Chess.com Variants Page: Create Your Own Crazy Variant!
Have you ever wanted to try your own crazy idea for a chess variant? You can, on the Chess.com variants page!
First, hover over 'Play' in the left menu and click '4 Player & Variants'
This will take you to our Variants page, where you can play all kinds of different types of chess! See more here!
But you can even make your own kind of variant, by clicking 'custom' on the Variants home page. Scroll to the bottom of the list of variants:
Note: You may need to scroll down to see this option.
From the Custom page, you'll be able to design your own variant!
Get Customizing
Use the Options to Set Up Your Rules:
Edit rules: Here you can mix and match between different rule sets, or use presets or saved templates to get the game just how you want it!:
Promotion rank: Choose which rank on the board will cause pawns to promote.
Pawns promote to: Choose what kinds of pieces pawns can promote to.
N-check: Choose whether to enable 'check lives', and how many. If this is on, the king will have a certain number of 'check lives' and if this number of checks is reached, the checked player will lose. This is like 3-check chess, but you can set the number of checks to whatever you want.
Stalemate: Decide how stalemate works! Make it a win for the stalemating side if you want!
You can add one, two, or many rule sets! Hover over each of the game types to see a tooltip describing each rule. For example you could click on both Spell Chess and King of the Hill, to get a game where you can cast spells and also win if you get your king to the center!
You can also choose a random set of rules by clicking the green 'Random Rules' button near the bottom of the options:
Once you have selected all your rules, close out of the menu by clicking the 'x', then you'll be able to click 'Play' and look for a match!
If you want to see other custom games that other players have made, you can go to 'Lobby' in the top menu bar, and you'll see a list of open challenges with custom rules that you can play:
