Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Douglas, that's a problem that can't be solved easily.  The best answer I
can give is simply to enjoy each game for what you get from it, and know
that those who rely on a computer to win are cheating themselves.

Also, playing variants helps (yes, I know that you're still new to regular
chess), because many of the programs available are a lot weaker.

Next, don't always trust everything you hear over IM--I've seen my share
of false accusations in my time.

Finally, over time you can find opponents you can trust.

Good luck to you!

Glenn Overby
CVP Competitions Editor

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Regards

Nigel Phillips

This is for Douglas.
How to tell when a computer is being used:
Average, weak, or new players to the game should not be making great
moves.
I have seen it also.  Several Yahoo! and POGO players, probably mostly
kids admitted they were using a computer against me.  I know of two games
I lost to computers.
I also know of several others where I beat the computers.

It is against USCF Postal or email rules to use a computer during a game.
It is also against FICS.  EWCCF,and CCLA rules to use a computer.

To play a game when neither player can use any help go to FICS.   A free
site.

EWCCF:  I do not know how the games work but I think it is similar to
FICS.
(I am a tournament director for  EWCCF).  But I do not play with EWCCF.

USCF and CCLA use email to play games.

It is not against USCF rules to use a book for a postal, email game.
Normally a book is for the opening moves.   Chessbase.de has an online
Opening book also.
Or rather games.   I do know of players using a database program for
Opening help also.
I do also.
But Midgame and endgame I depend solely on my learning and training.
Remember that most of these games mean nothing.   I did not play chess in
nearly 30 years and wanted to get back into 'shape.'
Playing with a computer would have set me back.   The reason, the computer
would have been doing the thinking for me.
All those players using a computer to play their games are cheating
themselves.   They will never learn how to play good chess.

I have been imagining possible original Chess,
programmes of which are listed in the home page:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Denei/2251/
Please, visit the home page.

A good way to assure e-mail games are played without the aid of a computer
is for each player to create a text file where they will put down the
reasoning behind each move.  Each turn this file is placed in a
password-protected/encrypted ZIP file and sent with the move.  (The name
of the ZIP file can actually be the move.)  At the end of the game, the
player sends the passwords to open these ZIP files.

This is also helpful with creating commentary for the recorded game.

I don't believe it would work, even if the player on the other side isn't
using a computer, what's to say he/she isn't getting advice from other
people?  If they were doing that, it would be easy to put commentary in on
how and why a move is a good one.

I wouldn't agree to such a game, for the reasons that John Lawson and
Michael Howe wrote below.  A game is just that, a game.  It's meant to be
fun, not to be a chore.

And would anyone really want to give their opponent an opportunity to view
the thinking behind each move?  You cannot be 100% certain that your
encrypted ZIP file is unbreakable.  If you're concerned that your
opponent is using a computer, would you not also worry they could crack
your password/encryption?

Encryption is plenty strong enough to keep the move-explanation secure --
after all, we even use it to send credit card numbers over the internet,
and there are more people willing to spend more time to get credit card
numbers than there are people who want to find out why you made a certain
move in a game. The objection you and other players have to recording
their reasoning is more potent. Personally I'd be glad to write
explanations of my moves, even for the sake of making sure I remember why
I made them when I return to an e-mail game, sometimes several days later;
and I often wish the great players in tournaments would make such notes
and share them after the game is finished.

But it still wouldn't prevent cheating: I've seen programs that will
provide reasoning behind the moves they make. It would be very good for
new and exotic games to have some system that would prevent this kind of
cheating, because it would make it possible to hold a 'high-stakes'
tournament with a cash prize (maybe $100) and attract larger numbers of
serious players, and so getting more games that worthy of serious study.
But tournaments with prizes would also encourage cheaters to Zillionize
the game in hope of winning through brute-force computation rather than by
gaining a real understanding of how the game should be played.

So I applaud the effort to find such a cheat-proof e-play system, but I
don't see much hope for it myself.

'Encryption is plenty strong enough to keep the move-explanation secure --
after all, we even use it to send credit card numbers over the internet'

Actually, the encryption for .zip files is terrible and can be broken. 
You'd have to use a better program to encrypt and then zip the result, or
some such.

Right, I'm not talking about simply ZIPping the files and sending them,
which I wouldn't call encryption at all. I mean using the kind of tools
they have on secure servers, which I believe use RSA encryption. I've
never needed to get software to do this on my own, but I've heard
there's a tool called PGP (for Pretty Good Privacy) that does RSA for
you.

RSA is the algorithm based on Fermat's Little Theorem, and on the
difficulty of factoring huge numbers that are products of two huge primes.
It was written up in a Scientific American column in the 1970's, and the
Dept. of Defense got all bothered and tried to suppress it on the grounds
that it described for a mass audience an encryption technique that would
be impossible for their biggest brains to crack. If RSA were not secure,
there would be profound implications to the security of online purchasing.
If any mathematician found a way to break it, he would make a name for
himself by publishing it. No one has.

OK, These pages are great.

I want to ask a question. Some time ago I read a variant on these pages.
It had pieces that were geometrical figures, and the board was a sort of
interweaving stripes and there was a prison, or something like that. I
don't remember it too well. The fact is that I wanted to look at that
variant again, but since I don't remember its name I can't find it
anymore. Does anyone remember what I'm talking about?

Game with 'interweaving stripes' about a year ago is Weave and Dungeon.
GW Duke

Hi.

In Robert Jordan's 'Wheel of Time' series, there is mention of a
chess-like game called 'Sha'rah.' A cursory web search reveals no
attempt at devising rules for the game.

The info I have is from the series' ninth book 'Path of Daggers,' in
which a villain contemplates a Sha'rah board and pieces as an allegory
for the world situation.

The scene gives us the following game details:

1) The board is 13x13
2) 33 red, 33 green and 1 black-and-white shared piece - the 'Fisher'.
3) The game is complex.
4) The board is checkered black and white, but a green and red checkered
'goal row' surrounds the playing area.
5) Only the black-and-white 'Fisher' piece can move onto the goal row.
6) The 'Fisher' starts on the central square of the board.
7) Any piece can threaten the goal row, however.
8) Players attempt to capture the Fisher.
9) Capture of the Fisher makes it 'yours' to move until it is captured
by the enemy.
10) Three ways to win:
     1) Move the Fisher onto a square of your color on your opponent's
end of the board.
     2) Force your opponent to move the Fisher onto any 'goal row'
square of your color.
     3) (of the third object) '...victory coming only with complete
annihilation of your enemy.'
11) Several pieces have 'varying moves.'
12) The Fisher's attributes alter according to the color square it stands
on: 
     1) On a white square, 'weak in attack yet agile and far-ranging in
escape.'
     2) On a black square, 'strong in attack yet slow and vulnerable.'
13) The Fisher is always rendered as a 'man, a bandage blinding his eyes
and one hand pressed to his side, a few drops of blood dripping through
his fingers.'

That's all the information I can glean from the book's prologue. Perhaps
there is more rule-revealing info later in the book or in subsequent
books...I haven't gotten there yet. But from the rules already presented,
it seems like it could make for a fascinating game.

-Roger

That game looks interesting. Rules question I can get: Can red (resp
green)
move a fisher onto a red (resp green) square anywhere else than in the
opponent's home row? What would the fisher's abilities be there?

I hope you find more info!

If anyone is interested,I posted my chess variant board on Ebay at
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3162007978&category=2554


take a look sometime!

Excellent site with one exception!
I miss the ability to search for variants using parts of terms.
Ex: I'm looking for the 'Crazyhouse' variant but I'm only knowing that
the variant contains the term 'house'. Actually I can not search that
way.
It would be nice to have a search function included which can search for
variant names or parts of these or to search contents of this site.

Go to the Main Index File page and try a Google search of the site.

http://www.chessvariants.com/Gindex.html

I posted my new variant at:

www.chezzle.com

CHEZZLE - Board Game
'Chess played with puzzle pieces'

This is a great website!

I was googling about for my name and ran into
http://bovis.gyuvet.ch/2res/ches91va.htm, which seems to be a partial
mirror of the alphabetic index in Russian. Nothing major, but an
interesting curiousity.

Great web site! You might be interest to know that today, March 4, 2004,
Emma Young, writer for the Guardian, offers an interesting article about
research in military theory using *chess variants*:

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1161128,00.html

Here's some quotes: 

'But neither group is studying standard games. By modifying key
variables, such as the number of moves allowed each turn, or whether one
player can see all of the other's pieces, they are investigating the
relative importance of a host of factors that translate to the
battlefield, such as numerical superiority, a quick advance and the use
of
stealth.'  ***

'These games, and other variations on regular play, led the team to a
clear conclusion: being stronger and having more 'battlespace
information' than your opponent are both less valuable when there is
little information available overall to both sides - but the advantage of
a fast pace remains.'

For three-player variant 'Jester´s Game', see http://jestersgame.com

Just for Your information: Russian weekly magazin 'Computerra' published
write-up about this site ( http://www.computerra.ru/xterra/33571/ , in
Russian). 
They describe this site as excellent, and now I see, that this is true :-)

Dear Bewitcheds,

I appologize for confusing the rules of Shatranj.

The following game was corrected.
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Denei/2251/

May the confusion subside.

Truely Yours,
John Kenichi Seino from Japan.

This page is listed as 8x8 board with 64 squares. But this is just the
index page, it isn't the rules of an actual game. It should be listed as
0x0 board with 0 squares.

8x8x8 Interactive 3D Board.

Check it out. DOWNLOAD it for FREE. 

http://thehinge.net/3dchess

...and the idea behind this variant is spelled out

http://thehinge.net/newport/chess.htm

any questions or ideas can be sent to 

[email protected]

Is that your site?  If so, could you get Near Chess up and running on it?
http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSnearchess

All you need to do is remove some chess rules (see page) and also add one for piece recycling for promotion.

I like your site. I'm interested in chess variants. Thank you for it!
And... Can you write about this variant (i inveted it in childhood),
please?
It's name is 'Catch a soldier'. I played it long time ago and don't
remember rules exactly, but i remember it's main idea, and it's more
important.
This game is played on 8X8 board (like classic chess), each pllayer have 7
normal solduers and 1 main soldier (i used tin soldiers as white and men
from contructon set as black, but actually where can be used 7 pawns and
king per side). White begins on 1st row (main soldier on A1), black begins
on 8th row (main soldier on H8).I don't remember, how to move them,
probably one square ortogonally or one square in any direction (like king
in classic chess). Main soldiers moves in same way as normal soldiers. They
captures as in chess - by replacement, but only normal soldiers, you can't
capture the main soldier in this way. Before begin playing, each player
must decide, how his opponent must capture the main soldier (where are many
different ways: chekmate him, bring your own main soldier to beggining
squre of another main soldier, make straight vertical line of three normal
soldiers, - it's depend only on player's fantasy). You must not tell it
to your opponent. When try to capture all opponent's normal soldier, when
opponent must tell you, how to catch his main soldier. When try to capture
him. If opponent will catch all your normal soldiers, when main soldiers
have to catch each over. If it will be impossible to catch one of main
soldiers beckause of not enough number of normal soldiers, it's draw. And
another very important thing: if conditions of catching the main soldiers
will be fulfiled even before catching normal soldiers, it must be declared,
and game will be over.
One new rule, i added them only several days ago: you can't invent way ti
capture your main soldier, wich will require more than 3 normal soldiers.
Can you try to play this game? Did you like it?

Vitya Makov, ïðèâåò! À êàê òû äîãàäàëñÿ? Âèäåë ìîé êîììåíòàðèé ê ñòàòüå ïðî
ôåðçÿ (êîòîðûé õîäèò íà îäíó êëåòêó ïî äèàãîíàëè)? Èëè êàê?

Another game, i invented it yesterday, it's more serious (i don't know,
if there are similar game, but, i hope, you will like it anyway). I called
it 'Win the batle - lose the war'.
Starting setup is same as in FIDE chess. But starting board is only
'map', not batlefield, and pieces are not single units, but groups. If
group will occupy field with enemy group, enemy will not be taken from
boaed, when will began batlle on another board. Each batlefield is 4X6
board. Attacker's pawns begins on 2nd row, attacker's pieces on 1st,
defender's pawns on 5th and his pieces on 6th. On battlefield each player
have 4 pawns, 1 rook, 1 knight, 1 bishop and 1 leader. Leader is always
piece what was moving on MAP. On batlefield leader is royal piece, he must
be checkmated, so opponent will win batle. Attacker always begin batlr,
it's not depended on colour. If attackers will win batle, defender's
piece is removed from board and attacker will occupy defender squre. If
defender will win battle, attacker's leader is removed from board, but
defender don't move. Minor pieces, what was lost in batle, don't return
to next batle, but they will immeditaly return if leader will return to his
colour's first row on MAP. Pawns, promoted in batle, don't become pawns
again in next batle, but they starts from 2nd and 5th row anyway. If leader
pawn is promoted on batlefield, he don,t become the same piece on map, but
if promoted on MAP, he becomes the same piece on batlefields, not depending
on what piece he promoted before. Pawns batlefield hasn't initial duble
step, but they have it on MAP. En-passant and castling (ONLY on map) is as
in classic chess. Goal is to win batle with enemy's king. There is no
check, checkmate and stalemate on MAP. If there are draw in BATLEFIELD,
both leaders are removed from map (if one of leaders is king, it mean,  he
loses, but if they both are kings, it's draw of entire game). Starting
position of pieces on BATLEFIELD is chosen by pieces owner. Ah, i forget
the main detail: changing beetwen batle and war! There are to tipes of
them: 1st: batle must be finished, onnly when it's possible to continue
war, but it will be long game. 2nd (faster and more realistic): in 1 turn
player can move pieces in map and in all betles (there are possible several
batles at same time). Player can refuse of moving piece as in war, as in
any batle, but he MUST move piece at least in war or at least in 1 batle.
Have you questions?

I read rules of shantraj, there was writen what elephant moves two squares
diagonal and jumps over pieces of either colour... But before i read in
Wikipedia what in shantraj it also capture enemy pieces on square, wich is
jumped (thus, it can capture 2 pieces in 1 turn). What is true? Or it are
different variants of shantraj?
Andanother question: on another site of chess variants i read about ancient
chinese game 'Semedo', ancestor of Xian-qi.  There was writen what this
game was described in medieval book on latin, very indefinitely (for
example, 'King don't attack' - does it mean what it don't move at all
or what?). Can it really be true what exact rules of this game are
currently unknown?

Yes, it's not writen in english Wikipedia, but in russian Wikipedia...
By the way, if alfil don't capture pieces on leaped square, so only
difference between Shantraj and Chaturanga for 2 players is what rook can
move unlimited number of squares and there is no rule of four alfils in
center of board?

http://homepages.ed.ac.uk/rjhare/shogi/chu-shogi/intro.htm
This page is not found.

I inventend this variant when read about american chess: there are very
interesting piece - missle! And it's sad  what it's not used in any game,
expect american chess self...
Each player starts with same pieces on board as in FIDE chess (but not in
same position) and with 2 missles in reserve. I made another positions to
make all pawns protected by  pieces ELSE THAN KING. If not change position
of king and queen, there are 4 possible positions. Here are description of
first two:
king and queen are sorrounded by bishop and knight. There are another
bishop adjecent to first and rook adjesent to knight. Second knight
adjecent to rook and rook adjecent to second bishop. In this diagram white
chosen one position, and black chosen another position:

RBBQKNRN
PPPPPPPP
--------
--------
--------
--------
pppppppp
nrnqkbbr

In other two positions knights stays in same cells as first two, and there
is still rook between them. Another rook is ajecent to queen or king. Here
is diagram of that two:

BBRQKNRN
PPPPPPPP
--------
--------
--------
--------
pppppppp
nrnqkrbb

All positions have advantages and disvantages.
Now, about missle:
instead of turn, you can put it in any free square of your first rank (like
in most of other chess variants with reserve).
Missle can move and capture ABSOLUTELY to any square, expect for
opponent's first rank. It's strongest possible piece, wich captures only
by replacement and occupy one square.
I just played this game, it's pretty intersting.
And also ihave idea for unusal shape for board (i did'nt invent game for
this board, but i hope, that someone experienced chess variant inventor
will take my idea and will make playable game: let's make chess, played on
Rubik's cube!

Sorry, i forgot rule about castling for chess with missles.
Castling to bishops' side if rook is in corner is same as in FIDE chess.
In other positions and sides, king still moves two squares, even it is
occupies by rook, and rook moves to square, where it would be after
castling in FIDE chess.

I invented this game rather to show history of chess than making something
playable:
Files A, B, C and D are 'west', and E, F, J and H are 'east'. In
beggining both players have pieces from chaturanga: chariot instead rook
(moves 1 or 2 squares orthogonally), elephant instead bishop (leaps exactly
2 squares diagonally), ferz instead queen (1 square diagonally). King and
knight are same. Pawns also same, but can't make duble step. When pieces
crossing center of board (between 4th and 5th ranks), the promotes: If they
entered 'west', they promotes to thier relatieves of modern european
chess (elephant promotes to bishops, chariots to rooks, ferz to queen,
other pieces don't change farther); if they entered 'east' after
crossing center, they promotes to thier shogi relatives (elephant to silver
generals, chariots to lances, ferz to gold general, pawns to shogi pawns
(captures also orthogonally forward), and knights loses thier power: now
they can move only forward, like shogi knight; king don't promote). All
shogi pieces (expect for king an gold general) can promote to gold general.
Promotion zone is on 2 last ranks (actually, in first variant of shogi 8X8
promotion zone already was 3 last ranks, but here 2 will be better).
Promotion rules are same as in shogi. Western pawns promotes on last rank,
only to queen, rook, bishop or knight.
Goal is to checkmate king. What will be after stalemate, it's chosen by
players before game.
As it is clear what western pieces are much stronger than shogi pieces, you
can can chose one or two of that advantages of shogi pieces:

1. When pieces are captured by shogi, They can be dropped (like in shogi).
There two variants (chose one before playing): first - captured chaturanga
and chess pieces becomes thier relatives from shogi (elephants and bishops
becomes silver general, etc.); second - they don't become shogi (if pawns
wich crossed center on west dropped to 2nd rank, they can make duble step
and can be captured en passant). Promoted western pawns becomes pawns again
in both variants. Dropping rules are same as in shogi.
2. It can be combined with 1. When at least four pieces are promoted in
east, player will get in reserve shogi pieces wich are called 'bishop'
and 'rook' by chess players. They both can be dropped on player's 2nd
rank in one turn. This turn must'nt check, checkmate or stalemate enemy
king. They can be promoted to dragon king and dragon horse as other shogi
pieces in this game.
3. It can be combined with 1, but can't with 2. Pieces don't become chess
or shogi forever. When they are in 'west' (after crossing center), they
are chess pieces, and when in 'east', they are shogi pieces. They can't
become chaturanga again. Promoted pieces becomes relatives of thier
PROMOTED forms (queens always becomes gold generals, etc.).

Did you like this game? Have you questions?
I also have variant of this game, where are chinese and mongolian zone.
I'll write about it later.

Roger Hare's shogi pages are here now:
http://www.shogi.net/rjhare/chu-shogi/chu-intro.html

It's a pity... OK, but, i think, it will not be bad if i however describe
here variant of my previous game (because i said before 'i will describe
it later', and i'll not be writing about other variants here later).
8X8 boaed, but with special cells in corners (like in Omega Chess), there
are special units in them.
Files A and B are 'european zone', C and D - 'mongolian zone', E and F
- 'chinese zone', and J and H - 'japanese zone'. In european and
japanese zones pieces promotes as in previous variant. In mongolian zone
they promotes to Shatar pieces, and in chinese zone, as you can guess, to
Xian-qi pieces. There is no river and palace, so no pieces are restricted.
Shogi dropping is mandatory, but rules of 'becoming/not becoming shogi
pieces after drop' and 'promote to certain piece forever/not forever'
are still optional. There is no rule of dropping Shogi rook and bishop
after promoting 4 pieces to Shogi, but they exists in game, see below.
When knight and elephat promotes in ch. zone they loses power - they will
not be able to leap. Ferz don't change it's movement. Chariot promotes to
Xian-qi chariot - it moves like FIDE rook. After promotion here, king can
move only 1 square orthogonally, but also can check opponent's king like
rook (if both kings promoted in ch. zone, they can't stay in same file or
rank if there is no piece between them). Pawn now must move and capture
orthogonally forward, left and right (when dropped, it can't move left and
right, until it's again on opponent's half of board). This pawn don't
promote farther.
In mongolian zone all pieces, expect for pawn and ferz, promotes to FIDE
pieces. Ferz promotes to bers - moves like rook plus one square diagonally
(like dragon king). Pawns are same as FIDE, but promotes only to bers and,
wnen dropped, can't make duble step, also can't capture FIDE pawns en
passant.
Now about special units. There left and right special units. In beggining
they both are camels from Tamerlan's chess (3:1 leap). They promotes not
to thier relatives, but pieces, wich was invented separately. In ja. zone
left promotes to Shogi rook and Bishop (and farther to dragon king and
dragon horse). In ch. zone they both promotes to cannons. In mo. zone they
promotes to bodyguards from Hiashatar (moves 1-2 squares like queen, don't
capture, have 'influence zone' in 8 squares around them, other pieces
can't cross this zone, inside it can move only 1 squre (decide yourself,
what with pieces wich can't move only 1 square, like knght), they can be
captured only in thier 'influence zone'). special units don't promote in
eu. zone (as there is not any special pieces in FIDE ches), but they don't
lose ability of promotion: they can promote as they enter any other zone.
They don't become camels again when you playing with rule of 'not promote
to certain piece forever', for exemple, if one of them moved from F5 to
A5, it is still cannon. However, if both players are agreed, they can
promote:
1. Left archbishop, right to chanselor (from Capablanca chess).
2. Left to champion, right to wizard (from Omega chess).
3. Both to grasshopers.
4. One to grasshoper, another to knightrider.

It also be fun to play on 10X8 or 10X10 board, where special units
sorrounding king and ferz, and there is spanish (Grand Acedrix) OR german
(Courier chess) zone.

A) My last game will be more balanced if left special unit promotes to
chanselor and right to archbishop (because white can quick promote left
unit to chanselor, and black to shogi rook, two very strong pieces, if they
promotes by other rules, blakc will have big advantage); Or another
solution: there are no left and right special units, there are east and
west special units (and beter if east promotes to shogi bishop);

B) My question about Semedo is not answered! What is Semedo? Are it's
rules really unknown?
Let me explain it:
here is starting position:

nsksn
gpppg
p---p
-----
-----
P---P
GPPPG
NSKSN

K-king,
N-knight,
P-pawn,
S-scientist,
G-pot with gunpowder.

I read what this game was described in mediaval book on latin language. In
this book was writen what 'Pot with gunpowder moves like rook, but in
crowd moves like cannonbal'. It reminds cannon from modern Xian-qi, but
possible what it's not same thing.
Also there was writen what 'King don't attack'. What does that mean?
What king don't move at all or what?
Also in article of this game, wich i read, was writen what scientists are
probably ancestors of bodyguards from modern Xian-qi.
In this article was not described, how this mediaval book describes moves
of scientists, knights and pawns.

Maybe, someone knows more information about this game? Or it's exact rules
currently unknown at all?!

Hi,

I'm interested in a textlink on the chessvariants homepage.

How much would this cost?

Greg

Dear Hans L. Bodlaender
          Your website really helps a person understand the real
fundementals about chess. I like the way you put pictures to help me
understand what i am doing even if i dont have a chess board infront of. 
You have alot of talent.

One (well two) cool chess variant would be chess two.

Rules:
-There are 2 chess board with the pieces at their usual position on each
board.
-Black Start to board 1 on the first turn and white start on board 2 on the
first turn.
-Both choose and then make their movements on the same time, with black
making the movement on board 1 and white on board 2.
-After they make the first movement, black now have to move a piece on
board 2 and white on board 1.
-Then on the 3rd turn, they change the boards will be moving again.
-And again, and again....
-Other rules works as normal chess.

WIN:A player win when they capture the king on one board.


ONE VARIANT: Same rules, but if a player win on both boards, he wins the
game, if each player wins on a one board, its a draw and they have to play
again.

Steve, email me directly at the address found on my person ID page - just click on my name, highlighted in blue, to the left. I'll help you get set up. While it's a bit confusing at first, it isn't hard once you know the secrets. Enjoy!
Joe

I'm thinking of rewriting the text for this page. Here's a draft:

Chess variants are a family of strategy board games that are related to, inspired by, or similar enough to the game we today call Chess. The game we today know as Chess was based on earlier games, most immediately the Arabian game of Shatranj, which is believed to be based on the Indian game of Chaturanga. Besides Chess, the most played variants are Shogi (in Japan), Xiangqi (in China), and Janggi (in Korea). Besides the most popular variants, there are countless others, some obscure and little played, some newly invented. Some were never meant to be played, created only for Fairy Chess problems. Some were invented by professional Chess players who had mastered Chess so well they were seeking new challenges. Some were invented by entrepreneurs who have produced commercial sets. And most were invented by creative people who like to try out new pieces, new rules, or new ideas.

This site seeks to catalog the vast number of Chess variants created throughout history, as well as to nurture the creation of new variants. Thanks to computers, it is now easier to play new Chess variants than ever before. We have benefited from Zillions-of-Games, which has allowed us to program and play numerous Chess variants against the computer. And we offer Game Courier, which enables you to play numerous Chess variants against others online, including new games of your own invention.

I have put up a beta-version of a new index page at

http://www.chessvariants.org/index-beta.html

Check it out and come back to this page to give your opinion.

I like the text itself.  It's formatted to take up less than half of my
screen's width though, and I prefer the current page's full span.

Maybe this is premature, but I have some comments for the login box.  It
would be nice if it said something if you fail to log in; I think right now
it just refreshes the page without any message.  It might also be useful to
have a link to register for the pages in the same box.

There's a good reason for reducing the width of the text. Hover over the links.

I've gotten a little fancier with the CSS. I can now put an image on the right hand side, and when someone hovers over a link, I can use z-layering to cover it with a blank image and place another image on top of it. For now, there is just another copy of the logo there, but I am thinking of putting a collage of different Chess variants there.

I've now added a collage of Chess variants. I tried to use variants that look different from each other with several that are representative of popular games.

What I'm envisioning now is a random, interactive collage made with PHP and CSS. It would consist of randomly selected images placed at different points in the same area. Each image would link to the game it is for, and when the mouse hovered over any exposed part of an image, it would come to the front.

The CSS work I've been doing on this page led me to wake up this morning with a new idea for Game Courier. I can use CSS in Game Courier to show where pieces can legally move. In a game that has the rules coded, I can program it to create an array of all the spaces the piece on each space can move to, and I can use this array to create CSS code that shows where you can move a piece to when you hover over it.

Fergus, while at testing: The navigation from a user submitted page to the comments is currently gone. The newest comment is displayed (if there is one), but there is no way to the full list of comments or the function to add a comment.

Editor-made pages are not affected; they have the navigation right.

yes i've noticed too, i can't comment on many games, can't see where 
it gives that function. The only reason i could comment before on 
my 'fairy pieces part 1' was because Jörg commented on the game, and i 
went in through there. Same way i am commenting here now.