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The Chess Tourney thread got me thinking about variations on chess people have played. Either odd rules, multiple boards, whatever, that are fun to play.

One of the best was one from my high school days called "Doubles". You need 2 boards and 4 players - 2 teams of team - one black, one white. The object is the standard checkmate, but

1) When you take an opponent's piece, it is given to your teammate
2) Your teammate can put captured pieces anywhere on the board except that pawns can't be placed on the last row (so you have to promote your pieces the hard way)
3) It is blitz chess - 5 seconds or less per move
4) Friendly insults are mandatory.
5) If you tell your teammate "anything for a knight", don't bitch if they give up a queen for it.

Any other fun variations out in the SD world?

"Bachelor"

Queens are removed from the board before play. The Black King is put in the position the Black Queen would have been in. Kings move as if they were Queens, but are subject to normal rules regarding check. Pawns may be promoted to Queens as per normal.

Jalinth wrote:The Chess Tourney thread got me thinking about variations on chess people have played. Either odd rules, multiple boards, whatever, that are fun to play.

One of the best was one from my high school days called "Doubles". You need 2 boards and 4 players - 2 teams of team - one black, one white. The object is the standard checkmate, but

1) When you take an opponent's piece, it is given to your teammate
2) Your teammate can put captured pieces anywhere on the board except that pawns can't be placed on the last row (so you have to promote your pieces the hard way)
3) It is blitz chess - 5 seconds or less per move
4) Friendly insults are mandatory.
5) If you tell your teammate "anything for a knight", don't bitch if they give up a queen for it.

Any other fun variations out in the SD world?

My friends and I played this in high school. Though there it was called bughouse.

Loser Chess
The object of the game is to get the opponent to put your king in check or to take all your pieces.
1)If you can take a piece, you have to,
2)If you can take two pieces, you choose which one you take
3) winner is the one without any pieces left or who get's his king in checkmate

Kriegspiel: Credit Captain Lennox for telling me about this one. This is also known as 'blindfold chess': You can see your own pieces, but not your opponent's. You need a 3rd person - a moderator - who has access to the entire board, to declare each move 'legal' or 'illegal', and answer questions about possible pawn captures. Very interesting little modification, if you ask me.

Arimaa: Now this one is interesting. I can't even begin to explain how to play this without blatantly quoting wikipedia, so here's the link to the article. Fun fact: Computers suck at Arimaa.

Oh, and for more chess variants than you'll ever need, here's the Wiki article.