Variants can only be played on the Chess.com website, not on the mobile apps. You can learn more about Variants here: How do I play chess variants?
How to create your own variant
To create your own chess variant, hover over 'Play' in the left-side menu on any Chess.com page and select '4 Player & Variants.' This will take you to the Variants page.
From there, scroll down in the right panel to find 'Custom' from the list of variants:
Click 'Edit rules' from the four options at the bottom of the right side panel to mix and match rule sets, or use presets and saved templates to design your perfect game:
Here are your options:
Option |
Details
|
Promotion rank | Select the rank on the board where pawns will promote—or disable promotion entirely! |
Pawns promote to | Decide which pieces pawns can promote to. |
N-check | Decide whether to enable 'check lives' and set the limit. If enabled, a player loses after their king is checked a set number of times.
Similar to 3-check chess, but you can customize the number of allowed checks! |
Stalemate | Customize how stalemates work! You can even set it so the stalemating side wins. |
You can combine multiple rule sets to create a unique game! For example, you could select both 'Spell Chess' and 'King of the Hill' to create a game where you can cast spells and win by moving your king to the center!
You can hover over each game type to see a tooltip explaining the rules:
After choosing your rules, close the menu by clicking the 'x.' Then, click 'Play' to start searching for a match!
You can also choose a random set of rules by clicking the green 'Random Rules' button at the bottom of the options.
How do I find variants other members have created?
To explore custom games created by other players, click on 'Lobby' from the options at the top of the right-side sidebar. There, you'll find a list of open challenges with unique rules to join and play!
Interested in creating your own chess variant? Click here to get started!