The Chess Variants Club 7,5/10 555 votes

Discover and Play Numerous Games Similar to Chess

ChessThe Chess Variants Club

Two regional variants are described in detail, Chinese chess (xiang qi) and Japanese chess (shogi). Chinese chess may actually be played by more people than orthodox chess, and Japanese chess may very well be a better game than orthodox chess. This is a CHESS and Chess VARIANTS Club. We play ALL CHESS game types offered at GOLDTOKEN. Windows server 32 bit versions. There will be a REGULAR TOURNAMENT, and we will have TEAMS for Inter-Club Matches and the Inter-Club Ladders. M3 founded The Chess & Variants Supplementary Club for a second Chess Team. Because a team can be too large for small teams to face. FICS - Free Internet Chess Server is a server for chess players to play against each other over the Internet. FICS supports tournaments, lectures, live game relays, chess variants (Suicide, Bughouse, Crazyhouse, Atomic) and lots more.

Chess has its origins in the Arabian game of Shatranj, which goes back to the Indian game of Chaturanga.

It is also related to Xiangqi in China, to Janggi in Korea, and to Shogi in Japan.

Many other games have been inspired by or based on Chess and its relatives. All of these games are similar to Chess yet also different from it in various ways.

Thanks to computers and the internet, it is now possible to play several of these Chess variants without physical boards and pieces. This website – The Chess Variant Pages – is here for cataloging, discussing, and playing the many games that are based on, related to, or similar enough to Chess.

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Chess Variants Online

Recognized chess variants: What are considered to be the `best chess variants'?
Oriental chess variants:Xiangqi (Chinese Chess), Shogi (Japanese Chess), variants, other oriental chess variants.
❤Member favorites: What have members of these pages chosen as their favorites?
Historic chess variants: The first predecessor of chess: Chaturanga, Shatranj, and other chess variants from ancient times.
Boards with an unusual shape
Three dimensional chess variants: Star Trek and others
Multi player variants: Chess with 3, 4, 6, 7 or any number of players.
Hexagonal chess variants
Small chess variants: Chess on board of size 4 by 8, 6 by 6, etc.
Round boards
Large chess variants: Chess on boards of 9 by 9 or larger.
Other boards with an unusual shape
Chess variants with unequal armies: Variants where white and black have a different set of pieces.
Chess variants with usual equipment: Those variants that can be played with (mainly) a usual 8 by 8 board, and usual pieces.
  • Different moving pieces.
  • Moving your opponents pieces.
  • Multi-move variants.
  • Rules about the board.
  • Winning in a different way.
  • Different opening setups
  • Capturing in a different way
  • Other variants
Other chess variants:
  • Wargames and Hierarchical games.
  • Chess with cards.
  • Chess with dice.
  • Crossovers. Variants that borrow ideas or rules from, or combine with other games.
  • Chess with incomplete information. Kriegspiel and its variants.
  • Other variants. Everything that didn't fit in another category: with several nice ones!
Themes: Chess Variants organized by which theme they're based on.
Commercial: Links to sites of commercial publishers of chess variants.
Chess: the F.I.D.E. variant: The queen of games, and of all chess variants: chess itself.
Books and periodicals: Paper sources for information on chess variants.
Computer resources:
  • Computer graphics
Problems, puzzles, positions, and pieces: Fairy chess problems and more.
Piececlopedia: An encyclopedia documenting numerous fairy chess pieces. (Articles on Pieces)
Links: Links to sites outside of the Chess Variant Pages.(Links by date added)
Contests and Tournaments (by date)
Contributors: A list of people who have contributed material to these pages. Our thanks go out to all those who contributed!
Editors: The volunteers who run this site and publish the web pages.
Commentary and Ratings
Miscellaneous information and other links:
  • Organisations. AISE, NOST, and other organisations where you can play chess variants.
  • Websites. Personal websites which feature chess variants.
  • Interviews. Questions and answers with various people involved with chess variants.
  • Contests.
  • The Chess Variant Pages Offline. Download many files at the same time, and read them without being on the Internet. Or get a CDrom with all the files on it.
  • Chess Variant oriented fiction. Stories and other fictional writings on the subject of chess variants.
  • Photo's of chess variant sets, and chess stamps.
  • Crafts. Making your own chess variant sets.
  • News. Gossip, press releases, and more news items on chess variants.
  • New chess variant ideas. Discussion on experimental ideas for chess variants.
  • A Glossary of Basic Chess Variant Terms. A core glossary of terms used in the Chess Variant world.
  • The Concise Guide to Chess Variants. A guide which attempts to briefly describe or define the various terms, phrases and names in common use relating to the subject of chess variants.
  • Yahoo! Clubs chessvariants. Our Official club at Yahoo. The place to discuss chess variants. (Link.)
  • Looking to buy some chess variant games or books? Give the Chess Variant Pages Shop a visit!

Language Pages

  • Dutch Language Pages (what's new)
  • Spanish Language Pages (what's new)
  • Russian Language Pages (what's new)
  • Italian Language Pages (what's new)
  • German Language Pages (what's new)
  • French Language Pages (what's new)
  • Chinese Language Pages (what's new)
  • Japanese Language Pages (what's new)
  • Non-English Language Pages (what's new)

Subject Index


0-9
3 dimensional
3 player
4 player
-A-
About Us
Advertisement policy
Ancient
Asian
Awards
-B-
Board rules
Books
-C-
Capturing
Cards
Chess
Chinese
Circular
Club
Commented Items
Comments
Commercial
Computer graphics
Contact Us
Contests
Contests, by date
Contributions1
Contributions2
Contributors
Copyrights
Crafts
Crossovers
-D-
Desktop publishing
Dice
Discussion group
Dutch Language
-E-
Eastern
Editors
-F-
Feedback
Feedback page
Fiction
FIDE chess
Financial information
Fonts
Fonts, preview
Four-player
French Language
-G-
German Language
Glossary
Graphics
-H-
Help Us
Hexagonal
Hierarchical
Historic
History (of chessvariants.com)
Home
-I-
Incomplete information
Interviews
Italian Language
-J-
Japanese
Java Programs
-K-
-L-
Large
Links
Links by date
-M-
Main page
Magazines
Member submitted pages
Membership
Miniature
Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous information
Modest variants
Moving opponents pieces
Moving pieces
Multi-player
Multi-move
-N-
New chess variant ideas
New items
News
Non-English Language
-O-
Organisations
Oriental
Orthodox Chess
Other variants
Other usual variants
-P-
Pamphlets
People
Periodicals
Photographs
Piececlopedia
Pieces
Pieces, articles on
Play
Play by email
Polls
Positions
Post Your Own Game
Post Your Own Zillions
Problems
Programs
Publishing resources
Puzzles
-Q-
-R-
Rated Items
Ratings
Recognized
Round boards
Russian Language
-S-
Setups
Shape
Shop
Small
Spanish Language
Store
Submit Your Own Game
Submit Your Own Zillions
-T-
Themes
Three dimensional
Three-player
Tournaments
Tournaments, by date
-U-
Unequal armies
-V-
Vote
-W-
Wargames
Websites
Western Chess
What's New
Winning
-X-
-Y-
Yahoo! Group
-Z-
Zillions of Games
Zillions of Games, by image
Zillions, submit your own
Alphabetical Listings:

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Variant Chess Games

WWW page made by Hans Bodlaender and David Howe. WWW page made: 1995.