page_title: List of chess variants
section_title: Orthodox rules on an unorthodox board
hierarchical_section_title: List of chess variants / Chess-derived games / Orthodox chess rules / Orthodox rules on an unorthodox board
context_page_description: This is a list of chess variants. Many thousands of variants exist; the 2007 catalogue The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants estimates that there are well over 2,000, with the author noting that many more known variants were considered too trivial for inclusion.
context_section_description: In these variants, the same pieces and rules as in chess are used, but the board is different; It can be smaller or larger, the shape of either the board or individual spaces can be non-square or modular, or it can even be extra-dimensional or unbounded. The movement of pieces in some variants is modified in concurrence with the geometry of the gameboard.
  Active Chess: Played on a 9×8 board, adding a queen with an extra pawn in front. Invented by G. Kuzmichov (1989), whose students tested the game, deciding that the optimal starting position was to place the second queen on the eighth or ninth files.
  Balbo's Game: A novel-shaped board with 70 squares. Full armies for each player, minus one pawn. No castling. By G. Balbo (1974).
  Brusky's hexagonal chess: Chess on an irregular board of 84 hex cells. Same as Gliński's Hexagonal Chess, but with ten pawns instead of nine, linear startup, two forward move directions for pawns, pawns capture forward diagonally, and castling. By Yakov Brusky (1966).
  Circular chess: Played on a circular board consisting of four rings, each of sixteen squares.
  Cross chess: Cross-shaped cells, board geometry like hex chess but moves akin to normal chess (e.g. bishops have four directions, not six; queens eight, not twelve). Extra rook, knight, and pawn per side. By George Dekle Sr.
  Cylinder chess: Played on a cylinder board with a- and h-files "connected". Thus a player can use them as if the a-file were next to the h-file (and vice versa).
  De Vasa's hexagonal chess: Chess on a rhombus-shaped board of 81 hex cells. Same as Gliński's Hexagonal Chess, but linear startup, two forward move directions for pawns, pawns capture forward diagonally to the side, and castling. Invented by Helge E. de Vasa (1953).
  Double Chess: Two full armies per side on a 12×16 board, the first to mate an enemy king wins. Pawns advance up to four steps on their first move. Capablanca found the game "remarkably interesting". Invented by Julian Hayward (1916).
  Doublewide chess: Two regular chessboards are connected for a 16×8 play surface. Each player plays with two complete sets of chess pieces.
  Flying chess: Played on a board of 8×8×2, giving a total of 128 cells. Only certain pieces can move to and from the additional level.
  Gliński's hexagonal chess: The most popular version of chess for the hex board. Includes three bishops, nine pawns, 91 hex cells. Invented by Władysław Gliński (1936).
  Grid chess: The board is overlaid with a grid of lines. For a move to be legal, it must cross at least one of these lines.
  Hexagonal chess: A family of variants played on a hexgrid with three colours and three bishops.
  Infinite chess: Numerous players and mathematicians have conceived of chess variations played on an unbounded chessboard. In one example, when using "Converse's rules," the pieces and their relative starting positions are unchanged—only the board is infinitely large.
  Los Alamos chess (or Anti-Clerical chess): Played on a 6×6 board without bishops. This was the first chess-like game played by a computer program.
  Masonic Chess: Every other board rank is indented. Same as chess, with moves adapted to the new brickwork-like board. By George Dekle Sr.
  McCooey's hexagonal chess: Chess on the same hexagonal board as Gliński's Hexagonal Chess, but using a different starting array, seven pawns instead of nine, and pawns capture forward diagonally. By Richard Honeycutt and David McCooey (1978–1979).
  Minichess: A family of variants played with regular chess pieces and standard rules, but on a smaller board.
  Polgar reform chess: In his book Reform-Chess (1997), László Polgár proposed several variants played on board of size 5×8, 6×8, 8×6, or 9×6. The initial piece setup is determined by players in the same way as in Benko's Pre-chess. There are special rules for castling depending on the board. Polgar recommended these variants to train creativity and to speed up the game.
  Polgar Superstar Chess: Hexagonal variant played on a special star-shaped board. Invented by László Polgár (2002).
  Rhombic Chess: Uses a hex-shaped board comprising 
caption: Circular chess
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