History Main / VariantChess

* ''Tabletopgame/Chess2'' introduces five different armies with each piece having its own unique moveset. And a player can immediately win if their king moves past the center of the board.

* ''VideoGame/ShotgunKingTheFinalCheckmate'' is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. You play as the Black King, have no other pieces, and can't capture normally... but the Black King has a shotgun which they can use to aim and shoot at the White pieces to damage and kill them, while also being able to move and shoot each round. Killing White's king ends the round, while it's GameOver if the Black King is captured. White starts out with few pieces, but every round they gain more. At the end of a successful round, the player selects a card that gives an advantage to the Black King and an advantage to White's pieces, changing up the gameplay strategy -- such as one that gives the Black King the ability to take the soul of the last piece he killed and spend it to move like that piece, but also gives White's Pawns the ability to attack 2 squares forward.

* ''Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate'' is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. You play as the Black King, have no other pieces, and can't capture normally... but the Black King has a shotgun which they can use to aim and shoot at the White pieces to damage and kill them, while also being able to move and shoot each round. Killing White's king ends the round, while it's GameOver if the Black King is captured. White starts out with few pieces, but every round they gain more. At the end of a successful round, the player selects a card that gives an advantage to the Black King and an advantage to White's pieces, changing up the gameplay strategy -- such as one that gives the Black King the ability to take the soul of the last piece he killed and spend it to move like that piece, but also gives White's Pawns the ability to attack 2 squares forward.

* ''VideoGame/{{Chess Evolved Online}}'' is an ambitious online chess variant that adds [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters over 300 pieces to the game]], with players choosing 15 pieces and a king using a [[PointBuildSystem Point Buy system]]. New pieces range from relative mundane upgrades to existing pieces (Bishop+ can move one square orthogonality, as long as this doesn't capture an enemy piece) to completely original pieces that change the game completely (Liches can CastFromHitPoints to summon skeletons, [[BlowYouAway Wind Mages]] can push both allied and enemy pieces around.)

* ''Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate'' is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. You play as the Black King and have no other pieces... but the Black King has a shotgun which they can use to aim and shoot at the White pieces to damage and kill them, while also being able to move twice a round. Killing White's king ends the round, while it's GameOver if the Black King is captured. White starts out with few pieces, but every round they gain more. At the end of a successful round, the player selects a card that gives an advantage to both the Black King as well as White's pieces, changing up the gameplay strategy.

* ''Shotgun King'' is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. You play as the Black King and have no other pieces... but the Black King has a shotgun which they can use to aim and shoot at the White pieces. Killing White's king ends the round, while it's GameOver if the Black King is captured. White starts out with few pieces, but every round they gain more. At the end of a successful round, the player selects a card that gives an advantage to both the Black King as well as White's pieces, changing up the gameplay strategy.

* Martian Chess; each person controls one quadrant of a chessboard, and it uses icehouse pyramids rather than regular chess pieces. Everyone automatically controls pieces in their territory, so every time you capture an enemy piece you lose the capturing piece. The winner is based on value of captured pieces. From those good people over at Looney Labs, it was mentioned in ''TheEmptyCity'' as an alternative to the more popular game of Icehouse.

* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' fills this narrative slot with "stones", which appears to be TabletopGame/{{Go}} or a game very much like it. It's stated to be a simplified form of a more complex game called "Sha'rah", whose strategy centers around the capture and/or manipulation of a powerful piece called [[FisherKing the Fisher]]. The children's game Snakes and Foxes (similar to the RealLife ''Chutes and Ladders'', except that it's nearly UnwinnableByDesign) is also a major plot point.

* ''Creator/KatherineKurtz'' Deryni novels have something called Cardounet, which seems similar to chess.
* ''Creator/HarryTurtledove'' puts one in his Videssos books in which the pieces representing coins get more valuable the farther into 'enemy' territory they get.

* One of the things that gets interrupted by the Batphone in the old Series/Batman1966 TV series is a game of chess, played on four or five layered boards.

** Thank you! (From the creator of Tile Chess.)

** Thud! is apparently a [[VariantChess Variant]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hnefatafl Hnefatafl]].

* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', every prototyping changes the VariantChess world known as Skaia and as each player enters it grows more complex

** 12 Prototypings: In the troll universe their Skaia looks like a giant ocean planet with with a giant frog named Bilious Slick, [[spoiler:the human universe that the trolls created]] at the center and it's covered in lily pads. [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/scratch.php?s=6&p=005920 It looks like this (spoilers ahead).]]

* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' introduces [[https://xkcd.com/2465/ Dimensional Chess]], which takes n-dimensional chess a stage further by adding more dimensions to each row. So rows 1 an 8 are 2D, rows 2 and 7 are 3D, rows 3 and 6 are 4D and rows 4 and 5 are 5D.

* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' introduces [[https://xkcd.com/2465/ Dimensional Chess]], which takes n-dimensional chess a stage further by adding more dimensions to each row. So rows A an H are 2D, rows B and G are 3D, rows C and F are 4D and rows D and E are 5D.

** In "Orbit", two {{Mad Scientist}}s are playing a game with pieces that look like identical plastic cylinders. Avon wants to know how they tell the king from the queen (as it's implied both scientists are gay, Avon's quip might be GettingCrapPastTheRadar).

* ''VideoGame/{{Archon}}'' and its numbered sequel featured chess pieces with varied abilities. Capturing pieces was performed via an arcade sequence.

* In Creator/IsaacAsimov's novel ''Pebble in the Sky'', set thousands of years in the future, it is mentioned that 3d and other futuristic variants of chess exist, though the game that features as a plot point is of the common sort.

* ''[[FiveDChessWithMultiverseTimeTravel 5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel]]'' is technically [=4D=] (2 spatial dimension and 2 temporal), but it's basically normal chess with the ability to move pieces and attack back into the past, which generates an alternate timeline when it's done so. Winning is usual by getting a checkmate, but that can also be done through time and alternate timelines in addition to on the normal board.

* ''[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1349230 5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel]]'' is technically [=4D=] (2 spatial dimension and 2 temporal), but it's basically normal chess with the ability to move pieces and attack back into the past, which generates an alternate timeline when it's done so. Winning is usual by getting a checkmate, but that can also be done through time and alternate timelines in addition to on the normal board.

* Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse novels:

* [[http://www.sjgames.com/knightmare/ Knightmare Chess]], where the rules ''change'' over the course of the game, based on cards.

* There's an entire web site devoted to chess variants called, appropriately enough, [[http://www.chessvariants.org Chessvariants.org]].

** A similar game from the same people is [[http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Andy/Games/monochess.html Monochrome Chess]]; the same idea of a board that has been divided and you only control the pieces in your territory, but it uses regular chess pieces rather than icehouse pyramids. All sorts of recursive game development going on...

* The page image with the circular board is [[http://www.3manchess.com/ 3 Man Chess]]. And yes, there are rules keeping you from taking the rook right next to yours at the beginning, among other things. Some other quirks that arise due to the board include diagonal and horizontal moves sometimes allowing the piece to move in a full circle.

--> '''The Doctor''': "The crowd is getting restless, they know the queen is your only legal move. Except you've already moved it twelve times, which means there are now over four ''million'' volts running through it. That's why they call it ''live'' chess.