Guide
Chess variants: the complete list
A chess variant is any game that keeps the chess board and the chess pieces but changes one rule that matters: how the game starts, how capturing works, how many players sit down, or what counts as a win. Below are the variants that are actually played today — what changes, how hard each one is to pick up, and where you can play it.
| Variant | What changes | Players | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chess960aka Fischer Random Chess | The back rank is shuffled into one of 960 legal starting positions. Every other rule is standard chess. | 2 | Easy |
| King of the Hill | A second win condition: get your king safely to d4, d5, e4 or e5 and the game ends immediately. | 2 | Easy |
| Crazyhouse | Every piece you capture joins your reserve and can be dropped onto any empty square as a full move. | 2 | Hard |
| Bughouse | Team chess on two boards: pieces you capture are handed to your teammate, who can drop them on their board. | 4 (two teams of two) | Hard |
| Atomic Chess | Captures explode: the capturing piece, the captured piece and every non-pawn piece on the eight adjacent squares are removed. | 2 | Medium |
| Three-Check Chess | Standard chess, plus: delivering check three times wins the game outright. | 2 | Easy |
| Horde Chess | White fields 36 pawns and no king; Black has a normal army and must capture every last pawn. | 2 | Medium |
| 4 Player Chessaka Four-player chess | A 14x14 cross-shaped board with four armies, played either as teams of two or as a scored free-for-all. | 4 | Medium |
| LEGATUS | Deploy your own formation, then play chess while spending Command Order cards that shield, ambush, disarm and resurrect pieces. | 2 | Medium |
How to choose a variant
If you want chess without preparation
Play Chess960. Identical rules, no opening theory, nothing new to learn.
If you want maximum chaos
Play Crazyhouse or Atomic. Both keep two players and both make attacks almost impossible to defend by material alone.
If you want a new game, not a rules tweak
Play LEGATUS: you build your own starting formation, then spend command order cards during the game.
Play a card-driven variant right now
LEGATUS is free in the browser — against a bot, pass-and-play on one device, or online against a friend. There is also a printable card sheet if you would rather play it on a real board.