Discover and Play Various Games Similar to Chess
Chess has its origins in the Arabian game of Shatranj, which goes back to the Indian game of Chaturanga.
Many games are inspired by or based on Chess and its relatives, all sharing common roots while differing in various ways.
Symmetric Chess is our featured variant for March, 2024.
Thanks to computers and the internet, we may now play several of these games without physical boards or pieces.
This website – The Chess Variant Pages – is here for cataloging, discussing, and playing the many games that are based on, related to, or similar enough to Chess.
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Notes
The Chess Variant Pages may be viewed in either a Light color scheme or a Dark color scheme, and you may use an item in the Tools menu to switch between them. The logo for the Light scheme is flanked by an Elephant and a Unicorn from Musketeer Chess variant kits. The Elephant represents historic and regional variants, as many from Chaturanga to Janggi include this piece, and Xiangqi is even named for it. The Unicorn represents fairy chess, which was the practice of creating Chess problems with novel pieces or alternate rules, as well as modern variants.
The logo for the Dark theme is flanked by a Dragon Horse and a Fairy Princess. The Dragon Horse comes from Shogi and represents Asian variants. Though Shogi is normally not played with figurine pieces, the same piece could conceivably be used in a game that does use them. As a fairy, the Fairy Princess symbolizes fairy chess. Also, the piece known in fairy chess as a Princess is one of the most popular of Chess variant pieces, though it is usually known by other names and depicted differently. Both are AI art, generated with Leonardo.Ai, of potential Chess variant pieces rather than photos of real ones.