that learned the game.
Little tweaks were made to make the game relevant in each country. Each individual chess variant, although similar in many ways were each unique to reflect the civilization that played it.
There only needs to be one common feature for a game to be related to the chess family. The chess variants touched on here have several things in common with western chess and also some interesting deviations. If you know of a great variant that you can't find here, please tell us about it. Write an article on your favorite variant.
Xiangqi
Xiangqi
Xiangqi is Chinese Chess as spoken in the native tongue. It has been around for at least a thousand years in one form or another. It has changed here and there over the centuries but has been in it's present form for about 500 years.
Although visually this chess variant looks very different from western chess it is very similar in many ways. Most of the pieces are closely related; their starting positions and movements are much the same.
Although the pieces move on points rather than squares it's the same difference really. It's just a matter of adjusting to the optics.
Anti Chess
Anti Chess
Anti Chess has the same board and pieces as regular chess. All of the pieces move the same way too. In fact it's just like normal chess except instead of winning you have to lose! All of the instincts built up playing regular chess need to be turned on their head.
You lose by losing all of your pieces or by getting your king check-mated. You have to capture when possible and when more than one capture is available you just choose which one to complete.
With a completely opposite set of objectives, any position you can think of has a totally different set of properties, possibilities and dangers. Anti Chess is a chess variant where everything is topsy-turvy and back to front.
Shogi
Shogi
Shogi is Japanese chess. The game crossed the Sea of Japan around 1000 A.D. and branched off into various forms. These were all sub-variants of Shogi and one of these, small Shogi became dominant over all the others. The different forms of Shogi are played on various size boards with different numbers of pieces.
The boards range from 7x7 to 36x36 squares in size. The number of pieces range from 32 like in standard chess to 402! In the dominant variant a 9x9 board is used and there are 40 pieces.
Probably the most interesting rule in Shogi is the drop rule which means that captured pieces can be returned to the board at any time only this time on the other side. This is representative of historical tradition in Japan where captured warriors often changed allegiance to the other side as a means of survival.
Chaturanga
Chaturanga
Chaturanga is the oldest known form of chess native to India and thought to be ancestor to western chess and many of the other chess variants. It is a four player game with four 8 piece armies setting up in a corner of the board faced toward the army in the corner to the right.
This game later spread to Persia with a few changes and a new name; Shatranj. From there it moved on to North Africa and then Spain where it evolved through some more changes into modern day western chess.
Each army consists of the equivalent of a rook (a boat), a knight, a bishop, a king and four pawns. The king starts on the side nearest the center and the rook sits in the corner with the knight beside it. Then the bishop between knight and king with the four pawns in front.
Thai Chess
Thai Chess
Thai Chess is a variant that was developed in that's right - Thailand. It is a close relative of Chaturanga and Shatranj and so is quite like international chess although there are also significant differences.
The main differences in terms of setup are that the opposite kings and queens do not line up on the same file; queen always starts to the right of the king and on the same file as the enemy king. Also the pawns start on the third rank rather than the second. This is the alternative to international chess's rule allowing the pawn to move two squares on it's first move.
Some of the movements are different also, most notably the queen is weak as in other Asian forms; the queen was only handed extreme power by the Europeans.
Shatranj
Shatranj
Shatranj is the missing link between Chaturanga and international chess. Our pieces evolved from Shatranj; the moves have altered slightly and there are some different rules namely those introduced by the Spaniards and Italians in the 1500's.
This chess variant is the one that gained popularity in Persia when the game spread there from India. Unlike European chess the queen is weak and indeed is not a queen but a minister. Also development is slow because the pawn only moves one square on the first move.
This variant was played for a thousand years in the Middle East until finally being replaced over the last couple of centuries by a game that came directly from it; international chess.
Chess960
Chess960
Chess960 is the most popular chess variant of shuffle chess which was invented by Bobby Fischer. Fischer was concerned that chess possibilities were close to being exhausted and that the game was becoming more of a memory test than a strategic struggle. He worried that as a consequence chess was fast becoming dull, predictable and boring.
Capablanca had earlier looked at possibilities of adding an extra piece or two into the backrow of a slightly bigger board maybe a 9x9 or 10x10. The problem with the bigger board of course was that it would take all day for the two armies to meet and get stuck into each other!
Fischer came up with a solution that avoided these problems. Instead of adding pieces or enlarging the board he simply randomized the starting position. Brilliant yet simple. Simply brilliant.
Korean Chess
Korean Chess
Korean Chess or janggi is closely related to Chinese Chess (xiangqi). Like xiangqi it is another chess variant played on points or that is to say the intersections of lines. A 10x9 point board to be precise.
There is no river on the Korean board. Some of the moves are the same, some are a little different. The Korean elephant is more powerful than the Chinese elephant.
The older player takes two soldier pieces, one in concealed in each hand and the younger player chooses a hand. Whichever soldier is in the hand, that is the side the younger player plays with.
Circular Chess
Circular Chess
Circular Chess became popular in England in the 1980's when a picture was found in a book showing a circular chess board from Persia dated around 1000 A.D. It has grown slowly but surely since then.
The board layout consists of four circular rings of sixteen squares each. It is the same as if the regular square board were cut in half along the d and e files and were then warped and joined together at both ends.
The pieces set up on the same squares as in regular chess and the rules are broadly the same. The changed environment that the circular board creates makes for a very interesting chess variant. Because of the different board style the tactics and strategy are completely different. Nothing is as it was before!
Martian Chess
Martian Chess
Martian Chess is a variant played on an 8x8 chessboard using three different types of pieces. They are queens, drones and pawns. Queens can move just like queens in international chess. They can move orthagonically or diagonally as far as the path is clear.
Drones move like rooks; straight in any direction but this is limited to two squares at a time. Pawns move one square diagonally at a time.
Each player starts with nine pieces and controls one quadrant of the board. That means they have control of any piece that strays onto their patch. Equally, if they move a piece out of their quadrant and into someone elses then they lose control of that piece.
Sittuyin
Sittuyin
Sittuyin is Burmese Chess and it is quite distinctive. First of all even though it is played on an 8x8 board and the pieces are the same as modern chess (although the moves aren't exactly the same for every piece) only the pawns are placed on the board in the beginning.
As an alternative to the openings of western chess where players develop their pieces to outposts in well worn opening systems, Sittuyin players simply place their pieces anywhere behind their pawns. The pawns are placed on a3, b3, c3, d3, e4, f4, g4 and h4 for Black playing up the board. Red playing down the board starts his pawns on a5, b5, c5, d5, e6, f6, g6 and h6.
Sittuyin had many local variants from region to region and this could be one of the main reasons why it has largely been replaced in Burma by western chess.
Hexes Chess
Hexes Chess
Hexes Chess is a chess variant that owing to a different style of game board gives the traditional chess pieces extra mobility that they did not have before.
There are different variants of hexes out there where board size and initial set-up vary and also some slight movement difference for knights and pawns but they are only minor alterations.
The big difference between orthodox chess and hexes chess is the shape of the spaces that the pieces sit on. Instead of the traditional four sided squares hexes chess uses six sided hexagons. The changes this feature brings to the nature of the battle are profound. There is a third set of spaces to do battle on instead of just two!
What is your favorite Chess Variant?
I discuss some of the best known chess variants known to man but there are literally hundreds, maybe thousands out there. And there are new ones emerging all the time. Human imagination and innovation remains constantly at work. For chess this means new variants and sub-variants as old ideas get spun in new and interesting ways. Do you know a great chess variant that the world must hear about? Tell us about your favorite chess variant.
Fave Chess Variants by other Lapocites
Click below to see fave chess variants left by other Lapocites...
Cubic Chess
Cubic Chess follows the normal rules of chess (including castling, check, checkmate, etc.), but with the following special differences:
Non-pawn ...
Triad Chess
Not rated yet
Triad Chess was born in Marseilles, France. It's inventor Richard Wittig started working on this concept in 1986 and in 1994 he filed the international ...
Moving On
Moving On: Chess History
Anything you've found here on chess variants is only really scratching the surface. There are literally hundreds of variants out there and many of these variants have a few sub-variants!
And what's more is that there are legions of new variants being dreamed up all the time. People are always looking for a new dimension or a fresh slant to whatever chess game they are familiar with.
If you enjoyed this maybe you might like to have a look at some chess history.
Return From Chess Variant To Online Chess Homepage
This link takes you from Chess Variant back to your Homepage. Your Homepage is where you get a site overview. There you can see all of the resources on offer in this web site.
Subscribe to our Free Ezine - Lapoc Chess Board
Copyright 2008-12 learn-and-play-online-chess.com
