Crazyhouse

Crazyhouse follows the rules of regular Chess with the following

exceptions:
• Captured pieces change sides and are held in hand by the
capturing player, who may on a subsequent turn drop a
captured piece back on the board.
• Pieces held in hand may be dropped on any empty square.
• Pawns may be dropped on any empty square which is not
part of the first or last rank.
• When a promoted piece is captured, it changes back into a
Pawn before it is put in hand.
• It is legal to check or checkmate a King by dropping a piece.

Bughouse
The game is played by two teams of two players each. This
requires that two chessboards be placed side by side with
partners sitting on the same side of the table. For each team, one
player plays with white pieces and the other plays with black.
Each pair of contestants plays a normal Chess game which has a
special feature: All captured pieces are given to one’s partner.
Once received they become reserve pieces which can be
dropped onto an empty square on the board to be used as ones
own. This is done in lieu of a board move.

The first mate does not decide the match, and play continues on
the remaining board. Bughouse is played with clocks and with
little time per player (e.g., 5 minutes). When one player runs out
of time, their team loses.

Otherwise, the same rules as Crazyhouse for placement applies.


 Fischer Random Chess / Chess 960
Fischer Random Chess is played with a regular Chess set but
employs a randomly generated array. Each new setup is
determined by a computer program (or manual procedure) which
assigns starting squares according to the following guidelines:
• White Pawns are placed on their usual squares.
• All remaining white pieces are placed on the first rank.
• The white King is placed somewhere between the two white
Rooks.
• The white Bishops are placed on opposite-colored squares.
• The black pieces are placed equal-and-opposite the white
pieces.

Castling may be performed under the following conditions:

• Neither King nor Rook has moved.
• The King is not in check before or after castling.
• No square through which the King must move is under
attack.
• All squares between King and Rook are vacant.
• No other pieces occupy any of the squares passed over by
the King or Rook.
• The castling move does not result in a capture.

A King may castle with its a-side Rook or its h-side Rook. When
castling a-side, the King and Rook go to the same spaces they
would go when Queen-side castling in Chess. When castling h-
side, the King and Rook go to the same spaces they would go
when King-side castling in Chess.
 Alice Chess
The standard game of Alice Chess is played using two boards, A
and B. All pieces move as in standard chess. The normal array is
on board A; board B starts empty.
The rules are very simple. In turn, each player makes a single
move on either board following these three rules:

1. A move must be legal on the board where it is played.

2. A piece can only move or capture if the corresponding
destination square on the other board is vacant.
3. After moving, the piece is transferred to the corresponding
square on the other board.

Since a square and it's corresponding square on the other board

are never both occupied, Alice Chess can actually be played on a
single board. Checkers are placed under pieces that are on board
B.
 Losing Chess
• The opening setup is as in normal chess. All pieces move as in
normal chess (but see below for the King).
• Capturing is compulsory. When a player can capture, but has
different choices to capture a piece, he may choose which
piece to capture.
• There is no check or checkmate. The King plays no special
role in the game, and can be taken as any other piece.
• Pawns may also promote to Kings.
• A player wins when he has no pieces left on the field.
• Stalemate is a win for the stalemated player.

Atomic Chess
• Whenever a piece is captured, the capturing piece is removed
and all pieces on the immediate horizontal, vertical and
diagonal spaces are also removed.
• Pawns are exceptions to the above rule. Pawns do not
explode, but cause explosions when taking away other pieces.
• Explosions are non-recursive, meaning that only the pieces on
the immediate neighbor fields are removed, not pieces in
further distance (no avalanche effect).
• The King may never capture an enemy piece, as it would
result in his own explosion.
• When you capture or checkmate the enemy King, you win.

Atomic Losing Chess

Combines the rules for Atomic Chess and Losing Chess.

 Evolution Chess
In Evolution Chess, all the normal rules of Western Chess apply
except for the possibility of evolution through promotion capturing.
Pieces are seen as a combination of their abilities: the ability to
move like a Knight, Bishop or Rook. Whenever a piece (not a
Pawn) other than the King captures another piece it adds any
additional powers that piece had into its DNA and promotes to a
hybrid piece. For example: a Rook that captures a Bishop gains
the ability to move diagonally and evolves into a Queen.

Pawns are seen as underdeveloped species which can adapt or

evolve through promotion into any of the simple pieces: Knight,
Bishop or Rook. Hybridization can only be achieved through
promotion capturing, there are no shortcuts in evolution. Thus, a
Pawn does not absorb the movement abilities of a piece it
captures.
 Cannibal Chess
The normal rules of chess are valid, with the following change:
When a piece takes another piece, it gets the movement abilities
of the piece it has taken. For instance, if a white rook takes a
black knight, the white rook turns into a white knight. (The best is
to use a second set and indeed change the piece to the actual
piece.)

When a king takes a piece, it also turns into that kind of piece, but
it stays royal. I.e., if a king takes a pawn, it can only move as a
pawn, but it stays the piece that must be mated. If that king/pawn
reaches the last row of the board, the king/pawn can be promoted
to a king/queen, so now the opponent must mate a piece with the
abilities of a queen - until, of course, that queen also takes a
piece, etc.

Castling is only allowed with the original rooks, under normal

castling rules.

Capture Anything
Capture Anything chess allows you to capture your own pieces.
This creates an entirely new strategy and way of playing: No more
smothered mates, and you can sacrifice your own pawns for
faster development.

 Extinction Chess
All rules of normal Chess are used, with the following exception.
Check and checkmate do not apply. Instead, the first player that
does not have pieces of all types loses the game. Thus, a player
who loses either his King, his Queen, his two Rooks, his two
Bishops, his two Knights or his eight Pawns loses the game
(barring a promotion).

Pawns may promote to any other type of piece, including Kings.

When a Pawn promotes to some type of piece, this piece is also
counted among the pieces of the type; e.g., when a Pawn
promotes to a Queen, and the other Queen is taken from the
player, then the Queens are not considered to be extinct, i.e., the
game continues. If a player promotes his last Pawn, he loses (as
his Pawns are now extinct), unless he wins by extinction on that
very move.

Since there is no check, castling under or through check is

allowed.
 Avalanche Chess
The rules of normal chess are followed with these changes:
▪ Each turn of a player consists of two parts. The first part is a
move, legal with the orthodox chess rules. The second part
of the move consists of moving an opponent's pawn a single
space forwards (toward the player). This pawn move, called
a 'push', is always a single space, and never a capture.
▪ The first part of a move must be legal to the normal rules of
chess. That means: one cannot place with the first part of a
move ones king in check, or leave it in check, planning to
undo the check with a pawn move.
▪ The second part is obligatory, unless the opponent does not
have any pawn that can be advanced.
▪ When a player advances a pawn, such that this places his
king in check, he loses the game (as this would imply that
his opponent could take his king), even when he checks or
mates his opponent in that turn.
▪ When a pawn is advanced to the last rank, the owner of the
pawn decides in what type of piece it is promoted. When this
means a check to the player advancing the pawn, he loses,
as in the previous rule.
▪ There is no en-passant capture.

White has a large advantage. White's advantage is reduced in

Balanced Avalanche Chess in which White had no pawn push on
the first move.
 Berolina Chess
The opening setup of Berolina chess is the same as of normal
chess. Only, now all pawns are assumed to be Berolina pawns.

The Berolina pawn moves without taking one square diagonally,

and may move on its first move two squares diagonally. It takes
by moving one square straight. En passant-capture is possible:
for example, when black has a pawn on b4, and white moves a
pawn from a2 to c4, then the black pawn can take the white pawn
by moving to b3.

Torpedo Chess
Pawns may always move forward 1 or 2 spaces. En passant is
always in effect.

Super-Torpedo Chess
Pawns may move forward any number of spaces. En passant is
always in effect no matter how many spaces the pawn moved.
For example, a pawn could move from b4 to b8 (promoting), then
an enemy pawn on c7 could capture with en passant.

Sideways Pawns
In Sideways Pawns, pawns can move sideways. All other rules of
standard chess apply. Pawns still capture as in standard chess.
The only change is, in addition to their other abilities, pawns can
now move one square to the right or left.
 Triplets
The usual rules of chess are followed, but with the following
exceptions:

The first turn, both white and black move one pawn. The second
turn, white moves a piece (not a pawn and not the king), and a
pawn, and then black moves a piece (not a pawn and not the
king) and a pawn. All later turns of a player consist of three
separate moves: a move of a pawn, a move of a piece that is not
a pawn or a king, and a move with the king.

A player that is unable to complete his turn, i.e., who cannot make
a pawn-move, a king-move, or a move with a piece that is not a
pawn or king, loses the game. Also, a player that is checkmated
loses the game.

The order of the three moves in a turn is not important. Castling is

considered a move with the king (note that long castling is
impossible, because there isn't enough time to move the three
pieces out of the way). En-passant capture may be done at any
time of the move, and also when the captured pawn didn't move
last in the previous turn of the opponent. When a player is in
check, he only has to make sure that he isn't in check anymore at
the end of the turn. (E.g., a player is only mated when he cannot
lift the check with the entire three-part move.) Also, a player may
move into check as long as he isn't in check anymore at the end
of his turn (so, a player could move a pinned piece and then his
king). (The general idea is: the three moves count as one, and
only the position after the three moves is of importance.)
 Progressive Chess
Normal rules apply, with the following exceptions:

1. Players alternately make a sequence of moves of increasing

number: White makes 1 move, black makes 2 moves, white
makes 3 moves, and so on.
2. When a player gives check prior to the end of a sequence,
he forfeits any remaining moves. His opponent's subsequent
turn is not truncated, so the number of moves allowed for
any given turn, is only dependent on the turn number.
3. Pieces move in democratic cycles: Each mobile piece must
move once before it can move twice, and each mobile piece
must move twice before it can move thrice, and so on. (If a
blocked piece becomes mobile in a later cycle, it may not
make 'catch-up' moves.) A just-promoted piece is considered
having moved. Castling counts as having moved both King
and Rook.
4. A player may not expose his King to check during a
sequence of moves, even if the check is only temporary.
5. A check must be nullified on the first move of a turn. Failure
to do so is checkmate.
6. En passant capture is not allowed
7. If a player moves into a stalemate position before completing
his turn, the game is a draw.

NOTE: Incomplete cycles do not carry over to the next turn. At the
beginning of each player's turn, a new cycle begins.
 N-Relay Chess
The usual rules of chess are in effect, with the exception of what
follows.
1. A pawn or a piece (but not the King or a Knight) guarded by
a Knight of the same color is relayed the power to move (and
in particular to capture) as a Knight. This power adds to the
usual power of the pawn/piece and lasts as long as the
pawn/piece is guarded by a Knight.
2. A pawn relayed by Knight does not extend its powers to the
1st or 8th rank; e.g. a white pawn in f6 guarded by a while
Knight in e4 cannot move to (or check the King in) e8 or g8,
etc.
3. A pawn moved back to its 2nd rank regains its right to a two-
step move.
4. Original or promoted Knights do not capture and neither can
be captured.
5. No en passant capture.
 Dunsany’s Chess
Black's setup is the same in regular chess; White's army consists
of 32 pawns, filling ranks one through four.

Rules are the same as in regular chess, with the following

exceptions:
• Black moves first.
• Only Black's pawns have the two-step option on their first
move.
• Black wins by capturing all 32 white pawns, while White wins
by checkmating Black.
Other rules are the same as in regular chess. For example,
pawns promote on the final rank, and stalemate occurs if White's
pawns run out of moves.

Horde Chess
• Horde chess is a variant where white has 36 pawns and
black needs to destroy the Horde to win. A special starting
position is used:

 Marseillais Chess
All rules of normal chess apply, but with the following modification.
Each turn, a player makes two moves. He may move twice with
the same piece, or he may make moves with two different pieces.
Castling counts as one move.

If a player gives check on his first move in a turn, he moves only

once that turn. A player in check must remove the check in the
first half of his turn. A player may never move his King into check,
not even on the first half of his turn.

A Pawn that was moved two squares in one move (half a turn)
could be taken en-passant, only if the Pawn moved in the first half
of the turn. The en-passant taking had to be done on the first
move of the turn.

On his first turn, White only makes a single move.

3-Check Chess
3-Check is a simple variant with one clear task in mind: Check the
king as many times as you can! Normal rules apply, but you can
also win a game by checking 3 times in total. 
• Games can still end in the traditional ways of checkmate,
stalemate and time-out.
• The game can also end if a player checks their opponent's
king three times.
• A move that results in a double-check only counts as one
check towards the "total check score.”

 Undercover Queen
In Undercover Queen, a pawn of each player’s choice (that you
write down on a sealed piece of paper at the start of the game) is
in fact a second queen. You must of course use this very wisely,
for it will become much easier for the opponent once he knows.

This hidden queen can move like a pawn as well obviously, but en
passant is not possible, and should it promote, it will only stay a
queen. Additionally an illegal move loses: you can make sneaky
check threats to the enemy king with the undercover queen (or
just bluff it with another pawn) and capture the enemy king to win
if a piece that was pinned by the undercover queen goes out the
way.

Card Chess
A deck of 52 playing cards is shuffled, and cards are turned one
by one. A red card means that white makes a move, and a black
card means that black makes a move.

When in check, a player directly gets the following move - no card

is turned.

King of the Hill

This variant is similar to standard chess, but it has a very strong
emphasis on center play. If you make a legal move that moves
your King to one of the center squares (d4, d5, e4, e5) you win.

 Racing Kings
Each player has a standard set of pieces without pawns. The
opening setup is shown below.

In this game, checks are entirely forbidden. Not only is it forbidden

to move one's king into check, but it is also forbidden to check the
opponent's king.

The purpose of the game is to be the first player to move their

king to the eighth row. When White moves their king to the eighth
row, and Black, immediately on the next move, moves their king
to the eighth rank, the game is declared a draw (this rule is to
compensate for White's first-move advantage).

Apart from the above, pieces move and capture exactly as in

normal chess.