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Rich Hutnik wrote on Wed, Aug 5, 2009 11:42 PM UTC:
It is possible that this was discussed before, but I wanted to get it
discussed now.  I wanted to look at why people are interested in chess
variants.  I can see some reasons, but would like more listed:
1. People feel something with FIDE Chess needs to be tweaked to improve
the game.  This could be the opening book being stale, or too many draws,
or just the play is getting over analyzed and tired.  People who think this
want to add a rules tweak to update things and hope the rules tweak gets
adopted it FIDE Chess with the rules tweak becomes the new chess everyone
plays.  The tweak could be small or large.  This is a desire for 'The Next
Chess'.
2. Something about chess bugs someone, and they feel they need to make
chess match more of the type of game they want to play.  This is similar to
the prior one, but the person's motivation is more personal, and the
interest isn't to have 'The Next Chess', but something they find more
fun on a personal level.
3. The person is a creative person who like to create new things.  They
want to experiment with chess, to come up with something interesting and
new.
4. Person is into novelty.  They want something new to play, and don't
want to face the same challenge.  They want to develop a general mastery
rather than memorize lines of play.  Variants are a way to play something
new.

Anyhow, let me know if I missed any and which of these would fit why you
are interested in chess variants.

Claudio Martins Jaguaribe wrote on Thu, Aug 6, 2009 03:24 AM UTC:
Rich.

I'm a fan of chess variants since I was a kid. The net just put me in
contact with others...

After all, I was that kid...

'-The pawn mives this way...
_Said who?! WHY NOT THIS WAY?! So, it wuoldn't be such a domb piece!'

And began to try myself with pieces.

Thats why I like variants.

Hugs!

Rich Hutnik wrote on Thu, Aug 6, 2009 01:29 PM UTC:
Claudio.

So, you are into variants, because you want the rules to make more sense
to you?

Joe Joyce wrote on Thu, Aug 6, 2009 01:33 PM UTC:
Of the 4 reasons given, I'd have to pick #3. I design because I enjoy
making games. But the real reason is that I have to. The ideas force
themselves out of my head, down my arm and through my fingers onto a piece
of paper. I don't have all that much choice in the matter. Chess is a
remarkably plastic medium in which to design. With a little imagination,
you can do a lot with a handful of chess pieces.

It's interesting that it's chess that spawns all these variants. Games
like Monopoly have variants, but only a few, and the common variants, like
money on Free Parking or selling hotels and houses back to the bank, are
found wherever Monopoly is played. Ditto for most other games. If there are
variants, they are few, and rather obvious. Chess has spawned thousands of
variants, and dozens that have been played by a *very* large number of
people. The only comparable board game phenomena has been the recent
wargame boom [and bust]. And the obvious reason for all those wargames is
all those wars, and their many, many battles. Chess encourages those with
the [appropriate] imagination to create new games. This flexibility and the
large numbers of variants for both gives yet another indication of the deep
connection between chess and wargames. Their structure is special, if it
encourages this.

Claudio Martins Jaguaribe wrote on Thu, Aug 6, 2009 07:06 PM UTC:
Rich.

I began this way, really, because I needed to see some pieces, like ferz
and wazir, or a long range pawn...

But, because of a storm, I was stranded in the library of my university,
so, I took a enciclopedia book to read about the entry chess. I discovered
a whole new world, and I loved it! I saw that I was not alone, others
before me had the same idea, and reading about theirs pieces, I became a
fan of the ballet of the pieces in the board.

So, I started to design in my mind, and then, I've foud you guys!

Daniil Frolov wrote on Wed, Aug 11, 2010 08:29 AM UTC:
6. Fictional variants. Variants, played in books, films, etc (like Star
trek chess, Jetan and many others). Some are invented by authors of these
books and films, some by thier fans (if chess variant was mentoided, but
complete rules was not described).

George Duke wrote on Wed, Aug 11, 2010 04:07 PM UTC:
Winther at the thread below called 'Future Chess', in espousing again Gustavian board, is signing on to Hutnik's number one here, which is to improve f.i.d.e chess. That was Capablanca's intention and then Fischer's. The second-ranking reason historically for CVs is not exactly covered yet, namely, contribution to recreational math. The latter is authored by Loyd and other problemists, Dudeney, Dawson and other variantists who did want to bother much with full CVs of their own, Gardner, Conway, Smullyan. Some like Gardner specialize in being editor for others' chess ideas.

Daniil Frolov wrote on Wed, Aug 11, 2010 04:56 PM UTC:
Sometimes i think that i like reading and inventing new chess variants even
more than playing them: i like unusual ideas of pieces and rules, but then
i'm playing variants (even my favourite variants) i often gets bored...
So, i'm inventing chess variants just because it's interesting, often (at
least for me) more interesting than playing.

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Wed, Aug 11, 2010 11:24 PM UTC:
#3 and #4 describe why I create variants. Mastering Chess doesn't interest
me as much as becoming good at Chess variants in general does, because it
puts too much emphasis on memorization, whereas I want to focus more on
analysis and thinking ahead. I enjoy the challenge of figuring out the
strategy to a new game before my opponent does. I'm also very creative and
like to play around with different ideas of what can be done with Chess.

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