Game: Bubble Chess Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, May 2000 Bubble Chess Object: Checkmate the opponent's King. Bubbles pop up at the squares where a piece moved from. They are neutral. They limit the range of pieces, but also protect them. The Bubbles are captured like standard chess pieces. In the variant bubbles can be popped. Standard chess rules apply. Note that pawns can move diagonally through bubbles. You can guide your pawns to certain places by creating bubbles at the appropriate squares! More freeware as well as real puzzles and games under http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz. Download Bubble Chess Now!
Game: Bughouse Chess Implemented by Karl Scherer, November 2002. Objective: Capture one of the opponent's kings. (4 variants for 2, 3 and 4 players) Bughouse has four players playing in turn on two chess boards simultaneously, generally working together as two teams against each other. Pieces captured by a player are passed on to his team partner, who can then drop these captured pieces on an unoccupied square on his board in lieu of a normal move (just as in the two-player game Crazyhouse). Note that pawns may not be placed on the first and last rank, and promoted pawns revert back to pawns when captured. To drop a piece, just click on a captured piece stored outside the boards. A player (or a team) wins by capturing one of the opponents' kings. Bughouse Chess is a quick and exciting game, especially when played with human opponents and partners. It is especially popular on internet chess servers like www.freechess.org. It is normally played with chess clocks over the board or on the internet. Each player usually has three or five minutes of time, sometimes using time to `sit' while waiting for their partner to capture pieces that they need. This Zillions implementation is a turn based variant of bughouse for both two players and four players, with the following variations: Variant 1: Single Move Order 1. Board 1: (white) played by BluePlayer 2. Board 2: (white) played by OrangePartner 3. Board 2: (black) played by BluePartner 4. Board 1: (black) played by OrangePlayer ...and so on Variant 2: Double Move Order 1. Board 1: (white) played by BluePlayer 2. Board 1: (black) played by OrangePlayer 3. Board 2: (white) played by OrangePartner 4. Board 2: (black) played by BluePartner ...and so on Variant 2 is derived from a turn based email version of bughouse, and differs only in the order of turns. Variants 3 and 4 feature permanent pawn promotion, where promoted pawns do not revert back to pawns when captured, unlike in official bughouse. Variations described by Godly Gadfly. Piece set supplied by Godly Gadfly. More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my home page http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz. Updated 12/21/02 corrected promotion error in 3-player version Download Bughouse Chess Now!
Game: Burnt Chess Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, July 2002 Object: Checkmate the opponent's King. (4 variants) When you capture a piece, the square you start from is painted red, and it becomes unavailable for further use. Pieces can slide over such a red square, though. Apart from this, all chess rules apply. Please note: in this game, captures are executed by pointing at the target square, NOT by moving a piece to this square. Variant 2: Pawns have a special additional move: A Pawn can slide over one or several burnt squares, landing on the next empty square. Variants 3, 4: As variants 1 and 2, but stalemate is a loss. More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my homepage http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz. Download Burnt Chess Now!
Game: Byzantine Chess Implemented by Robert Price, October 2001. Object: Checkmate the opponent's King. Kings, Rooks, and Knights move as in orthodox chess. Elephants jump two diagonal. Generals move one diagonal. Pawns do not have an initial double step. There is no castling. When two pawns of one color meet on opposing squares, blocking both of them, both are automatically removed from the board. This removal does not count as a move for either player. Stalemate is a win, as is reducing the opponent's forces to only his King. Byzantine chess, also called round chess, is a 1000-year-old variant of Shatranj. It was popular in the 10th century in Byzantium, hence the name. A description of the game appears on the Chess Variant Pages. Download Byzantine Chess Now!
Game: Caïssa Caïssa game & artwork © 1982-1999 by Christian Freeling Caissa.zrf Rules File © 1999 by Ed van Zon Caïssa is an original chess variant with an Atlantis effect: as the game progresses the number of tiles is reduced, thus reducing possible escape routes. Pieces can only be captured by the enemy Queen, who plays the role of King too. Vice versa, the Queen is the only piece that can get 'captured' by the other enemy pieces, but this will of course never happen. The other pieces simply swap places. When the Queen moves, the tile from her starting position disappears. When a Queen is in check, her movement is restricted to the King's move. Play is restricted to the tiles, but a piece may move to a vacant cell, taking its tile with him. And the end of each turn all tiles must be connected - creating an ' island' of tiles is not allowed. A complete illustrated description of the rules is included in the download. Please note: Caïssa requires Zillions of Games version 2.0 (or higher)! Updated 08/30/03 improved graphics & code Download Caïssa Now!
Game: Cannibal Chess Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, June 2000 Object: Checkmate or capture the opponent's King. You can eat your own species (capture your own pieces). For such a big sacrifice you are compensated: Main Variant (Cannibal's Foodstore): In the main game, you are compensated by the fact that you can re-insert such a piece at any later time. Variant 2 (Kill variant): Here you are compensated by one more move with the same piece. You may pass that second move by double clicking the piece. After the second move, your turn invariably stops. Apart from this, all standard chess rules apply. More freeware as well as real puzzles and games under http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz. Updated 9/30/00 Great jungle sounds added. Download Cannibal Chess Now!
Game: Cannon Created and implemented by David E Whitcher, January 2003. with graphics by Keith Carter. The game can be won by capturing your opponents town, destroying it with a cannon shot or by stalemate. Soldiers have three basic moves: Advance: Moves forward orthogonally or diagonally. Attack: Captures opponent forward and sideways orthogonally or forward diagonally. Retreat: Soldiers adjacent to an enemy may move backwards two positions without capturing. And two special moves: Three soldiers in a row make a cannon allowing a non-move capture ( cannon shot ) two or three positions in line with the group as long as the position immediately in front of the cannon is not occupied. The cannon formation may shift along it's length in any direction without capturing. Cannon comes with four variations on two different sized boards 10x10 Standard Formation - Fifteen soldiers 10x10 GreatWall Formation - Twenty soldiers 12x12 Standard Formation - Twenty-four soldiers 12x12 GreatWall Formation - Twenty-four soldiers Download Cannon Now!
Game: Cannon Chess Cannon Chess ©1998 by Peter Michaelsen (p-michae@post8.tele.dk) ZRF ©1999 by Steve Evans (trout@netspace.net.au) Cannon Chess is a chess variant invented by Peter Michaelsen. The game combines features of Western chess, shogi (Japanese chess), xiangqi (Chinese chess) and janggi (Korean chess). The introduction of many cannon-powered pieces make Cannon Chess a very exciting game with an even more explosive opening than Peter's related variant Cannon Shogi! Updated 10/31/00 fixed board problem with Zillions 1.2.1. Download Cannon Chess Now!
Game: Cannon Shogi Cannon Shogi © 1998 by Peter Michaelsen (p-michae@post8.tele.dk) ZRF © 1999 by Steve Evans (trout@netspace.net.au) Cannon Shogi is a chess variant invented by Peter Michaelsen. The game combines many of the features of shogi (Japanese chess) including shogi-style drops and promotions with the tactical elements introduced by having a number of pieces with powers modelled on the cannons of xiangqi (Chinese chess) and janggi (Korean chess). The many cannon-powered pieces make for a very exciting game with a particularly explosive opening! Updated 10/31/00 fixed board problem with Zillions 1.2.1 Download Cannon Shogi Now!
Game: CastleChess Implemented by Uwe Wiedemann, June 2001 In this game, all rules of the normal chess game apply, but now there are two different ways to win the game: Checkmate the opponent (as usual.) Black wins if he long castles White wins if his opponent moves the king or Rook on the long castling side without long castling. Download CastleChess Now!
Game: Double CastleChess Invented and implemented by Uwe Wiedemann, June 2001 In this game, all rules of the normal chess game apply, but now there are two different ways to win the game: Checkmate the opponent (as usual.) A player wins if he long castles A player wins if his opponent moves the king or Rook on the long castling side without long castling. Download Double CastleChess Now!
Game: Cavalier Chess This Chess variant was invented and implemented by Fergus Duniho. It contains a great new set of diagram-style chess pieces. If you want you can even use these in place of Zillions' default set for other Chess games. The premise behind Cavalier Chess is that most pieces have horses, and the game represents a cavalry battle between two feudal kingdoms. Cavalier Chess uses different pieces than Chess, but each piece starts off in the same place as its counterpart in Chess. In Cavalier Chess, the Knight King (K+N) replaces the King, the Marshall (R+N) replaces the Rook, the Paladin (B+N) replaces the Bishop, the Nightrider (multiple N moves) replaces the Knight, and the Cavalier (XiangQi N) replaces the Pawn. The Queen is the same as in Chess. Unlike standard Chess, there is no castling. When a Cavalier reaches the eighth rank, it promotes to the piece whose starting square it lands on. A Cavalier cannot promote to a Knight King, and if it lands on the Knight King's starting square, it promotes to another superior piece of the player's choosing. For more information visit Fergus's webpage on Cavalier Chess. Fergus also has created some Cavalier Chess mating problems, which is a separate download. Download Cavalier Chess Now!
Game: Cazaux Chess This file presents a family of several Chess variants invented by Jean-Louis Cazaux, with some other among the most popular. Shako Played over a 10x10 board with 44 pieces. The idea of this variant is to make a new game without directly disposing the large heritage of the classical game. All rules of orthodox chess are kept. The way the pieces are placed in the opening setup allows the players to follow practical all the openings used for usual chess. The new pieces (Cannon, Elephant) are inspired from Xiangqi (Chinese Chess), with the intention to bring back together the two branches of the game that went from India and Persia either east to China, and west to the Arabs and then to Europe. Shako is presented in the French book "Guide des Echecs exotiques et insolites". Invented in 1990. The name Shako means Chess in Esperanto,'another kind of non-conformism and utopia'. Tamerlane 2000 Played over a 11x11 board with 56 pieces. This game is a variant of Timur's Chess (or Tamerlane Chess). Victory is obtained when opposite King is checkmated with no more possibility of replacement by a Prince. With this implementation, the game is won when the enemy King is checkmated. This is the first chessvariant invented by Jean-Louis Cazaux. Based on Tamerlane II, a game invented in 1978, revised several times and renamed Tamerlane 2000 to mark the difference. A variant proposed here is Wild Tamerlane played with strong pieces (Queens, Gryphons) since the beginning of the game. Perfect 12 Played over a 12x12 board with 72 pieces. For the Ancients, 12 was a perfect number. Much more than 10, since it can be divided by 2, 3 and 4. This game is a chess variant on a 12 x 12 board with 12 types of different pieces. A tentative to a well balanced game since there is the same number of Pawns than other pieces. The driving idea was to gather characters from most famous chess variations, historic and regional. Along the traditional Chess pieces, it has the Cannon from Xiang-Qi, the Lion from Chu Shogi, the Camel from Tamerlane Chess, the Gryphon from Spanish Grande Acedrex and the Prince from Courier Chess. The Elephant is a modern variation of medieval Alfil, also found in Shako. There are as many riders (Queen, Rook, Bishop and Gryphon) than leapers (Knight, Camel, Elephant and Lion). The piece density is 0.5 as for FIDE chess. Gigachess Played over a 14x14 board with 96 pieces. This game is a very large chess variant on a 14 x 14 board with 20 types of different pieces coming from several famous chess variants. The piece density is almost 0.5 as for FIDE chess. This game is so far the biggest of the family. Amazon is the strongest piece, followed by the Queen then the Gryphon. Corporals are stronger than Pawns. Other popular games are given here and can be played using the same graphics. Deciomega Deciomega Chess is a variant of Omega Chess. It is played on a regular 10x10 board. The two new piece types, Champion and Wizard, are both able to jump. Usual chess rules apply. Proposed (1999) by Jean-Louis Cazaux from Omega Chess. The same file allows to play the genuine Omega Chess invented by Daniel C. Macdonald. Decimal Oriental Chess Invented by Vernon Rylands Parton, 1897-1974, a very active Chess variant inventor (Alice Chess, Rettah Chess, etc.). Parton included this variant in his booklet 100 Squares Chess + Damante published in 1972. For the game of Decimal Oriental the player has an army of twenty men which consist of two Chariots, two Cannons, two Horsemen, two Camels and two Elephants, with the Minister and Prince Commander, supported by eight soldiers. Wildebeest Chess In his very nice book New Rules for Classic Games, R. Wayne Schmittberger gives the rules and backgrounds of his large chess variant Wildebeest Chess. One of the design purposes of this variant was to balance the number of riders (pieces like Rook and Bishop) and leapers (pieces like the Knight). e-mail: jl.cazaux@netcourrier.com web page (another view on Chess) : http://www.chez.com/cazaux/ Download Cazaux Chess Now!
Game: Cerberus Created by Chris Huntoon, July 2001. Losing Chess for three players. Object: To lose all your pieces or be stalemated. All capturing is mandatory, though you may choose which capture to make. The King is not royal and may be captured without losing the game. Pawns may be promoted to a king. This game uses Dave McCooey's HexChess as a basis for the set-up. Most rules of Western Chess are observed, with the exception that the center Pawn may not double step. This is to prevent any piece from moving to the center of the board on its first move. Also, there is no castling. Download Cerberus now!
Game: Chad & HexChad Chad game & art work © 1979-1999 by Christian Freeling Chad Rules File © 1999 by Ed van Zon Chad was first published in The Gamer (May-June 1982). In Chad the King is confined to his 3x3 castle and may move as either a King or Knight. The Rooks can promote to Queens upon reaching the interior of the opponent's castle. They can only capture if they are on a castle wall capturing inward, or inside the castle capturing a piece on the wall. Other than that, they just block each other. Try Chad on both a square board and a hexagon board... Download Chad Now! Download HexChad Now!
Game: Chameleon Chess Invented and implemented by Tony Quintanilla, December 2000 Object: Checkmate the opponent's King. The concept that makes this variant new is the idea that a piece can change into other pieces depending on the color of the square it lands on. A piece landing on a yellow square changes into a Queen. Violet changes a piece into a Rook. Red into a Bishop. Light green into a Knight, and dark green into a Pawn. White does not change the piece. Try playing one of the many exciting variants. Chameleon was developed for the Chess Variant Pages' 41 square contest, December 2000, see www.chessvariants.com/41.dir/chameleon.html Download Chameleon Chess Now!
Game: Changling Chess Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, March 2003. Object: Checkmate the opponent's King. (3 variants) In Changling Chess one or more pieces change their piece-type after every move. In the game presented here the rook changes into a bishop after each move, and back to a rook after the following move. The Bishop is a Changling as well: it changes into a rook and back. To make you aware of the changed behaviour, the changlings are marked by a red dot. Variant 2 : only the rook is a Changling. Variant 3 : only the bishop is a Changling. The idea of a Changling can of course be extended to other piece types. I leave it to the chess experts to try out the best combinations. Maybe we can add good variants later. Images of all chess pieces carrying a red dot as markers for Changlings are attached to this game. Please send any comments and email to karl@kiwi.gen.nz More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my home page http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz. Download Changling Chess Now!
Game: Chaos Chess Implemented by Key McKinnis, January 2001 Included are a couple of chess variants, featured on an 8x8 and a 9x9 board. Chaos Chess Object: Force stalemate any way you can. Empty (well, almost) Object: Force stalemate any way you can. Knight's Tour Object: Visit each square only once. Crazy Chaos Chess You can capture your own pieces in this variant. Force stalemate any way you can. Download Chaos Chess Now!
Game: Chazz Invented by David Moeser in 1970, implemented by Uwe Wiedemann, June 2001 In Chazz, all rules of the normal chess game apply, but pawns have changed capabilities and the initial position consists of only one King and eight pawns for each side. Download Chazz Now!
Game: Checkers Chess Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, June 2001 Object: Checkmate the opponent's King. Additional to their standard chess moves, the Queen, Rook, Bishop and King may jump like a token in Checkers. A jump over an enemy piece captures this piece. Variant 2: Pawns may also jump, but only diagonally forward. Variant 3: Pawns jump straight forward or diagonally forward over friendly pieces, but capture only diagonally forward. Variant 4: Pawns jump straight or diagonally forward, whether capturing or not. For more freeware as well as real puzzles and games see my home page http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz. Download Checkers Chess Now!
