10 Chess Variants You Should Try

If you are reading this, it is likely that you are familiar with the basic rules of chess. You understand that the knight moves in an L-shape and bishops move on a diagonal. You know that it’s generally a good thing to capture pieces and protect your king. In the world of chess variants, some of the fundamental rules are added to, changed, or discarded altogether.

These variations to the laws of chess, including exploding captures, the introduction of the Duck piece, and winning by moving your king to a central square, provide us with new ways to test our skills and adapt to new rules.

What are Chess Variants?

Throughout history, chess has undergone significant changes and evolution. The game we play today originated as an ancient Indian game called Chaturanga. Over time, the version of chess with which we are familiar has become standardized, with only slight variations across the world. 

However, people continue to create new and interesting ways to play the game. Grandmasters like Bobby Fischer and José Raúl Capablanca are renowned for their contributions, including Fischer Random Chess and Capablanca Chess. Some variants, like Four Player and Omega Chess, are incredibly complicated, but others, like Three Check and Horde, are easy to play and learn. 

Playing chess variants requires adaptability and the application of chess skills in new contexts. Sometimes, the rules are similar with a different objective, but as we’ll see, sometimes you need to throw out all of the chess principles you’ve painstakingly learned. 

There are many official and unofficial chess variations played today – here are some of the most popular and accessible. 

Chess960 (Fischer Random Chess)

While professional chess players may not take every chess variant seriously, this is not the case with Fischer Random. With official tournaments hosted by the International Chess Federation (FIDE), Chess960 is seen as a serious test of a chess player’s abilities. 

While existing in some forms beforehand, Chess960 was officially created by Bobby Fischer in 1996 with the aim of minimizing the importance of chess theory. The advocacy of one of the greatest chess players of all time, alongside the unique challenge it presented, has made the variant incredibly popular.

The Rules

Chess960 follows the standard rules of chess with one significant exception: the starting positions of the back rank pieces are randomized. The 960 in the name refers to the number of possible starting positions. 

The main rules are:

• The randomized back rank pieces must be the same for each player
• The king must be placed between two rooks so that normal castling rules can be followed
• Bishops must be on opposite-colored squares
• Pawns start on their usual squares and follow the same rules as normal

Unlike some chess variants, these rules mean that the same principles and ideas of chess still apply. The only thing missing is opening theory. 

Strategy

To win at Chess960, you need to start calculating from the first move. Without memorized openings or traps, you must consider the starting position of the pieces and create a plan for their development. 

While there is more variation in how you develop, the same fundamental opening ideas apply:

• Develop your pieces
• Protect your king
• Control the center

Chess960 is a good test of your fundamental chess skills and a good reminder that memorizing an opening is not the most important part of chess. 

Crazyhouse Chess

Crazyhouse is another popular chess variant. This time, there are some significant changes to the tactics and strategy. The games are fast-paced, aggressive, and often chaotic. 

Rules

In Crazyhouse chess, captured pieces are yours to keep. Basically, when you capture a piece, it is placed in your “bank,” and you can redeploy it on the board. Putting the piece back on the board counts as your move. The dropped pieces can deliver checks and checkmate, block attacks, and do anything a normal chess move would do. 

The only other important rule is that pawns cannot be placed on the first or eighth rank. This stops excessive promotion that would quickly end the game. 

Strategy

Crazyhouse is tricky to say the least. You have to consider threats on the board and those from pieces in your opponent's bank. Similarly, when creating an attack, you have to calculate pieces on and off the board. 

Overall, how you consider material has to significantly change. Sacrifices are more frequent, reinforcements can arrive just in time, and the momentum of the game can shift suddenly. 

Antichess

Also called Giveaway or Losing Chess, Antichess inverts the rules of the game. This variant truly creates an entirely different game.

Rules

The aim of Antichess is to get rid of all your pieces. The most important rule is that if any piece can be captured on your turn, it has to be captured. You win by continuously making pieces vulnerable. 

Here are some other important rules:

• The king behaves like another piece and can be captured. There are no checks or checkmates.
• You can win when you have no pieces left or no remaining legal moves.
• If multiple captures are available, you choose which one to make. 

Strategy

Antichess takes some time to get used to. Not only do you need to create vulnerabilities in your position, but you also need to force your opponent to create “threats” against you. 

This requires a special kind of calculation. One key idea is to create forcing combinations in which you guide an opponent’s piece through your forces. 

King of the Hill

King of the Hill adheres to the standard chess rules, but introduces a new way to win that alters the game's dynamics. 

Rules

Forget everything you know about king safety. The goal is to get the king to one of the central squares on the board: e4, e5, d4, d5. The king can arrive on these squares with impunity; the usual rules of moving into check don’t apply on these squares.

Aside from this, the normal rules of chess apply. You can also lose by checkmate! 

Strategy

There are many different ways you can approach the game. The most common approach is to try to reach the king at the center while avoiding threats. However, you can also opt to keep your king safe and aim to try and checkmate your opponent before they make it to the center themselves. 

Overall, King of the Hill is a great way to test the limits of king safety and the powers of an active king. 

Atomic Chess

If you’ve ever wished chess had more explosions, the Atomic variant is the one for you. 

Rules

In Atomic Chess, every captured piece “explodes”, which affects all of the surrounding squares next to the captured piece. The captured piece, capturing piece, and any surrounding pieces are removed from the board. 

While you can still win by checkmate, explosions take precedence:

• You can win the game by capturing a piece next to the king, as it will fall victim to the explosion.
• You can prevent checkmate by exploding the enemy king. Doing so counts as preventing or blocking a checkmate. 
• Kings also cannot capture any pieces because of the exploding rule.

Pawns are the only pieces not affected by explosions, and they can only be removed from the board via traditional captures.

Strategy

In Atomic Chess, it is crucial to think about defense early on. Because of the damage a single capture can do, it is easy to quickly blunder the whole game. Similarly, thinking carefully about king safety is extremely important.

Material values also change. The ability to do serious damage with knights and bishops means they are closer in value to queens and rooks. Overall, Atomic Chess has its own set of tactics and principles that you work on as you play.

Bughouse

Similar to Crazyhouse, Bughouse is a hectic and typically fast-paced variant, but in this case needs four players. The game is especially fun when played over the board.

Rules

In Bughouse, two games of chess are played simultaneously, typically with a low time control. The pieces captured by your teammate and passed over to you can be redeployed on the board in the same way as Crazyhouse. 

Strategy

The extreme unpredictability of Bughouse is what makes it fun. Usual chess strategy applies, except you need to be ready for anything. One tip is to keep an eye on your opponent’s board – sometimes you can wait a moment and get a key extra piece right when you need it. 

In over-the-board games, you can do some quick-fire group strategy, asking for specific pieces and warning your teammate about threats. 

Horde

Horde presents a unique challenge and excellent lessons in pawn structure.

Rules 

In Horde, the player with the black pieces has a normal starting position. The twist is that White starts with an army of 36 pawns. Otherwise, standard rules apply. 

Strategy 

Horde is like a long and complicated chess puzzle. There are many ways to win with White and Black. 

For Black, the goal is to find some way to infiltrate the pawn horde. Often this involves tactically sacrificing pieces and attempting to eventually get behind the advancing pawns.

For White, it is a systematic advance of pawns. One effective strategy is to maintain a solid structure on one side and create a supported attack on the other. 

Four Player Chess

For fans of group games and complicated rules, Four Player is the top choice. This variant comes with various rules, but it is always an extremely challenging version of the game. 

Rules

Four-player has many rules and variations. It always uses a points-based system and a cross-shaped board, with each player's starting pieces nested on each side. Players can gain points by making captures, checkmating opponents, giving certain kinds of checks, and stalemates. 

Some versions allow you to promote a pawn to a queen in the center of the board. 

Strategy

Standard chess principles and strategy apply, but the game is much more complicated. Naturally, the center is huge and difficult to control. As such, players need to consider targeting more specific areas of the board. One common strategy is to focus on only one opponent. 

Three Check

Three Check is a refreshingly simple chess variant. Nevertheless, it presents a unique version of the game and requires careful calculation.

Rules

All the standard rules of chess apply, with one addition. You can win by checking the king three times.

Strategy

Naturally, sacrifices are very common in Three Check – often a piece is worth a single check. Strategically, you need to think about protecting the king, remembering that players can easily sacrifice their pieces for pawns to gain a check. 

Generally, this means being wary of diagonals, open files, and continuous checks. While simple compared to other variations, Three Check requires careful calculation to win.

Duck Chess

If you’ve ever seen anyone playing chess and wondered why they have a small yellow duck on the chess board, here’s your answer.

Rules

Duck Chess introduces a new piece that prevents any other piece from passing through it – only the knight is able to jump over it. After each move, the Duck must be repositioned to a new square. 

The other major difference is that instead of checks and checkmate, you win by capturing your opponent’s king. 

Strategy

In Duck Chess, you can use all of your usual chess skills. The duck simply adds a new element to your calculation – how can you use it to hamper your opponent’s plans? Chess concepts like Prophylaxis and Zugzwang are key.

Where to Play

Platforms like Chess.com and Lichess provide online versions of many of the variants above. 

Most can easily be played physically with anything from a standard wooden chessboard to a magnetic roll-up option. However, there are plenty of exceptions. For example, Horde requires 36 pawns, and Four Player Chess requires a special board, although this could be created by combining several vinyl tournament chessboards.

We’ve examined some of the most popular variants available, but there are many more. Some are extremely complicated or require special boards, and others are simply strange. If you’re looking to explore more options, here are a few other interesting variants: Alice Chess, Knightmare Chess, Progressive Chess, Circular Chess, Madrasi Chess, Space Chess, and Cylinder Chess.

Frequently Asked Questions