Ratings & Comments
Crab. Jumps as knight but only `narrow forwards' or `wide backwards'.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Shuffle Mimpiting
Crabified Nachtmahr.
Mad Chess. Chess variant with unequal armies on 10 by 10 board. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I agree with the comments cited in the review: The Stone army (here black) is weaker than the Steel army (here white). I think that the imbalance can be corrected by giving the MAD INFANTRYMAN the possibility to move without capture as a Cylindrical Bishop and making the FOOL also to move and capture as a Cylindrical Bishop. Cylindrical Bishops are equal in value with Rooks according to experienced players of Cylindrical Chess.
P.S. I came back here to find out about the "Stone King" in Derzhanski's list of Chess pieces. I clearly see that the Black King moves as described, but the term "Stone" does not appear here. It is present in the PBM preset and also in one comment on the contest page where also the SteelQueen is mentioned.
Nachtmahr. Game with seven different kinds of Nightriders. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I intentionally gave it a name that sounds like a verb here for a pun.
Chu Shogi. 
Historic Japanese favorite, featuring a multi-capturing Lion. (12x12, Cells: 144) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Tactorius V2.0.0 has been released. Come check out the new spells like dyads (move twice, no captures), offerings, and new modifications. New pieces: Valkyrie and Herring (must be captured if legal). Explore the spells in quickplay or challenge yourself in the campaign. tactorius.org
Hoppel-Poppel. Modest divergent variant where Knights capture like Bishops and Bishops capture like Knights. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Cutty Camels. Army for Chess with Different Armies that features Wizard from Omega Chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Sloppy Slippers. An army consisting of slip-pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Dragon. Combines pawn and knight movement, mainly as a problem piece, not found in variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Since I changed the image on this page, here is the old one for the sake of comparison:
Dragon Horse. Moves as Bishop or Wazir.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I changed the image to the one used on the dark version of the homepage, though without changing the direction it faces or removing the background, as I did for the homepage. Here is the old image for comparison:
Rose Chess XII. With Nightriders, (Half-)Roses, Spotted Gryphons and War Machines. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]As I mentioned in my Notes, the "Half-Rose" used in H. G. Muller's Interactive Diagram was chosen to be noticeably weaker than the "six-leaping Rose" used in Charles Gilman's Irwell and Wey.
For example, the "Half-Rose" on e9 does not give check here, because the Black King is located five Knight-leaps away. This is true whether you move clockwise along the blue dots or move counter-clockwise along the yellow dots. The Rose does manage to pin the Nightrider against its King.
Zen Zebras. A team for Chess with Different Armies based around the moves of the Zebra. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Paramount Parafigures. An army where some pieces are triply-divergent. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Regular Riders. Members-Only An army where pieces are riders. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.
Treacherous Trebuchets. Members-Only Army for Chess with Different Armies that have Leones from Grant Acedrex. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.
Grassy Gracehopers. Members-Only An army for Chess with Different Armies based around the moves of the Grasshopper. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.
A. M. DeWitt's Chu Shogi SVGs. A. M. DeWitt's SVG Graphics for Chu Shogi. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Pychess is having its first community contest, the ✍variant-design-contest! The goal of the contest is to create the best chess variant. But there will be a special theme for the contest which the designs have to make use of. The winning entry will have the honor of being added to the site.
Submissions can either be from individual users or a team of users. However, each member can only have their name attached to one submission. Additionally, the variant must be designed using Fairy Stockfish. If you need help, please ask around.
Contest format As “best” is a subjective determination, they will use judges – the PyChess server admins, who will rate the variants on a 100-point scale. The entry with the highest average score will win. Judges will base their score on fun, uniqueness/creativity, as well as theming.
Timeline
December 31, 2024 – Registration closes at midnight -- Please register here
April 31, 2025 – Submissions are due
June 30, 2025 – Judging ends
Theme The theme is regions! Specifically having well-delineated parts of the board that function differently. In Chess & Shogi, there are promotion zones, but this is rather minimal & would be a poor submission. Instead, look more at variants like XiangQi, YiTong, Chennis, & Chak where pieces are limited to certain regions. While they did say Chess & Shogi would be poor examples, having pieces that can change movement as they promote from one zone (normal zone) to another (designated as the “promotion zone” on Fairy-Stockfish) but then demote when going back to the former zone would count as working in the theme. Keep in mind that Stockfish can have parameters for exactly which squares pieces can move to, drop to, & promote to.
For example just spewing out some random stuff... You could have a spiral on the board where the king can't escape but moves like a rook & needs to get to the center. You can have a region of the board where there's a super piece like an amazon (but is only limited to the side). You can have regions that cause a piece to change (via promotion) but then cannot go back the way it came (like the Divine King in Chak). There are a lot of options available.
A good variant will almost certainly require unique board designs to convey movements.
Coding the Variant Again, the variant must be compatible with FairyStockfish. This means the variant has to be able to defined using the code in FSF. At the most basic level, this means no variants larger than 12×10. The variant definition code is basically what you'd put in the variants.ini file. All the documentation on that (which is very well explained by ianfab) is here, & you can see how PyChess implements all their variants here. If you're not familiar with variants.ini, don't worry! They'll provide assistance for anyone who's unfamiliar with making a variant definition.
Playtesting Entries should be playtested using FairyStockfish. At the most basic level, this involves downloading the FairyStockfish engine & then running a script to have the engine play against itself for multiple games. One such script provided by ianfab (FSF’s creator) is variantfishtest. If there any difficulties, there members in the community that will be be able to help.
Daniel Lee’s standards/recommendations from playtesting are the following:
- Balance – Ideally there should be no larger than a 40/60% winrate between the two sides. Testing should be done over at least 100 games with a long time control.
- Sharpness – Ideally there should not be a forced opening. When looking at the log of AI selfplay, seeing some variation in the opening moves is important. The chosen winner will likely undergo more vigorous testing with NNUE & ironing out any issues before being added to the site.
Graphics Graphics are not a consideration when judging. The entries can be playable using already available symbols if no graphics are provided, & special board graphics can be created by the contestant or Daniel Lee as needed. Naming is (including variant name, piece names, etc) is also not a part of the judging process. The community can assist with polishing the game & creating assets for the winning selection.
Edit: I just asked "Is there a txt file of a variant that have pieces that can change movement as they promote from one zone to another but then demote when going back to the former zone?", then Daniel Lee replied with "hmm now that I think about it, that might not be possible. I'm looking at my definition for Chennis and it simply says pieceDemotion = true so what's more likely is a one-way 'promotion'"
Another edit: "promotedPieceType = m:n" will make m be able to promote to n, but you need a "pieceDemotion = true" to make n be able to demote to m.
H. G. Muller wrote on Tue, Nov 26, 2024 08:55 AM UTC:Nice! Perhaps I should submit a mini version of Onslaught. The regular version is 12x12, which is beyond the capacity of Fairy Stockfish. On 10x10 there could be 30 pieces in the array, and with a closed Pawn rank and the FIDE army that leaves room for 12 fairies. This could be RN, BN plus 5 pairs. Throw in the Omega Champion as a Rook-class piece, then we can have four extra minor types. E.g. Elephant, Camel, Zebra and Frog. The latter would be be a replacement for the 2nd-rank Pawns in the 12x12 version, its F move still being functional on its own board half, like that of the Elephant.
Yitong. Widely-played regional variant on Chinese Chess. (9x10, Cells: 90) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]YiTong+ by ianfab, AKA ubdip
Check the edit.
H. G. Muller wrote on Tue, Nov 26, 2024 05:55 PM UTC in reply to HaruN Y from 01:50 PM:I am not convinced that what this Daniel Lee says makes sense. Demotion isn't really a different mechanic from promotion; it is just another name for the same thing, depending on whether we percieve the origial piece as more or less valuable. Which is a strategic consideration rather than a game rule. If stockfish allows multiple pieces to promote, each according to their own rule and with their own zone, you just make type A promote to B in one zone, and type B to A in the remainder of the board.
The issue could be the "with their own zone" part. When all pieces use the same zone, it amounts to Shogi rules, and Fairy Stockfish does support Shogi.
Dragon King. Moves as Rook or Ferz. AKA Crowned Rook.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Since I replaced the original AI image with new ones, here is the old one for comparison:
Amazon. Can move as queen or as knight.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Since I changed the main AI image, here is the old one for comparison:
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I just discovered that this game contains the Unicorn, a piece that I later used as Fischer in 10-directional Chess. I have added a credit note in the comment of this game.