Variants vs Regular chess : pro e cons

What are IYO and in brief the advantages and the disadvantages that the variants you tried have vs regular chess ?

In my case playing vs the computer I'd say:

CIRCULAR CHESS

pro: unique tactics for example you can give double checks with one rook or a queen but not much else

cons: basically it's a two front war, on each front there's less piece density and less opportunities for tactics and tasty combinations. The minor pieces are somewhat emasculated.

SEIRAWAN CHESS

pro: the game is richer, more tactics and combinations available. More interesting imbalances available. Unique tactics: double move using the drop ex: the Qd1xQd8 mate

cons: the game is more "raw". A slightly exposed king is dead meat. The game is less subtle. Less place for strategy.

pics added 

Chess960 (Fischer random)

Pro: No opening theory so strategy and tactics are more important.

Pro: Follows standard chess rules so easy to follow, unlike other variants.

Con: Some starting positions can be a bit unbalanced

Multiple-way chess:

Pro: Same rules as usual, except with more players

Pro: Encourages you (and teaches you) to look at the whole board for more tactics, given the increased number of pieces

Pro: Primarily an exciting, and tactical game

Con: Multiple opponents (and therefore multiple opportunities to get mated and opportunities to be ganged up upon)

Con:Multiple fronts

Con:Openings are unreliable

Spartan Chess

Pro: Similar tactical complexity to FIDE Chess

Pro: More intersting end-games, as they will always be between unlike pieces.

Pro: half familiar, as white plays with FIDE army

Con: Many unfamiliar pieces in the black army

Con: No quick sacrificial mating combinations for white (because black has two kings).

Vs the computer I played this too ...

AMBI CHESS

Pieces are denoted as either Left or Right according to their starting positions. Players are required to perform two moves during their turn: one x side.

Pro: the double move allows hoards of tactics. Overloading is a common tactical motif. Unique tactics: there's no stalemate so you can checkmate with two naked kings

Cons: a real brain-burner but it could be a challenge for high rated players

"Circular chess" is not a variant. It's far older than the standard chess we play now.

Extinction Chess is balanced (no random silliness), highly tactical, and has no established opening book. It's still unclear if White, Black, or neither has an opening advantage.

What has that got to do with it? Xiangqi is much older, and it is a variant. Even 'standard Chess' is a variant. They are all variants of the grander concept of Chess.

I wouldn't call anything a variant unless I knew its provenance. I know Extinction is a variant because I know its provenance. I am unaware of any chess historian who can trace the origins of circular chess.

 Chess was played on a circular board in Constantinople, c. 10th century, and is known from many manuscripts.  It is generally referred to as "Byzantine Chess"  However, it was played using Shatranj rules transposed onto a circular board, as our modern rules had not yet been invented.

Modern circular Chess is just a translation of modern piece movements onto a circular board, or, in the case of a game sold under the brand name "Noble Celts", a cylindrical board, which is then stretched into a circle.

My guess is that circular Chess has been reinvented many times, as it is just a case of taking an existing system and applying a slight variation.  The only case where it was actually the dominant form of Chess in a region was in the Byzantine empire.

Spartan chess seems to be interesting. It is an accomplishment  for its game designer to have created a balanced game with two unequal armies. There must be a formula or something. BTW where you can download an AI engine for Spartan for WINBOARD?

The standard install of WinBoard (obtainable from http://hgm.nubati.net/WinBoard-4.5.2.exe ) does contian Fairy-Max as (not-so-strong) demo engine, and Spartan Chess is one of the variants that Fairy-Max supports (next to FIDE, Makruk, Capablanca/Gothic, Cylinder, Courier, Superchess, Berolina, Knightmate).

A much stronger WinBoard engine that supports Spartan Chess is Nebiyu: https://sites.google.com/site/dshawul/home , which comes in a package of engines for many games not related to Chess, such as Checkers, Ultima, Amazons, Reversi, Go. (So what you need is NebiyuChess, actually.) I am currently working on a package that bundles an experimental WinBoard version ('WinBoard-Alien') that supports all these games with Nebiyu, which could be installed next to a normal WinBoard install without hurting the latter, and would allow the user to run Nebiyu out-of-the-box. The tentative version for that can be downloaded from http://hgm.nubati.net/WinBoard-Nebiyu.exe .

I played some spartan games vs the computer with fairy max. It's pretty good ! You have to lose a couple of games to understand how black moves but then there are mating combination with sacs.

The best thing should be the ability to post games of Spartan and other variants  in the blog and the forum without resorting to cumbersome videos (provided that chess.com approves) but I haven't found suitable programs in the net still.

Well, you can post the PGN of the game as text. Then people that want to see it could paste it into WinBoard. I don't know of any software that would allow people to view the game in their browser, though. There is such software (usually written in JavaScript) for viewing PGN, but it only works for orthodox Chess.

I do have a JavaScript viewer that I use when I broadcast live games, but it is a bit primitive, and takes the moves from a text file in a rather awkward format (not regular PGN). For example

http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/goths.html

OMEGA chess:

pro: New pieces, More interesting imbalances available

cons: a) more pieces = more tactics, but these are diluited in the 10x10 board

        b) the knights are severely emasculated

        c) the corners are silly

        d) somewhat difficult to keep track of everything on a 10x10 board

        e)The fool which mimics the movement of the last pieces utilized by the opponent is an intriguing concept, but in practice it's a clumsy piece

Ok ... After some experience vs the AI here's my take about SPARTAN CHESS

pro) balanced game, interesting to learn the strengths and weaknessess of the Spartan side.

cons) The trades are not even: Knights always trade with the Liutenants and the Queen if forced trades with the Warlord so you tend to end up (if you survive to middlegame tactics) with a General + Captains vs Rooks endgame . It seems that the structural imbalance of the game actually makes the game more scripted than regular chess 

Abbott's ULTIMA chess. Here's an easy to visualize Zillion's version

Pro: way more complex than chess , the pieces are more mobile and the captures are tricky. Excellent for puzzles. To plan a 2 moves forced combination is an accompishment. Overall it's good fun.

Cons: there's no theory around in the net , it's not clear what is the value of the pieces  . It has less a territorial feeling than chess and it plays more like reversi although space still has a role

In WinBoard it wouldlook like this:

You would need the WinBoard Alien edition to play this, as Ultima is not a Chess variant. But there exists a hack of WinBoard that makes it more generally useful as a GUI for any game on a square board, and next to Checkers, Go and Reversi, this also can handle Ultima. The Nebiyu engine plays all these games, and is bundled with WinBoard in this installer package:

http://hgm.nubati.net/WinBoard-Nebiyu.exe

This ishow it looks OTB:

Thanks, I use  Zillions currently. I saw the winboard engine for Ultima, but there could use better pictures ... What's your opinion about that game? I was thinking that the only reason that you have double chamaleons and long - leapers is that  is needed the same equipment that you have in chess , but if you're playing on the the computer you could have just one piece x type (except the pawns) and maybe use the advancer , the swapper or why not  the FIDE Queen to replace the doubles

Regards

I don't see your point. Both Xiangqi and 'International Chess' played by FIDE rules are variants. So how can that have anything to do with cultural bias? Of course being a Chess variant has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with being derived from International Chess, as it is well documented that this is not the original/earliest form of Chess, but is derived from earlier variants such as Shatranj and Courier Chess, and that the distant moves of the Queen is a comparatively recent addition creating the Mad Queen variant we play now.

The book by David Li is quite controversial, as his argumentation seems to be all speculation, and zero hard fact. But even if he were right, it would not alter a thing: Xiangqi would still be just one variant on the grander concept of Chess. That it happens to be by far the most popular variant ion this planet, it irrelevant as well.