Use the ❤ menu that appears on the page for a game to mark your favorite Chess variants. Just go to the page for a game and select:

Editors may favorite 24 games, other contributors may favorite 18, and other members may favorite 12. Favorite games sparingly, reserving your favorites for the Chess variants you most enjoy playing. If you ever reach your limit, you can make room for more by unfavoriting some.

Legend

The ❤ menu heading will tell you whether you have favorited a game, whether anyone else has, and how many have. Use this legend to interpret what you see in this menu.

❤

No one has favorited this game.

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You have favorited this game, but no one else has.

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One person has favorited this game, but you have not.

2 ❤

You and one other person have favorited this game.

2 ❤

Two people have favorited this game, but you have not.

In general, the number appearing before the heart indicates how many people have favorited a game. If the heart is red, this includes you. If it is pale violet red, it does not include you. Numbering starts with 2. One person is indicated by a lone heart.

Favorite Games

This is a list of games that have been favorited by members of the Chess Variant Pages. If you have your own favorites you enjoy playing, add them to this list. This is a community project, not just a selection of games by the editors. Even if your favorites are already on the list, mark them as favorites anyway. Numbers count. Raise your favorite games higher in the list by casting your votes for them. See the sidebar for details on selecting your favorites. In the list below, the number of people favoriting a game precedes the link.

• 12 - Shogi. The Japanese form of Chess, in which players get to keep and replay captured pieces.
• 8 - Xiangqi. Links and rules for Xiangqi (Chinese Chess).
• 7 - Alice Chess. Classic Variant where pieces switch between two boards whenever they move
• 6 - Chess with Different Armies. Betza's classic variant where white and black play with different sets of pieces
• 6 - Rococo. A clear, aggressive Ultima variant on a 10x10 ring board
• 5 - Ultima. Game where each type of piece has a different capturing ability. Also called Baroque.
• 4 - Janus Chess. Variant on 10 by 8 board.
• 4 - Spartan Chess. http://spartanchessonline.com/
• 3 - Bughouse. 4 player variant where pieces taken from your opponent are given to your partner.
• 3 - Chess. The rules of chess.
• 3 - Dragonchess. A three-dimensional fantasy variant.
• 3 - Grand Chess. Christian Freeling's popular large chess variant on 10 by 10 board. Rules and links.
• 3 - Pocket Mutation Chess. Take one of your pieces off the board, maybe change it, keep it in reserve, and drop it on the board later.
• 3 - Capablanca's chess. An enlarged chess variant, proposed by Capablanca
• 3 - Centennial Chess. 10x10 Variant that adds Camels, Stewards, Rotating Spearmen and Murray Lions to the standard mix
• 3 - Dimension X. 6 unorthodox pieces arrive from Dimension X . Three will help you, 3 will not.
• 3 - Eurasian Chess. Synthesis of European and Asian forms of Chess
• 3 - Existentialist Chess. 10x10 board with many different pieces.
• 3 - Falcon Chess. Patented game on an 8x10 board with a new piece: The Falcon
• 3 - Great Shatranj. Great Shatranj
• 3 - Orwell Chess. Three player variant themed on George Orwell's 1984.
• 3 - Sovereign Chess.
• 2 - Extinction chess. Win by making your opponents pieces of one type extinct
• 2 - Kriegspiel. With help of a referee, two players move without knowing the moves of the opponent
• 2 - Tamerlane chess. A well-known historic large variant of Shatranj.
• 2 - Advanced Wizard Chess. Chess variant on 10 by 10 board with fantasy chess pieces
• 2 - AltOrth Hex Chess. Hexagonal variant using pieces moving only one way along each orthogonal
• 2 - Arimaa. Board game playable with standard chess set, hard for computers
• 2 - Caïssa Britannia. British themed variant with Lions, Unicorns, Dragons, Anglican Bishops, and a royal Queen.
• 2 - Cetran Chess 2.
• 2 - Chess-Battle. War variant from the Soviet-Union, 1933
• 2 - Chu Shogi. Historic Japanese favorite, featuring a multi-capturing Lion
• 2 - For the Crown. This is a deck-building chess variant.
• 2 - Grand Shatranj. Grand Shatranj
• 2 - Gross Chess. A big variant with a small learning curve
• 2 - Jetan - Martian Chess. Martian Chess, coming from the book The Chessmen of Mars.
• 2 - King's Court. Variant on 8 by 12 board with Chancellors and Jesters.
• 2 - Makruk (Thai chess). Rules and information.
• 2 - Maxima. Maxima is an interesting and exiting variant of Ultima, with new elements that make Maxima more clear and dynamic.
• 2 - Opulent Lemurian Shatranj. Joe Joyce's Shaman and Hero pieces are now on a larger board.
• 2 - Quinquereme Chess. Large variant with a new piece, the Quinquereme.
• 2 - Seenschach. Variant on 10 by 10 board with lake in the middle and new pieces
• 2 - Separate Realms Chess. Pieces capture like normal FIDE pieces, but have limited moves that only take them to part of the board when not capturing
• 2 - Shako. Cannons and elephants are added in variant on 10 by 10 board.
• 2 - Storm the Ivory Tower. A Smess adaptation of Chinese Chess
• 2 - Team-Mate Chess.
• 2 - TessChess. 4D chess featuring symmetrically-moving pieces
• 2 - Tim's 3d Chess. On a 5x5x5 board with two kings per player
• 2 - Wolf Chess. Half-century old variant on board of size 8 by 10.
• 2 - Wormhole Chess. When a piece leaves a square, it `folds' together
• 1 - Anti-King Chess. Each player has both a King and an Anti-King to protect; Anti-Kings are in check when not attacked
• 1 - Avalanche chess. A popular chess variant, where you advance your opponents pawns
• 1 - Fischer Random Chess. Play from a random setup
• 1 - Flip Chess and Flip Shogi. Pieces have two sides with different movements on board of 38 squares.
• 1 - Hexagonal Chess, Glinski's. Chess on a board made out of hexagons. Classical variant of Glinski.
• 1 - Losing Chess. Taking is obligatory; the first player that loses all his pieces wins
• 1 - Magnetic Chess. Pieces that moved attract and repel pieces like magnets
• 1 - McCooey's Hexagonal chess. Chess on a board, made out of hexes. Variant of Dave McCooey.
• 1 - Minishogi. On a 5 by 5 board.
• 1 - Progressive Chess. Several variants where white moves one time, black twice, white three times, etc.
• 1 - Tridimensional Chess (Star Trek). Three-dimensional chess from Star Trek.
• 1 - Wildebeest Chess. Variant on an 10 by 11 board with extra jumping pieces.
• 1 - 4*Chess (four dimensional chess). Four dimensional chess using sixteen 4x4 boards & 96 pieces.
• 1 - 4-way chess by Taurus games. Commercial fourhanded chess variant
• 1 - 123456 Chess. Uses 2 dices for each player and 2 checkers for each player, in addition to normal chess pieces.
• 1 - ABC Chess. A variant with 8 armies of pieces generated by combining 1, 2 or 3 simpler pieces.
• 1 - Aliens vs Predators.
• 1 - Armies of Faith 6: After Empire. The last in a series of 3d variants themed on various religions of history
• 1 - Bombalot. Bombs can wipe out most pieces on the board.
• 1 - Byelorussian Cheskers. Crossover between chess and Russian draughts.
• 1 - Cannons of Chesstonia. Cannons launch a Pawn, Wazir, Ferz and Stone to increase strategical and tactical play.
• 1 - Cat's Chess.
• 1 - Catapults of Troy. Large variant with a river, catapults, archers, and trojan horses!
• 1 - Chad. Castles and walls in a strategic deep chess variant.
• 1 - Chariots. Standard pieces start as pairs with shared capabilities, but can separate and recombine.
• 1 - Chaturanga - Four Kings - Double Mate .
• 1 - Chesimals: Autonomous Multi-unit Pieces. self-contained autonomous multi-square pieces
• 1 - Cheskers. Cross-variant between chess and checkers.
• 1 - Chess on a Longer Board with a few Pieces Added. On a 10 row by 8 column board, with three new pieces.
• 1 - Chess with checkers added. Add checkers in front of the pawns
• 1 - Chess with Promoters.
• 1 - Colossus. Large-board chess with standard pieces and double the number of bishops, rooks and knights.
• 1 - Darkness Chess. You have only limited information on where your opponents pieces are
• 1 - Dragons, Archers, and Oxen. Chess variant on a 10 by 10 board
• 1 - Dueling Archbishops. Chess variant on 2 by 3 board
• 1 - European Chess. A multiplayer, different armies form of chess.
• 1 - Extra Move Chess. Double-move variant based on limitations of Zillions of Games
• 1 - Fantasy Grand Chess. Variant of Grand Chess with different armies and fantasy theme.
• 1 - Fianchetto Chess. Rooks and bishops switched in opening setup
• 1 - Fibonacci Chess. Players can make multiple moves per turn, the number determined by the fast growing Fibonacci sequence
• 1 - Ganymede Chess. A 12x12 variant inspired by Ralph Betza's Chess on a really big board, Centennial Chess and Adrian King's Typhoon (among others)
• 1 - Grand Cavalier Chess. The decimal version of Cavalier Chess
• 1 - Grand Shatranj N W. Shatranj with 10 individual pieces + pawns per army
• 1 - Gufuu Shogi. Tiny variant on a 2x3 board with four pieces.
• 1 - Hadean Chess. Expanded chess with short-range linear jumpers, augmented knights and zebras and more dynamic pawns.
• 1 - Hanga Roa. A chess variant inspired by the people of Easter Island.
• 1 - Heroes Hexagonal Chess version 2. Updated version of Heroes Hexagonal Chess in 91 hexes.
• 1 - Hexajedrez. Variation of Dave McCooey's Hexagonal Chess
• 1 - Hex Shogi 91. A hexagonal Shogi variant on a 91-space board
• 1 - Hyperchess. A chess variant on a board representing 4-D space that closely parallels traditional Chess.
• 1 - Hyperchess4. Hyperchess updated: changed rules, discussion, sample game, etc
• 1 - Invasion. A military inspired Chess variant played on an 84-squares board.
• 1 - Kamikaze Mortal Shogi. Send your Kamikazes on suicide missions in this Shogi variant
• 1 - Klin Zha. Chesslike game played by Klingons from Star Trek on triangular board.
• 1 - Knight Court. Mate the knight with three pieces per player on a three by three board.
• 1 - Knightmare Chess. The American version of Tempete sur l'Echiquier
• 1 - Knightmate. Win by mating the knight
• 1 - Koopa Chess. Form of chess based on the Mario Brothers series of video games.
• 1 - Lines of Relay (LoR). Chess variant featuring a new type of morphing piece, the Lore apprentice, on a standard board together with the standard pieces
• 1 - Lions and Unicorns Chess. With the 16 standard pieces and 4 powerful leapers.
• 1 - Maces, Horse-apults, and Tulpas. The game of Maces and Horse-apults with the likely use of tulpas pieces.
• 1 - Macrochess.
• 1 - Meirav. Pieces are buried before they are captured, buried pieces may capture other buried pieces.
• 1 - Mir Chess. A variant part way between Shatranj and modern chess, with Chinese cannons added.
• 1 - Neutral King Chess. V.R. Parton's game where two armies share a King both must try to mate.
• 1 - Noble WingS Chess. Noble Wing - with twice as many variant pieces.
• 1 - Omega Chess. Rules for commercial chess variant on board with 104 squares.
• 1 - Open King 4*4DChess. Four dimensional game with 48 pieces
• 1 - Outback Chess. New pieces on plus-shaped board
• 1 - Perfect 12. 36 pieces per player on 12 by 12 board.
• 1 - Philosophers Chess. Chess variant on two small boards with usual and `philosophical' pieces.
• 1 - PiRaTeKnIcS. Pirates on ships fight each other in 44-squares chess variant
• 1 - Racing Kings. From a special setup, be the first to have your king reach the last row
• 1 - Renniassance Chess. With 68 pieces on board of 12 by 12.
• 1 - Replacement Chess. Captured pieces must be put on an empty square on the board.
• 1 - Rose Chess XII. With Nightriders, (Half-)Roses, Spotted Gryphons and War Machines.
• 1 - Sac Chess. Game with 60 pieces
• 1 - Scirocco (revised). On ten by ten board with over thirty different pieces.
• 1 - Seirawan Chess. FIDE chess, put players have N+R and N+B in hand to drop.
• 1 - Sons of Mithra. Elaborate Fantasy variant with 13 different types of pieces per side
• 1 - Super4*Chess (four dimensional chess). Four dimensional chess variant played with 96 pieces
• 1 - Take Over Chess. Jump across pieces to take them over from your opponent.
• 1 - Tetrahedral Chess. Three dimensional variant with board in form of tetrahedron.
• 1 - Timeline. Pieces travel through time on four 4 x 4 x 4 boards.
• 1 - Tori Shogi. Tori Shogi, or Bird Shogi. A variant of Japanese Chess on a 7 by 7 board.
• 1 - Treeleaders Chess. Large variant with non-similar armies.
• 1 - TRiPLiCiTY. Three player hexagonal chess variant
• 1 - Typhoon (Revised). New and improved Cicada, Dervish, Harpy, Missionary, and Sorcerer!
• 1 - Unconventional Warfare Chess. Variant based on modern warfare
• 1 - Viking Chess. Armies start side-by-side on a 12 x 7 board
• 1 - Voidrider Chess. A 43 square variant with movable spaces
• 1 - Wand Chess. Pieces have a magic wand, that gives random outcomes
• 1 - Whale Shogi. Shogi variant.
• 1 - Wizard's War. Game with piece-creating Wizards and a board divided into arena and enchanted sections