u/Safebox

I noticed the other day when looking for new games on Steam that there's a lot of ones that turn chess into other genres like RPGs, card games, crowning rules. And it got me wondering, why is the version of chess played today the one that both won out in Europe and became the standard internationally?

The only similar game I'm familiar with is shogi, which does play similarly but with the main differences being that the king can't capture, most pieces get promoted when they reach the opponent's side, and captured pieces can join your side of the board to mimic swayed prisoners of war. But it has a few variants that have equal popularity both casually and professionally.

Its other variants get a little more creative by including stuff like cannon pieces which can attack without moving, fire pieces which make the squares next to then untouchable, the lion piece in one of the standard variants can move twice per turn, etc. And they do get some attention in charity events, but I don't seen chess' fairy pieces or variants get much love.