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New Variant Possibilities: The Candidates, Part 1.

Obviously, the variants which could be added must be relatively "basic", as in, no double boards like in bughouse or crazyhouse, or different board shapes, etc. They need to be pretty simple changes.

So I've begun compiling a list of likely candidates, most feasible to implement in the existing system, and which are already established as existing variants.

1. Kriegspiel/DarkChess
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegspiel_(chess)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_chess.

For These 2 very closely related variants, The only thing different is the amount of information directly available to the players, and what they are allowed to do. In Kriegspiel (I've also called "No" Chess), you are only told whether your move is legal or not, and whether there are pawn captures available. In DarkChess, you only see your pieces and the places where your pieces can attack or move. All other squares are marked with an x.

Darkchess would probably be slightly easier to implement, but not by much.

2. Double-move Chess

For "Double Move Chess" White moves once, and from then on, both players move twice in a row. Check no longer applies. The first to capture the other's king wins. en Passant only works if the pawn's two space move was the second move, and en Passant is performed on the next players first move.

3. MiniChess
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minichess

This is actually a family of variants, and there are at least a hundred really good options. There are 7X7 boards, but the most common is simply setups and rules for 6x6 boards. I'll expand on these options in a later post.

4. Cylinder Chess.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylinder_chess

Same as chess, except the sides of the board loop around. A and H columns are considered adjacent. Bishops become much more powerful.

That's it for now. I wish there was a way we could vote on the ones we'd most like to see.
I would love to see some other types of chess that are very popular in Asian countries. Like:

- Makruk (Thai chess)
- Sittuyin (Burmese chess)
- Xiangqi (Chinese chess)
- Shogi (Japanese chess)

Or even some historical forms of chess like Shatranj, Chaturanga or Byzantine chess.

I think makruk wouldn't be so difficult to implement and it could attract many more players on Lichess.
I am reviving this thread. What will it take to add some of these variants such as Dark Chess to lichess?

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