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How can I make my own chess variant?
How can I make my own chess variant?

Ever wanted to create your own chess variant? You can on the Chess.com Variants page! Learn how to do it here!

Updated over 3 weeks ago

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:

Custom variant option on Chess.com's variants page
  • 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:

Edit Rules option on Chess.com's custom variants page

Here are your options:

List of Variants on the Custom Rules screen

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:

Rules of Any Capture chess

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!

Lobby tab on Chess.com's variants page

Interested in creating your own chess variant? Click here to get started!

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