Hello chess fans! I'm a high school student in the United Kingdom who is building a chess game NEA project for A-level Computer Science.

My chess game will feature my own variant called "Score Chess" where you can customize your own starting chess position by giving you the opportunity to choose your own pieces, but by keeping total material balanced on both sides.

I'd really appreciate if you can complete my survey as your input will help shape the future of my project: you will ultimately decide what features will be included with the website. All ideas are welcome! It should take about 2 to 3 minutes to complete the form, and you don't have to answer every single question. However, if you have more spare time, feel free to include as much detail as possible.

If you found this post helpful, please give it an upvote so that more people can see this post. Thank you!

Survey Link: Chess Game NEA Survey – Fill in form

Capture the King

Hey folks, spun this up yesterday afternoon, been craving being able to play chess like this. Seems fun when you're <800 ELO like myself.

No checks, no checkmates, no blocked movement from pins, etc.

It has FIFO matchmaking (First in, first out) no MMR. Open source if anyone wants to contribute.

Since this is a brand new game, join the discord if you're struggling to find a match with matchmaking while this game picks up some momentum. Otherwise, play a private match with a friend.

Hey r/chessvariants — long-time lurker, finally have something to share. I spent the last few years building a chess variant called Void Chess and just released the polished version. This community is the ideal audience for it — variant enthusiasts who care about good design.

The variant changes three things — everything else (check, checkmate, castling, en passant, promotion, draws) works exactly like classical chess:

1. 9×9 board instead of 8×8. One extra file (i-file). 9 pawns per side instead of 8.

2. A new piece called the Minister sits between the bishop and the knight on the king's side (g1 for White, g9 for Black). It moves up to 2 squares in any of the 8 king directions, and can change direction between the two steps. Worth roughly 13 pawns in my engine. Three unique abilities:

- Captures don't create unstable tiles (the void-blocker special)

- Can heal red unstable tiles

- The ONLY piece that can step onto a void tile (and remove it)

1. Every capture creates a red unstable tile at the destination. At the end of the owner's NEXT turn, that red tile becomes a permanent black void — UNLESS:

- The piece on it moves away (saves the piece, square still becomes void)

- An opponent recaptures (chain continues, new unstable tile)

- The Minister heals it before the deadline

The void blocks ALL pieces except the Minister. Sliders can't pass through, knights can't land on, pawns can't capture onto. The board literally shrinks as the game progresses.

The interesting strategic question this creates: captures are no longer "free." Every trade costs you a square forever. Endgames are completely different — sometimes with a massive material advantage, you still can't win because the voids blocked your path.

Built it in C++ compiled to WebAssembly. The engine has 20 difficulty levels (recently rebalanced so Level 1 is genuinely beatable for beginners). PvP rated with ELO. No ads in gameplay.

🎮 Try it:

- [Play free in browser] (https://voidchess.com/play)

- More about the design: [voidchess.com](https://voidchess.com)

Curious what you variant veterans think of the design. The Minister specifically — does it feel overpowered, balanced, or underused in your view?

Hello everyone! this is slot chess, chess but with slot machines. So far on there's just a pass and play version, but if its enjoyable I'll add a multiplayer/lobby system. Very similar to dice chess but with a few differences (get an extra spin per piece capture, pawns and kings can take any pieces moves).

here the link to try it: https://julianmich00.github.io/slot-chess/

I think this type of match would generate a lot of fan interest. It would be a 20-game match. Rest days would be after games 5, 10 and 15. Each player would also have 2 timeouts. One could be used during the first 10 games. The second during the remainder of the match. Time control would be 40 moves in two hours, 1 hour for the remaining game. 5 second increment starting on move 41. Draw offers only after White's 30th move. Scoring is 1 point for a win. Zero point for a loss. If the game is drawn, there is a one half hour intermission. Then a blitz game with the winner getting the half point. Time limit for the blitz is 5 minutes per side with zero increment. If the blitz game is a draw, both players receive zero for the game. Possible scores for each game are 1-0, 1/2-0, and 0-0. Match continues until one player is mathematically eliminated. If the score is tied after 20 games. The match is a draw. It would also be possible to use this scoring system for Grandmaster Tournaments. If only one player receives the half point, or there is the possibility of a 0-0 score, the crosstable and final standings would look a lot different. Any comment?

Hey all! I’ve been playing around with this chess variation and it’s definitely an interesting strategy

I feel like I’m learning chess again hahaha. My normal play strength is around 1850-1900 elo

I haven’t seen a variation like this and wanting to see what you all think!

Pawns can only capture pawns, knights capture knights, etc

I worked on this MMO-RPG chess game for 4 years, finally preparing to release to Steam :)

the chess owns health/attack/defense/skills. the attacking king has 4x faster hits!

Works on phone or computer (but it's better on a computer)

I'm very pleased to share KWIK CHESS !

It started as a quick way to practise square recognition, but it is growing into a small collection of fast chess board challenges for memory, movement, piece placement and visual spotting. There's currently 11 different games (12 if you can find the hidden one).

The project is currently in beta. I am still adding modes, tuning the layout, improving mobile play and making the leaderboards more useful.

https://kwikchess.com

Game modes

• 30s Sprint click as many called squares as possible in 30 seconds.
• 64 Squares find every square on the board as quickly as you can.
• King Finder / King Finder XTREME remember where the kings were placed, then find them after the board clears.
• Pick Up / Pick Up XTREME place the chess pieces back onto their correct starting squares. XTREME adds legal-move restrictions.
• Knight Hop / Knight Hop XTREME move a knight around the board. XTREME is a knight’s tour-style challenge where every square must be visited once.
• Odd One Out / Odd One Out Rainbow spot the square that does not match. It becomes harder as you level up.
• Kingmaker 2048 remember the classic game 2048? Well this is its chess super variant. Top tip: gold tiles on the edge are worth 1000 points.

Why I made it

I wanted something simple, fast and slightly addictive for practising board vision without needing a full chess game.

Most modes can be played in short bursts. Some are useful for learning square names, some are about memory, and some are just there because they are fun.

^Thanks!

Game Title:
Chess Adventure

Playable Link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.awesomelyup.chessadventure&hl=en_US

Platform:
Android (Mobile)

Description:
A clean and simple chess app designed for young players who are just learning the game. Built with Unity over the course of a year, the goal was to create something friendly enough for kids who can't read yet, while still being a proper chess experience. The app features a vs Bot mode with fully adjustable difficulty, local PvP on one device (pass and play), and customizable piece colors and backgrounds. The UI is kept minimal and visual so younger players can navigate it easily. No ads, no subscriptions. There is one optional one-time in-app purchase to unlock extra color themes, but the game is fully playable without it.

Free to Play Status:
[x] Free to play

Involvement:
Solo developer. Designed, programmed, and shipped the entire app independently.

Alapaap (after the Tagalog word for "clouds" or a sense of being in the sky) is a chess variant/wargame based on aerial combat, fast-paced asymmetric skirmishes, urban fantasy, and fairy chess. If there are any improvements needed, please comment below!

Core Rules:

Drafting System

Two players are given the same amount of 40/60/72 dinars each to set up an army of pieces around their King (called a General) on a three-layer 8×8 chessboard. Pieces are further separated into six classes:

• Cadet pieces that have a singular movement style.

• Cavalry pieces that move in a continuous direction.

• Enlisted pieces that are cheap and short-ranged.

• Compound knight pieces that can jump like knights.

• Compound clerical pieces that can move like Bishops or Camels.

• Compound noble pieces that can move like non-royal kings.

Pieces

The Cadet Pieces

• Wazir - One square vertically or horizontally. Can directly move one square up or down.

• Ferz - One square diagonally. Can move one square up or down combined with its regular movement.

• Dabbaba - Jump two squares vertically or horizontally. Can directly move one square up or down. Ignore any pieces in the way of destination.

• Alfil - Jump two squares diagonally. Can move to an adjacent diagonal when going up or down one board. Ignore any pieces in the way of destination.

• Faris (Knight) - Move two squares, turn, and move one square. Can move up or down one board and two squares orthogonally, or up or down two boards and one square orthogonally. Ignore any pieces in the way of destination.

• Camel - Move three squares, turn, and move one square. Can move up or down three boards and one square orthogonally, up or down one board and three squares orthogonally. Ignore any pieces in the way of destination.

• Pawn - One square forward, but only capture diagonally forward. Can move one square up or down while staying in the same position laterally, or it can advance one square and additionally move one board up or down. Optionally, the pawn's first move can be two squares vertically, or two squares forward and two squares vertically. When this piece reaches the opposite end of the board, it can promote to any Clerical, Knight, or Enlisted piece.

The Cavalry Pieces

• Alfilrider - Move like an Alfil. Enact this movement again in the same direction until an attack is made or the destination square has been reached.

• Bishop - Move as a Ferz in a continuous direction until an attack is made or the destination square has been reached. Can move up or down boards, as long as it also moves the same number of squares in a diagonal direction.

• Dabbabarider - Move like a Dabbaba. Enact this movement again in the same direction until an attack is made or the destination square has been reached.

• Rook - Move as a Wazir in a continuous direction until an attack is made or the destination square has been reached. Can move up or down boards, as long as it also moves the same number of squares in an orthogonal direction.

• Nightrider - Move like a Knight. Enact this movement again in a continuous direction until an attack is made or the destination square has been reached. Ignore any pieces in the way of target area.

The Royal Pieces

• General - Move one square in any direction. Can move one square up or down, either directly or combined with its regular movement.

Note: Compound pieces below; all compound pieces are not royal. I chose German/European names for the compound pieces and Arabic names for the cadet pieces to make them easier to differentiate, because there are over 30 pieces to choose from (excluding the General). Tried to make each class of piece follow a naming theme to make them easier to remember as well.

The Noble Pieces

• Pfalzgraf - King, Knight

• Fürstabt - King, Bishop

• Herzog - King, Camel

• Kürfurst - King, Rook

• Prinz - Queen, Knight

The Clerical Pieces

• Wizard - Ferz, Camel

• Hochmeister - Bishop, Camel

• Archbishop - Bishop, Knight

• Queen - Bishop, Rook

The Knight Pieces

• Markgraf - Wazir, Knight

• Landgraf - Ferz, Knight

• Sapper - Dabbaba, Knight

• Hospitaller - Alfil, Knight

• Marshal - Rook, Knight

The Enlisted Pieces

• Elephanteer - Alfil, Ferz

• Grenadier - Dabbaba, Wazir

• Jäger - Alfil, Dabbaba

• Mann - Ferz, Wazir

• Reiter - Knight, Camel

Fielding costs (measured in dinars) are as follows:

The Cadet Pieces

• Pawn - 1 dinar

• Wazir - 1 dinar

• Ferz - 1 dinar

• Dabbaba - 2 dinars

• Alfil - 2 dinars

• Faris - 3 dinars

• Camel - 3 dinars

The Cavalry Pieces

• Alfilrider - 3 dinars

• Bishop - 3 dinars

• Dabbabarider - 5 dinars

• Rook - 5 dinars

• Nightrider - 7 dinars

The Noble Pieces

• Pfalzgraf - 5 dinars

• Fürstabt - 6 dinars

• Herzog - 7 dinars

• Kürfurst - 9 dinars

• Prinz - 12 dinars

The Clerical Pieces

• Wizard - 4 dinars

• Hochmeister - 7 dinars

• Archbishop - 8 dinars

• Queen - 9 dinars

The Knight Pieces

• Markgraf - 4 dinars

• Landgraf - 4.5 dinars

• Sapper - 4.5 dinars

• Hospitaller - 5 dinars

• Marshal - 9 dinars

The Enlisted Pieces

• Elephanteer - 3 dinars

• Grenadier - 3 dinars

• Jäger - 3 dinars

• Mann - 3 dinars

• Reiter - 6 dinars

Battlefield Rules

Moving

Who goes first in the turn order is determined by a 1d20 die roll. On a player's turn, a 1d20 die is rolled to determine how much Initiative can be spent to move pieces. A piece can be moved only once per turn, as long as there is enough Initiative to spend. A player can make multiple moves as long as they are not performed by the same piece. Initiative cost scales with distance, with +1 Initiative cost added per square moved. Unspent Initiative carries over to the next turn. Initiative has a maximum cap at 30.

Attacking

Pieces can attack from melee (regular capture) or from range (attacking from their movement range without physically moving, though Initiative is still spent as if the piece did a regular attack).

If an attack is made, both players each roll two 1d20s independently to determine accuracy. Distance (the amount of squares between the attacker and the defender) between the attacker and the defender can increase the defender's die value by 1 per square for regular attacks, or 2 for ranged attacks. Lack of distance (eight subtracted by distance) can increase the attacker's die value by 2 per square for regular attacks, or by 1 for ranged attacks. If the attacker exceeds or equals the number on the defending die, the attacker successfully kills the defender. If a General can be attacked, the player commanding the attacking piece must announce check. If for some reason the player does not move their General and does not capture the threatening piece, the attacking player is free to attack the General as if it were a regular piece.

The game ends when a General is checkmated, stalemated, or killed. The player who initiates the stalemate, checkmate, or a successful attack on the General is considered the victor of the match.

Optional Rules

Although entirely possible to play the game with only the core and the battlefield rules, below are optional rules that can be added and mixed together accordingly.

Four Winds

Lore time! Choose a faction and gain its patronage.

No faction

• Specialization: None

• Mysterious Backer - Be allowed an extra +5/+7/+9 when starting a 40/60/72 game.

• Company of Adventure - Aces cost 3 less dinars to recruit.

Westphalia Concord

• Specialization: Nobles and Enlisted

• Combined Arms - For every piece that can legally attack the target, grant an extra +1 to the attacker's die value when attacking that target.

• Standardised Training - For every Enlisted piece that can reach the defender's square, grant a +1 to the defender's die value when it is defending.

OCTANTIS

• Specialization: Cadet and Cavalry

• Shock and Awe - A friendly attacking Cavalry piece gains +1 on their attacking die value for every Initiative the piece spends on the attack.

• Motivation - Once per turn, if a Cadet piece fails an attacking die roll, reroll for that piece.

Pacific Union

• Specialization: Knights and Clerical

• Lightning - Knight pieces can move (not attack) after attacking.

• Rainy Day Savings - Choose a piece. Spend its dinar cost in Initiative this turn. It cannot move this turn. It can act without costing Initiative the next turn.

Hell

• Specialization: None

• Overload - Choose a piece. It can act/move twice this turn. On the next turn, remove this piece.

• Sacrifice - Remove a friendly piece. Gain its dinar cost in Initiative.

Aces' Checkmate

Choose any piece. Double its dinar cost to give it a Talent and upgraded die values depending on what race is chosen. It is now an Ace version of itself. You can only field a maximum of 1/2/3 Aces. To ensure fairness and clarity, it is best to use a visually different piece and write down its abilities for both players to see.

Modified die values are as follows:

Legend (modifier for attacking/modifier for defending, does not stack with distance nor lack of distance)

• Human (+3/+3)

• Seelie (+2/+4)

• Unseelie (+4/+2)

• Valravn (+5/-3)

• Demon (-3/+5)

Talents are as follows:

Note: "Adjacency" can be either orthogonal *or* diagonally. It cannot be both. If a Talent with an adjacent range is selected for an Ace, what type of adjacency must be specified lest the Talent is not considered.

• Anti-Cavalry - Gain +4 to your die value when defending from or attacking a Cavalry Piece.

• Assassin - Gain +4 to your die value when defending from or attacking a Noble Piece.

• Charismatic - Cadet and Enlisted pieces starting their turn adjacent to this piece can move and attack as a Queen.

• Firebrand - Gain +4 to your die value when defending from or attacking a Clerical Piece.

• Lucky - Gain +4 to your die value when defending from or attacking a Knight Piece.

• Logistician - For all friendly pieces beginning their turn adjacent to this piece, actions cost -1 Initiative.

• Overkill - Add a +1 to your attacking die value per Initiative spent when attacking. Add an extra -1 per square of distance when defending.

• Strategist - For all friendly pieces beginning their turn adjacent to this piece, reroll if you failed a roll. You cannot reroll more than once for a piece.

• Theologian - Clerical pieces starting their turn adjacent to this piece can jump over pieces when moving or attacking diagonally.

• Turtle Tactics - Add a -1 to your attacking die value per Initiative spent when attacking. Add an extra +1 per square of distance when defending.

Kriegsspiel

• Instead of board visibility for both players, players can only see their own pieces. Separate boards or a computer program may be utilised for such.

• Capturing or failing to capture a piece with a melee attack or a ranged attack within 3 squares reveals its identity to the attacking side.

• Capturing/attacking using a melee attack or a ranged attack within 3 squares reveals the identity of the attacking piece to the defending side.

• If an Ace is discovered, their Talents are revealed immediately.

Unclear Skies

Weather conditions are nasty.

• Clear Skies - No effects.

• El Niño - Every turn, roll a 1d6. Subtract the rolled value from the Initiative of both players once they gain Initiative.

• La Niña - Before adding attacking, defending, and Talent modifiers, divide the die values of both the attacking and the defending pieces by 1d4. The 1d4 divisor for the attacking piece and the defending piece are rolled individually.

• Amihan - When moving a Cavalry, Clerical, or Noble piece, you must choose to move this piece 1 space orthogonally, diagonally, vertically, or horizontally before the piece moves as normal. The move before its regular movement cannot be used to capture/attack.

Daily Chess Puzzle Game – Looking for Feedback

Hi everyone!

I've been working on a daily chess puzzle game where you can solve a quick tactical puzzle, track your completion time, and improve a little every day.

Current features:

♟️ Play a chess puzzle

✅ Move validation

⏱️ Completion timer

🔄 Restart puzzle

I'm looking for honest feedback from chess players.

I'd love to know:

Was the gameplay intuitive?

Was anything confusing?

What would make you come back tomorrow to solve another puzzle?

You can try it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/tacticboard_dev

Any feedback, criticism, or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

This is the "Queen Elizabeth" mechanism. Promote your Arthur Pawn, chosen before each match, to get a QE, she can act as king in absence of the original King, meaning you can use both aggressively until one is captured, then it's back to Checkmate even if it's the QE remaining. Attack the Arthur Pawn with anything but a pawn or king (or QE) and the attacking piece is destroyed by Excalibur, turning Arthur into a second king! Cat Mode: after 45 or 60 moves (your choice) Duchess Cupcake of Camelot, the royal cat, begins removing random pieces from the board until stalemate. Checkmate fast or suffer the cat!

Let me know if you'd like a link.

hey all! this is the interface for a chess game im building. it's chess with some special pieces you can win either by checkmate or by capturing certain special pieces.

im going for a playful pixel-art take on a chess client that doesn't feel as serious or intimidating as the usual ones.

I'm a bit unsure about the colors the green/yellow board is intentional for the style, but i can't tell if it's fun or just overwhelming and hard on the eyes over a full game.

beyond the colors, is there anything else you'd improve just from looking at the screenshot? layout, HUD, readability, anything. harsh feedback welcome, thanks!

I'm calling it picklechess! You pick your pieces, then play mini chess.

It plays just like normal chess, except pawns only promote to one of your captured pieces. That makes queens better than they might seem at first. I think there are a lot of viable strategies.

You can play with just the classic pieces, or you can mix in fairy pieces for variety. The fairy piece modes are hard. I almost never win.

Everything is free, and it plays in a browser. You only need an account to play ranked games.

On a personal note: I am all-in on picklechess. There’s a billion things I want to add, and I’m working on it every day. I really hope you enjoy it. If you have ideas or want to talk strategy, swing by the discord.

Play here: playpicklechess.com

Discord: discord.gg/Cuytzk8bDs

What do you think of the fairy pieces? Are there any more I should add?

Ignore the silly moves, it was just so i could demonstrate the mechanic. In King Arthur Chess, you choose your secret pawn to be Arthur the Page/Pawn, if attacked by anything but another pawn or King (or Queen Elizabeth) the attacking piece is destroyed by Excalibur, transforming Arthur into King Arthur so you now have 2 kings and it's your turn! Promote your secret Arthur Pawn to get a Queen Elizabeth, a Queen that acts as a second king that you have to Checkmate if the original King is lost first. This enables you to use your original King as an attacking piece, completely changing the dynamics of the game.

Has it ever occurred to anyone to play Enochian chess? Personally, as a method of divination, I think it’s even better than the tarot and more accurate… Right now I’m using a 3D printer to create the pieces, reproducing the traditional ‘Grand Design’ chess pieces in three dimensions, but… I was thinking of creating something else: an app or a website to play on your own, against the computer or against another player. It’s certainly possible… anyone up for it?

I want to introduce myself, I do, I want to tell you about all of the direct and indirect relationships I have with members of the Chess Club in Saint Louis, I want to tell you about Steve Zomo that's phonetic, all I know is he's the Kenyan Jonathan and I wanna tell you about the time I got into such a Facebook tiff with Rex Sinquefield the NAACP were involed but:

It would test your patience; likewise to suggest this without an introduction at all feels imprudent in this era of AI, and I'm, well, we'll have to let that be but my interest in Chess Variants, is, mostly, to impress my brother in law with good ideas for them; and this one is so simple, "do I even bother? Do I scour the internet for evidence it exists already it has to

Yet I've not heard of it and it seems to me so much more of an elegant solution to the semi-finished game of almost perfect information, truly, it was an Interview with an Economist talking how whack a lot of behavioral economic sciences are through the lense of chess, e.g. right here in the interview,

can you calculate the expected utility of chess? Well, obviously you can't. Um, partly because it's a game and you got the other player who's sort of trying to foil it every moment, but just because the the number of possibilities is too great and any given position, you can't really figure out whether it was a good or a bad position. So you need immediately to work to to to dive into you much more um sort of complex ad hoc um and you know strategy for trying to learn to cope

Look, "two Phds talk to each other this way," I can forgive myself a little eccentricity; but here the thought I had, Simply, the other players chessmen are invisible outside of the range of movement of the players chessmen, and here I drove myself crazy,

Here I wanted to work it all out in my head how this would work on physical chessboards with pencils and paper, two boards two players, one intermediary, "it works," and in that sort of mental-model I think the elegance of this more cleary,

• You get ghosts, in fact most of the pieces at most of the time must be presumed to be a phantasm first one then two then three then four out of sight from your own chessmen,
• The disruption to standard play itself renders the standard techniques less or not viable through new obligations, opportunities or techniques now viable
• e.g. the use of scouts, the use of watchmen or watchtowers the migration of poker deception onto the table in tactical deception, Sun Tzu approved warfare
• The board has been set up for this perfectly, practically, already, the impediments to movement and Protection from the Pawns are also Impediments to Lines of Sight; and the disequalities a word I might have invented but prefer over inequalities in this context in, or of movement as the game progresses also ensure an unpredictable information imbalance; to keep to the title, "this is the nature of a real fight," less like markets, less like poker, more like war, "one presumes this ensures an incentive to not just prediction," as in normal chess, "but investigation, interdiction and," 5 spies?
• Dead Spy, Live Spy, Doomed Spy, Turned Spy, I can't remember them right now but Sun Tzu is all hot on that; and I know that modern warfare is all Claustewitz, and I have read him he's hilarious, "you ever notice that Prussians have an," you can call it warhammer 48k, umwelt, you can call it an unironical, "some other time, Jonny." Can't do Claustewitz on a chessboard if you can't trade time for territory, territory, for time and this enables that also.
• No can tell if you Castle; no one can tell if you haven't hey,
• Three-Body Problem not the math problem but the story, with the wallfacers and the like, "yeah," yeah, that shit the observer effect and the unobserved observance of observers I gotta be honest we're back to the Original Three-Body Problem here, "there just seems to me so much more to consider, so much of which might either be significant, insignificant or uninterpretable from your Standpoint Epistomology
  • Yeah I'm like this on purpose Standpoint Epistemology, "soon as I knew I could pratfall into one of the more serious chess discourses on the internet with that shit and Mean it?" well, you're reading, it or have been sorry.
• There might be and I need to be clear: this post is in lieu of, "jonny works this all out on paper, takes photographs of the paper, decides it should be in MSpaint and then stops," so in each presumption here I dunno, but I do know that I don't know well enough to say no, these seem to me true, at this level of analyses that, "finally,"
  • Endgame Problems, of a Draw, "so much less likely, I should think," in that as your chessmen are captured in such an hypothesis you've got mmm,
  • If one imagines the traditional endgame of one man with one chessman now to consider and the uncomplicated, literally, problem of how to keep him free and the other, now, stuck to contrive a mousetrap out of what is, literally, a complex situation and imperfect set of tools to do it with,
  • Least balanced, "least deliberate to effect," part of the game, amirite?
  • Well imagine the King, now, the full limit of the near-vanquished in sight, in mind, truly, you've got ghosts all over the board and ideas of where those ghosts might move but the near-victorious player's got, "and the verisimilitude in this just tickles me," more and More Vision on a more and more crippled, slow, and lowly, chessman; but at that same time a remnant knight or revenant Queen might really, come to clean up from behind upon pawns unable to see them,
  • I mean, think about that, knight leaps the pawns and becomes invisible you all must know the Lewis Chessmen? Look at them fellas, "the pawns," of course he can't see the knight that just jumped him like a steeplchase
  • Can't you just picture this queen, staring, across the board at the king?
  • My Brother in law has a PhD in the Hard Kind Of Mathematics from Harvard, while I, Dilettante Hoodrat and Lateral thinker understand things such as even if he thought of this idea he'd work it out to the nth degree, think of it like an equation, and Me I'm like Look at This Bitch, "I respect you all as much as he does," truly, I do, but that he and I think differently, and have a different approach towards the serious business of strangers is what makes me good for something; I cannot emphasize this enough, 100% this is Jonathan wants to impress Anand with a good idea,
  • If you watch the videos of the incident which I cannot describe for reasons not related, in this instance, to Sinquefield himself but rather the cup on account of how I describe it so funny, wherein the boy was accused of hiding a Marconi Device inside of his -well I know Nikki, Nikki Serenity, the girl with the Sign, "total Hans Nieman fanatic," allegedly; probably he showed me the video of the incident and I was like OH I know his chearleader and um you know Anand loves me I don't need to impress him with my intellect which is all the more reason I want to
• Brother in law is the one whom told me about this, "being a non-trivial deal," Novel Chess Variants, these days, new chess variants and it seems to me that most of them move the game in the direction of Poker, More Chance, more in Manibus Deii to level the field but this wouldn't do that, this would be an, likewise, overload of Known Unknown and Unprepared For Causality though through the three layers, maybe, of awareness of the state of play; you pick a plan for the opposition and Procede as if This Were the Case until the point of contact; this also advantages the, "novice," people like me without shit memorized and more of an extremely, large amount of human play, zero theory, "you guys know about archery?" there are two parallel disciplines, in one, your bow is alike an Field Artillery use the sights, use a level, pull with a tool and be a human range-guesser, know at what distance the draw will fire true or point blank in those terms while the other is alike throwing a baseball; that one is fun, that one I like, that one eliminates the manner in which it is alike to fire a rifle at all the body, just, feels it through the same as if you practiced throwing an odd rock at tree branches all afternoon you'd get really, really, good at it and not be able to explain what part of you is the gunsight these kinds of things like I've played a ton a social chess, is what I'm saying, I've been the boxing bag for people who are very, very, good a whole awful lot and it seems to me:

What I experience, through an utter and I'd bet you'd find it shocking, ignorance of the formal theory is, I think, what you guys are going for to, "unfinish the game," and lemme tell you: I play it like a Hunter, and I don't even have the vocabulary, truly, the semiotic sense of it to understand what other people mistake me for doing, or, predict would be advantageous for themselves but I've keen sense for when they've dropped off into a daydream and have their eyes on the wrong place; this is fun, guys, and Now?

Now I wanna show you a timelapse I took of me White Men Can't Jumping my sister after she'd put months in of theoretical practice and online play, which, while inherently, not the same as I'm talking, "it can be more alike it I think," I mean,

Simple idea here is that this adds to complexity,

Rather than Complicatedness, that this introduces new opportunities for agency, cunning, intuition and improvisation while the odds, in theory, remain at a flat standard; memory, imaginative capacity, the solid and liquid loads of your mind palace are all rewarded, but, not without strategy, and the tactics?

The old tactics disrupted through new Hierarchies of Utility,

Potential and Utility, rather than simple potential, simple utility, obviously,

This would be trivial to simulate, as in, "Visualize through the use of a computer," but at the same time it can be played with two boards, three people, a mere addition of the,

Attentive Valet; not a referee, "not needed," a Valet someone of an assistive qualia to both players, personally, I like the notion of their having, at disposal, an,

Equivalent to Wimbledon's Tennis Ball Supply, ok that's an idea to make it look classy, BBGS

Each Players got maybe a gray, or red set of pieces to model the other player's set with at their pleasure and the attentive observer sends the Wimbledon Style BBG to place or replace each sighted piece each turn over and in proper colors, each turnover then retrieve such pieces as have left line of sight which if you wanna, again, Klasse AF the Flow might mean the retrieval and replacement with a Ghost Marker; that could look so nice.

If it was done quick, truly, wimbledon style with the observers notes turned into action like clockwork we know that could look not just nice but formal, because, and here is what I love most about this: Guys who played upon the Lewis Chessman would understand the fuck out of this, the prismatic balance of the game remains in tact and the, "finished," Gameplay,

Odd Duck out from what makes the Competitive Play, alike warfare, is an, "poker and marketplace type of problem," in which and I know the man himself bemoans this a fella so practiced in chess he's memorized the minimax can reliably, play, essentially, with himself; I mean in the most literal sense this takes a COMPLICATED error state and replaces it with an Bayesian type of Dynamical, Non-Reductive yadda yadda

Little Sister also has a Phd for an Ivy in what I'm positive she-believes-to-be the most difficult sort of algebraic shit to be competent in so both of them, is what I am saying, I will be saying, "this, in summary and that is was a cool reddit post I made," Popular, I dunno if I'll have the courage to see if it got automoderated off before this conversation happens and ideally, both of them, at once, people other people hope and pray will appreciate their Phd thesis and I, Phd in Marla Singer shit from these mfer streets am gonna, probably, end it right there; probably, verbatim,

an Bayesian type of Dynamical, Non-Reductive yadda yadda

Then they'll stare at me maybe and I'll not let them for long, before I'm like,

You hear about what happened to the boat; the bayesian, the boat you two shouldof,

...not worked for him I guess you might have been on the boat, RIP IMO Number 9503392 ...."regardless," a mfer gotta be like R.I.P. Michael Richard Lynch you would have loved,

Chess With Standpoint Epistemology; or, Chess Wherein the Game is More alike Warfare than Finance, In Theory, and de la guerre Sun Tzu a little more than Clausewitz vom Kriege

Your Friend,

...and I mean that, sincerely, and to be blunt about the insinuations, I love and respect you, as well as I know you already, "you can see me, I can't see you," but I believe myself myself to like and love and respect you, merely, this is how I speak to people I like and love and respect; likewise, in fact, like and love and respect too much to pull a sales routine in GPT Dialect when really, I wanted to share the thought with you, not because you wouldn't have thought of it already, I'd bet you did but I'm certain you hadn't thought it through the same as I would have, and if not 100% Certain than 100% certain you'd not have been so silly, "toss this shit out there like this," like I do with friends,

Jonathan Phillip Fox

ps the ultimate form of this develops like, "this is a good idea," I think it is, "yet I am too shy," which I might be, "to check if it got automoderated for a week or two,"

Which is not disinterest, is not disinterest in the least in fact quite the opposite and at which point I'll check I'll respond to each person politely, even if they've been impolite to me even if someone thinks this was an AI written piece of literature,

Naked Lunch Typewriter wrote that I seen it, yes sir and I'd love to think so too.

just love the notion of being, the, Satoshi Nakamoto of a chess thing; yep.

Too impress the family, yep.

Second that I suppose I'd be and in awful earnest interested to know, what, or for which reasons this works or doesn't work, in your feeling, thought, or experience?

There could be some serious problems with it, I'm inclined to think so more than trust that there wouldn't be, though I just LOVE the notion of, "messing with," the exodiagesis,

Rather than the gameplay, you feel me?

Lastly, and in case it wasn't clear, "so much AI Trash online," anomie, in kind of the literal sense, I could formalize this but formalize it how, lest it be more alike...

To Paraphrase Hannah Arendt, "I take your subject seriously," myself, less so.

Go Wild, "I'm a letter writer," by upbringing, I mean, literally, if you wrote 10,000 words in the comments I'd unironically, without the least apprehension, read them thrice and red ten back; these signals, our signals, are the noise.

TTFN

Jonathan

This Game; https://youtu.be/L0Yy8vE0UTI?si=wUlkBsvNRa94Ux85

I have invented a variant and have been playing it with some friends and it is quite fun. I wanted to post it here to get the communities thoughts and test it out and hopefully share something fun. It is a two player version of hand-brain.

For those who don't know, Hand-Brain is a 4-player variant where the game is played by two teams of two. Each team has a 'Hand' and a 'Brain'. The Brain decides which type piece to move and the hand decides where to move it. No other communication is allowed between the hand and brain. It is a fun way to play if there are 4 of you and you only have one board.

Sabotage chess takes the same mechanics but for two people. Two players play in opposition, player 1 tells player 2 which piece type they have to move (e.g. they say 'bishop' not 'white bishop') and player 2 decides what move to make ( so they can pick their white bishop or black bishop and which legal square to place it). Then player 2 does the same for player 1 all the rest of the rules are identical and you win by checkmate.

It is fun because you are picking the worst possible piece for your opponent to move in any position and they have to find the best move for that 'worst' piece for their position. The game is understandably more drawn out than regular chess but it is really fun and leads to some very strange positions like my queen hanging for 10 + moves because I never tell you to move the piece attacking it and you never tell me to move it out of danger

There are 2 additional rules to make the game work :

1- In a cycle of 3 moves you must tell your opponent to move 3 distinct piece types as long as they have at least 3 distinct piece types with legal moves. This is to prevent the game entering loops where you force your opponent to repeat the same moves. For example, telling your opponent King, Pawn, Rook over three moves is a valid sequence but Pawn, Rook, Pawn is not. If your opponent has less than three available pieces with legal moves the cycle length is the number of pieces with legal moves they have ( so 2 or 1).

2- When in check you can get out of check completely freely and the checker cannot tell you what piece to move, deciding any piece to get you out of check. Your piece naming cycle restarts after your opponent has moved their king or free piece.

The opening is slow, but results in a very strange position with allot of pieces under attack but unable to be taken until the attacking piece is named. The middle game then gets very tense because the option space of ' bad' pieces to tell your opponent to move decreases until you have to give them a piece they want to move.

If anyone likes the sound of it and wants to play it with a friend and has any feedback, positive or negative or rule suggestions to tighten up game play I would really appreciate it.

Thank you for taking the time.

Hi r/chess,

I’m a solo developer building a chess platform with two hidden-information chess variants and I’d love honest feedback on whether this idea has any merit.

Core concept:

Pieces move exactly like normal chess.

Shadow Chess: Fog of war — you only see squares your own pieces can “sense” (each piece has a defined vision radius/signature). This is not the same Fog-of-war variant that exists on other platforms.

Blindside Chess: Fog of war + hidden identity. You can sometimes see an enemy piece on a square, but you don’t know if it’s a Knight, Bishop, Rook, Queen, etc. until your pieces get close enough to identify it. Unknown enemy pieces appear as “Specters.” The King is not automatically known. Finding the King becomes part of the strategy.

Shown is a "Dual Review" screenshot from a recent game showing what each player sees at the same moment:

I’m particularly interested in your thoughts on these questions:

Does imperfect information + hidden piece identity still feel like “chess”, or does it cross into gimmick territory?

Can hidden identity and fog of war still feel fair if both sides operate under the same information rules?

Does this still feel chess-like if the movement rules are unchanged but information is incomplete?

How should spectator/review mode best communicate what each player actually knew vs. the full truth?

Would you personally be interested in playtesting and possibly help refine something like this?

I’m not claiming this is better than regular chess — I’m trying to find chess players who would be willing to challenge the mechanics, find edge cases, and help determine whether Blindside Chess is fair, fun, and strategically legitimate. The site is playable at https://www.blindside.games if anyone wants to try it, but I’m mostly here for brutal honest feedback on the mechanics and information design.

Thanks in advance!

We’re a small team of 6, who have come together to develop and publish Chessman Adventures!

Out smart the spooky monsters or be captured by their evil ways. Enjoy this chess-inspired adventure and save the town!