I recently purchased D. B. Pritchard's volume on Chess variants.  Dark Chess is quite popular on Brainking so there is the possibility that this variant created by Ralph Betza in 1978 might also be popular.  

Knights are replaced by invisible ghost riders.  Opponents are told when a ghost rider moves but the destination is not given unless a capture is made.  Pieces may pass over squares occupied by a ghost rider, even when castling.  (I assume this means queen-side castling since otherwise two pieces would be on the same square.)  Ghost Riders are subject to capture like all other pieces.  A player may, not mandatory since Ghost Riders ordinarily don't stop movement, reveal a ghost rider's position in order to block an enemy movement.  If a ghost rider checks the enemy king the check is announced but the location of the ghost is not given, unless the move also captured a piece.  A king in check from a ghost rider has the option to attempt capture of the ghost rider but loses if the wrong square is chosen.  

The book is unclear about what happens when a piece is blocked by a ghost rider.  There are several possible options.

1.  Choose a different move 

2.  Forced capture of the ghost rider by the blocked piece (I personally like this option which introduces some real uncertainty in movement.)

3.  Stopped just before the ghost rider.

Talen314

I have something new for you for this Holiday Season ... crazy as usual, easy and mind twisting variant ...can be played face to face as well ...

1. All traditional rules apply with two novel ideas.

2. Player's pieces are not at the bottom of the screen, and they are instead AT THE TOP ... so, we have to play downward ... nothing really changes besides our position by the table ... (that's enough to get dizzy)

3. Gravitational forces are in effect and  the pawns can be dropped downward as many fields as you wish and can ... you can drop them in stages, let's say,  first drop is from row 7 to row 4 and later you may drop it to row 1... watch for the open columns since pawns can reach the last row(at the bottom of the screen, of course) very fast and promote (even faster, lol)...

****

Hope you like this idea. I wish you a very Happy Holiday Season and a Happy New Year.

Andy.

for those who are not satisfied with "Drop Chess" ... Swapco is a short name for swap column ... easy electronic version, though it can also be played face to face ...it requires some dose of visual skills (well, we play chess so what's the problem, right ?) and can be very, very tricky ... rules below:

1. All the traditional rules apply with a twist ...

2. At any time after the 5th move each player has a right to swap any column with any other one ... within the same class ... odd numbered columns can be swapped only with odd numbered columns and the same rule applies to even numbered columns ...

3. Players CANNOT swap back the same columns to their original position in their next move ... it's possible later on ...

4. Swapping columns is considered as a complete move (player either makes regular move or swaps) ...

5. Swap can only be performed ONCE by each player ...

***

I enjoy inventing new variants, so please forgive me, lol.

Andy.

hi, this a beginnig of the season, right ? so let me give you more fun and toys to explore ... this time we are going to use a random factor in our chess variant ... read on:

1. All the rules for traditional game apply, with (surprise !!!) a twist.

2. After the 5th move each player will be getting a number, displayed beneath his/her part of the board ranging from 1 to 8 ... these numbers will indicate the column number.

3. Players will be forced to make one of the action using this column:

- player has to move INTO this column, move OUT of this column, move WITHIN this column or ... (attention, please!!!) skip the move entirely in case no action is possible or he/she chooses so ... 

4. You can play this game using cards from Ace to 8 and draw before your move ...

***

Have fun,

Andy.

this is funny one ... how to make everybody happy ? how to make sure everybody gets present on the day of birth ... ? well, we were all born either on the day ONE , TWO, THREE ........ up to THIRTY FIRST day of the month ... it doesn't matter which one, we want to use BirthDay not BirthMonth ... it's so simple, read on.

1. All ther rule of traditional chess apply with a small twist.

2. Before the game starts, each player enters the day of his/her birth ... mine is 8 of March so I woud enter 8 ...

3. When my Birtday comes (same as the move number if you didn't get it so far, just kidding) I will be entitled to SECOND move of any chosen piece of mine.

4. But wait ! My opponent is a nice fellow and wants to celebrate my Birthday and GIVES away one of his/her pawn of his/her choice during the next move (normal move follows, of course) ...

5. Nobody is going to investigate what is your real Birthday, so choose at your own risk ... some may prefer having advantage early in the game, some later ...

***

And now I will stop with new variants ... just wanted to make you happy walking thru this garden of imagination as chess variants realm is ...

Again, happy Holidays, and hope Fencer will like one of these variants and will give us a nice present (like it used to be, lol)

Andy.

let's use our imagination one more time, and convert the number of fields white pieces move thru into the minutes ... the idea came to me while meditating on Horde and Maharaja Chess ... in both these games there should be utilized some kind of "timer"  to make these games more balanced ... "time" is usually undestood as the number of moves and for Maharaja they proposed 25 moves since the computer can always win with less than 25 moves ... in my "Time-out Chess" instead of conting the moves we count the number of fields white pieces move during the game and we call them minutes ... read on for details:

1. All the rules of traditional chess apply, with some modification.

2.  Black queen is out f the game (her square is empty)

3. White have 100 minutes (understood as 100 fields their pieces move across the board) to check-mate black ... if by the 100th minute white fail to check-mate black, game is lost for white and black wins the game.

4. Of course white and black can win by check-mating  at any time before the game ends by time-out.

5. White has time limitation, black material limitation ... this is a type of variants with unequal armies, but still, black's lack of queen is equalized by white's time restrictions ...

6. Examples: after the first white move, clock starts ticking for them (only for white) ... white starts with 100 minutes and, let's say. after the first move e2-e4 clock resets to 98 ... after the next white's move, for example Bf1-b5, clock resets to 94 minutes ...

7. Short and long castle cost 4 and 5 minutes respectively ...

****

this type of game is a good way to learn how to manage our resources ... for black it may be a good school to learn playing defensively, for white to "watch your steps" economy ...  game is perfectly playable head-to-head ...

keep playing and inventing variants

Andy.

not enough yet ? some more variants ? here we go ... called "Revolt Chess" with unequal armies ... read on:

1. White has usual array like in standard chess ...

2. Black has no Rooks, no Bishops, no Knights (they were beheaded) , only Mr. Robespierre and his Wife Chessina ... Mr. Robespierre moves like a king and Chessina like a queen ... free fields in the 8th row are populated by common soldiers (pawns) and 7th row is like in traditional chess.

3. As you can imagine, revolutionary war is going to start soon ... royal forces (white) against revolutionary crowd, lead by Mr. Robespierre and Chessina ...

4. Pawns from the 8th and 7th row can move two squares initially ... en passant is available for both rows.

5. Goal is like in chess ... check mate the opponents king or Mr. Robespierre ...

6. Black commoners can promote to another commoners or lady Chessina and they can be put anywhere on the board ...

7. Mr. Robespierre can castle on both sides ...

Cheers,

Andy.

I like to play alone ... I bet everyone knows some kind of patience or solitaire ... this category is missing on this site ... it will draw many new users and keep many of us playing when there is no available move in our regular games ... there are many solitaire games you can play on the internet today, why not to create a new category of solo games ... many of them can be played competetively ... golf, darts, bowling are just solitaire games in their nature, there is no contact with the opponent and yet you can compete in tournaments ... as a start I propose my own invention already played at Zillions of Games, named Hippodrome ... it uses chess pieces and and you goal is to remodel the initial, random setup moving 4 knighst from the bottom of the 4x4 board to the top of it in smallest number of moves ... fun, relaxing, and still challenging ... below is the link so you can see the board and the pieces ... we can easily pair up players to compete in tournament ... from this link follow to Chess Variants pages to read more.

http://www.zillions-of-games.com/cgi-bin/zilligames/submissions.cgi/95234?do=show;id=480

Cheers,

Andy.