10 Chess Games Every Player Should Know

Sure, if you want to improve at chess, you should play more chess. But what if you want to have more fun? There are lots of interesting and educational ways to enjoy the game of chess that aren’t just staring at a chessboard for five hours during a long holiday weekend at a chess tournament.

Time Controls of Regular Chess Games

If you are new to chess, you might not even be aware of the different time controls in regular chess. For the most part, there are four distinct time controls in chess games. Not only do these time controls change how long you are playing the game, but they also often have a different rating both online and OTB. So if you play a shorter game, it won't affect your other online ratings. It is important to know what time controls there are.

1. Classical Chess Games

This is the “classic” kind of chess game. The most time possible among all the options. This has long been considered the most serious form of chess. If someone asks for your chess rating, they mean your classical rating. Grandmasters earn their titles by meeting the required classical rating, not blitz or bullet. In recent years, shorter time controls have gained prominence among younger players, and even some grandmasters, like Magnus Carlsen, often prefer blitz to classical chess.

Magnus and Not Pursuing Classical Chess

Magnus actually gave up his chance to maintain his title as Chess World Champion because he didn’t want to play classical chess. He still plays tons of online and in-person rapid and blitz chess, even maintaining his titles as both World Rapid Chess Champion and World Blitz Chess Champion, which he has held nine times.

2. Rapid Chess Games

Next, there is rapid chess. Online, this means games that are around ten minutes long. More time to think than in a blitz or bullet game, but not the long, arduous games of classical chess. This is a great sweet spot for beginners who are trying to learn chess and need more experience playing, but also can’t think fast enough for faster time controls. Personally, I enjoy a rapid game. It gives me enough time to calculate long variations, but not so long that I get exhausted by the game. If you find you are not improving at chess but all you play is blitz, try playing some rapid chess to give your brain more time to process what it is learning.

3. Blitz Chess

Now we get to the fun, addictive world of fast chess. There is something so fun about being good enough at something that you can do it without thinking. Whatever it might be, using your intuition and being correct is addictive. You also get fast dopamine hits from wins, where you can quickly hit “next game” and experience the joys of chess again. And if you lose, you don’t have too long to dwell in a bad position, because the next game is coming right up!

The Downside to Fast Chess

From a learning perspective, just playing blitz chess can be detrimental to your improvement. When playing fast chess games, you are relying heavily on your intuition. As you improve, your intuition will get better, and you will find better moves quickly. But when you are still learning chess, you might be rewarded early by playing moves that are not technically sound, but might win you some games at low ratings. Thus training your intuition incorrectly and learning bad habits. So, if you are new to chess, I recommend playing at least some rapid games so you have time to study the position.

4. Bullet Chess Games

These are games where you only have one minute on the clock. Bullet chess is also incredibly fun. It is everything Blitz is, but amplified. Most bullet games can be won purely by playing faster than your opponent. You are almost punished for even thinking. Can’t you see how that might build bad habits in your play? Imagine trying to learn to play piano, and only playing songs as fast as you possibly can! You would never improve, and you certainly wouldn’t be good at the fundamentals of playing piano.

It’s Own Variant

In many ways, Bullet chess is its own variant of chess. Grandmasters often employ entirely different strategies in bullet games. They might play openings that they would just never play in classical chess, but they can work in the faster format. Should you play Bullet? Sure! Have fun! But don’t trick yourself into thinking that it is anything like playing “real” chess. Still, some of the most fun I have had playing chess has been in Bullet.

Chess Variants

What exactly is a chess variant? Generally speaking, a chess variant is a game where you tweak the rules of chess in some way. Keeping the same general game, but changing something. Sometimes it is where the pieces start on the board, changing the win conditions, etc. Just like with Bullet chess, there are some incredibly fun variants, but they are very different from regular chess.

5. Chess960

One variant that has long been very popular is Chess960, or Fischer Random Chess. This first became popular because Grandmasters grew tired of chess turning into a game of opening memorization. Players, like Fischer, who excelled at thinking in interesting positions, were frustrated by the game relying so much on how much theory you knew to start the game. So, in Chess960, all of the rules of chess stay generally the same, except the pieces start on different squares.

Why 960?

The number 960 refers to the possible variations or ways the pieces can be set up at the start of this variant. Because of the large number of possibilities, no one will have prepped actual opening lines in advance of a game of chess960; instead, they will rely on good strategies for the format and solid chess fundamentals that still hold true. Is Chess960 a chess game that every player should know? Maybe! It’s fun, and it can help you move quickly into solid chess instead of relying on opening theory. Some of my students fall into the trap of only learning and playing opening tricks and traps that they have picked up online, and 960 can be a good way to force them to calculate instead.

6. Bughouse and 7. Crazyhouse

These are two of my favorite chess games and variants to play, and I think they can also be useful as training tools. Bughouse is a four-player variant of chess with additional rules, and crazyhouse is the two-person version of the same ruleset. When you capture a piece in bughouse, you may use one of your turns to place the same type of piece on the board, thereby adding to your material. This creates a unique and helpful type of calculation practice. If a knight has been captured, for instance, you must always be on alert for where you could drop a knight into the position.

Bughouse Puzzle

Take a look at the above position. White has a winning position even if this were regular chess, but let's assume this is a game of Bughouse, and you have a knight that you can place anywhere. Do you see the tactic? It’s this kind of thinking that can help players consider longer-term plans in their regular chess games as well. If you play a classical chess game, and think to yourself, “Wow, if I could plop a knight down on that square, I would be winning!” Then you can try and find a way to maneuver your knight into that position, even if you can’t just magically place one there like in Bughouse. If you still aren’t sure what to play in the above position, think about smothered checkmate!

8. Three Check and 9. King of the Hill

Three Check is an interesting variant where the number of times you have checked your opponent is the key to winning. King of the Hill is another variant where the win condition has changed. In that variant, you win by moving your King to one of the four central squares. These, I think, are less helpful in practicing chess, but they can keep the game fun and interesting, especially for young students who get bored easily.

10. Puzzle Games

There are also fun games in chess that you can play by solving puzzles. Some of the most popular among these are things like Puzzle Rush on Chess.com, or Puzzle Storm on Lichess. These are puzzle-solving modes where you are given a time limit, and you try to solve as many puzzles as you can as they get increasingly difficult. 

Chess.com’s Puzzle Mode

Recently, Chess.com has also introduced a newer puzzle mode where you move up the ranks among your friends as you solve more and more puzzles. They have done a good job of gamifying the chess puzzles, so you really feel like you are making progress as you get streaks and solve more puzzles every day. The downside is that you can’t solve very many puzzles with just their free account, and they will push you towards a paid membership.

Why They Help You Improve

The best way to improve in your pattern recognition is through repetition. These more fun puzzle modes are a good way to engage with a high volume of increasingly difficult tactical patterns. As you solve more and more puzzles, you will improve at finding those same tactics inside your own chess games. Outside of playing more chess, solving a large number of chess tactics and puzzles is one of the best ways to improve as a beginner.

How to Integrate Other Chess Games In a Study Plan

The key to chess improvement is integrating a wide variety into your chess study. If all you do is play bullet chess, you won't be building up other key chess muscles. Similarly, if all you do is solve chess puzzles, you may be severely lacking in your understanding of basic early game positions or lose to simple opening tricks and traps. So, how do you best use these other kinds of chess games to improve? Find your favorite ways to enjoy chess, and sprinkle them in throughout your chess practice time.

Chess Study Plan

For instance, if you have thirty minutes a day that you can play chess throughout the week, switch up what kind of chess you enjoy each day. One day might be more of a study day where you are grinding chess puzzles or reading a chess book, and another day might be just bullet chess. However, if every day is bullet chess day, you might not perform well at your next classical tournament.

Does it Matter?

If you don’t care about improving at classical chess, and you just want to play what you enjoy, then by all means, only play bullet chess. I know some people who don’t care about improving at the game and just like to play fast chess on their phone during their lunch break. They don’t need to improve their calculation skills because they only ever rely on their intuition while playing faster chess. That is a valid way to enjoy the game! Too many people think of chess as an all-or-nothing hobby, but the truth is, it’s a game that can be enjoyed in a multitude of ways, by a multitude of people.

So, don’t let anyone tell you that you have to do chess in only one way. But if you want to improve overall at chess, I encourage variety in your weekly play and a wide range of different study techniques.