How Can I Create a Variant?

I have a great idea for a chess variant.  It doesn't use any new pieces, and I've played almost a hundred games with friends and family, and it's played out remarkably fair.  I would love to take it to the next level, but I can't for the life of me find any program that would allow me to create a variant.  Suggestions?

Winboard doesn't have a very intuitive way to edit the rules of chess, only the position.

Well, what I mean by that is I literally can't find any instructions on how to create a new variant.  Searching online is completely pointless, I've tried all of the keywords I can think of.

Note that WinBoard is just an interface to display a Chess board on the screen and manipulate the pieces on it. When you switch legality testing off (a checkbox in the General Options menu) it doesn't impose any rules, so you can already use it to play any variant that only uses the standard board and pieces.

If you want the computer to think up moves so that you can play against it... Well, WinBoard never does that, not even for orthodox Chess. It needs an 'engine' (like Crafty or Stockfish) for that. There exist engines (like Sjaak II) that are reasonably easy to configure for almost arbitrary Chess variants. Just edit the file with its game definitions (I think it is called variants.txt for Sjaak II), to add a definition of your own game. (Specifying things like participating pieces, how these move, the initial setup, etc.) The file itself contains directions for how to do that (and many examples), and I don't think the format is particularly difficult to understand. When you specified the rules to the engine, the latter can be used by WinBoard to enforce these rules (and set up the required initial position, etc.).

Americans like to make things modern and complicated. Why create a variant? Instead spend time getting better at chess.

Because FIDE Chess is such a boring game compared to some other variants?

And it could of course be that there are people who'se hobby is designing games, rather than playing them. Has anyone ever asked you why you waste your time on pushing these little wooden puppets over a checkered board, and that you instead should spend time to get better at carving pieces out of a wooden stick?

If you're on Windows, I believe you still can get Zillions of Games which also does what you're asking for.

Why invent bicycles? Just spend time getting better at walking.

True. Unlike WinBoard, Zillions is commercial software, however. And from what I have seen its game-definition files look far more obscure than those of Sjaak II.

But it is true that Zillions is far more versatile than Sjaak II. It can also handle games that involve cards or dice. But if it is about reasonably conventional Chess variants (just with boards of other sizes, pieces that move differently, possibly with piece drops) Sjaak II would probably be the better choice.

Is not FIDE chess, is chess. And it is not boring.

There are actually many Chess variants, and Chess according to FIDE rules is just one of them, originally known as the Mad Queen variant. This to distinguish it from its immediate predecessor, where the Queen moved the same as a King. It is not the only form of Chess, and not the original form of Chess.

And it is only not boring to those that do not know any better...

Thanks for your feedback guys, really helpful!  It honestly is almost impossible to find this kind of stuff online unless you know what your looking for.  As at for the question of, "Why create a variant?", the answer is simple.  I'm a creative person by heart, it's what I thrive on.  Without truly feeling like I'm making something I feel empty.  (Plus it's super fun )

I'd like to suggest maker-chess from appstore itunes.apple.com, tinker with it, create a new variant, play with others and with cpu... Well, that is only for ios, but you have an option. :)

maker-chess doesn't actually change rules, all it can do is set up postions, plus its silly iOS only thing makes it basically useless for me anyway.

chessfriends.com gives a variant in everygame you play there.

tell us the idea

Totally agree. But while I was learning to live w/o electricity and see better in the dark, I bumped my knee bad and won't be walking for a while. Or cycling.

BlargDragon wrote:

Priteshrp87 wrote:

Americans like to make things modern and complicated. Why create a variant? Instead spend time getting better at chess.

Why invent bicycles? Just spend time getting better at walking.

Then you need to do a lot of programming, if you're ready to go that way, then reply, there're many developer interfaces available, some user friendly, some may not be so, that allows creating your own game project, modifying the code and running it directly with a nice user interface... A bit difficult but hey, you can do it! :)

I hope your knee feels better soon! Is your other knee taking good care if it?