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u/xbambcem

Chess Noise
▲ 2 r/gridgrove

Chess Noise

Chess Abstractionism is a movement in which the chessboard and pieces become material for abstract composition. Rules are replaced by rhythm, tactics by visual tension, and checkmate by aesthetic experience. It is an optical revolution on 14×27 squares. And it is only just beginning.

How to Play Chess Noise

You can play Chess Noise in two ways:

1. With the original initial setup — from that virgin canvas, from that primordial architecture that gave birth to this movement.

2. Using a random setup, which is set in the game settings before it begins.

In a random setup, kings may initially be under attack. If so, starting with White, players alternately eliminate all threats to their own king using normal chess moves before the game proper begins.

A player whose king is no longer under attack may make any standard chess moves, including delivering check or checkmate to the opponent's king — even if their other pieces already attack the opponent's king.

Check or checkmate is only considered valid after a player has eliminated all threats to their own king.

Note: Both kings do not need to be safe at the same time. Once one player has secured their king and makes a move, standard check/checkmate rules apply, regardless of the opponent's king's situation.

u/xbambcem — 3 days ago
▲ 2 r/gridgrove

Silverman 4x5 (Simultaneous Turns)

Super fun! Give it a shot, everyone!

u/xbambcem — 4 days ago
▲ 2 r/gridgrove

SHUFFLE BAFFLE

My invitation into the Rabbit Hole ;) Let's have some fun!

The rules are simple – find and destroy all 16 opponent's Kings. Whoever loses their last King loses the game. All pieces move and capture like in standard chess. Oh, and most importantly – when a piece captures, it disappears together with its victim. It's the Rabbit Hole, after all...

https://preview.redd.it/0x1bp6czguzg1.jpg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=92dd7ea1947c282b69e2e46273adb914d87c3e2d

SHUFFLE BAFFLE

Full Board Random Chess

For fun and entertainment only.

The Theme

No openings to memorize. No predictable setups. Just a shuffled board where the starting position baffles you from move one. Pure chaos. Pure fun.

Board & Setup

Board: Standard 8×8 chessboard

Pieces per side: 16 Kings, 4 Queens, 4 Rooks, 4 Bishops, 4 Knights

Total pieces on the board: 64 (32 per side)

Starting position: All pieces are placed randomly anywhere on the board (both players' pieces mixed together). Each player has their own 32 pieces, but they are shuffled and placed randomly across all 64 squares.

https://preview.redd.it/id5rlk52huzg1.png?width=517&format=png&auto=webp&s=379f8da761f150fb3879ff171e1ea8908439d2ea

Movement & Capture

Kings, Queens, Rooks, Bishops, Knights – move exactly as in standard chess but DIE ON CAPTURE.

No pawns.

No castling.

No check, no checkmate, no stalemate. The King has no special status – it is just another piece that can be captured like any other.

Multiple Kings Rule

All 16 Kings on each side move and capture exactly like a standard chess King (one square in any direction).

Kings can be placed next to each other – no restriction.

Kings can be captured. Losing a King is like losing any other piece.

Goal

Destroy all 16 opponent Kings. The first player to capture the last remaining King of the opponent wins.

All other pieces (Queens, Rooks, Bishops, Knights) are secondary – they exist to help you hunt down the Kings. You do not need to capture them to win, but they can get in your way.

Draw Conditions

A draw occurs if:

Both players agree to a draw.

50 consecutive moves are made without a capture (standard chess rule).

Why "Shuffle Baffle"?

Because the setup shuffles everything across the entire board, and the resulting chaos will baffle even experienced players. No two games are ever the same.

reddit.com
u/xbambcem — 6 days ago
▲ 2 r/gridgrove

KNIGHTFALL

KNIGHTFALL

6×6. No kings. Capture all enemy knights to win.

Rules

The game follows standard chess rules except for the following:

1. Board and Setup

6×6 board.

Initial setup:

White: 1st rank — R, B, N, N, B, R; 2nd rank — P, P, P, P, P, P.

Black: 6th rank — R, B, N, N, B, R; 5th rank — P, P, P, P, P, P.

2. No King

There are no kings. Check, checkmate, and castling do not exist.

3. Pawns

Move only 1 square forward (no double-step from the starting position).

Promotion on the last rank (1st for Black, 6th for White): to a rook, knight or bishop.

En passant is not possible.

4. Winning Condition

You win by being the first to capture all of your opponent's knights.

It's important to emphasize: Knightfall was conceived not so much as "light" chess on a small board, but as a puzzle. It is here, on the limited 6×6 space, that the L-shaped move of the knight can manifest itself in all its glory and where you still have to be able to catch that knight. The absence of the king changes everything: no hiding places, no saving check, only pure geometry of movement and relentless hunting.

u/xbambcem — 6 days ago
▲ 2 r/chessvariants

KNIGHTFALL

6×6. No kings. Capture all enemy knights to win.

Rules

The game follows standard chess rules except for the following:

1. Board and Setup

6×6 board.

Initial setup:

https://preview.redd.it/rj0xefts8nzg1.jpg?width=517&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1739872113ea72ffed0d31dad22f20b7ff7e5e01

White: 1st rank — R, B, N, N, B, R; 2nd rank — P, P, P, P, P, P.

Black: 6th rank — R, B, N, N, B, R; 5th rank — P, P, P, P, P, P.

2. No King

There are no kings. Check, checkmate, and castling do not exist.

3. Pawns

Move only 1 square forward (no double-step from the starting position).

Promotion on the last rank (1st for Black, 6th for White): to a rook, knight or bishop.

En passant is not possible.

4. Winning Condition

You win by being the first to capture all of your opponent's knights.

It's important to emphasize: Knightfall was conceived not so much as "light" chess on a small board, but as a puzzle. It is here, on the limited 6×6 space, that the L-shaped move of the knight can manifest itself in all its glory and where you still have to be able to catch that knight. The absence of the king changes everything: no hiding places, no saving check, only pure geometry of movement and relentless hunting.

Players have already appreciated this dynamic. And here is what the statistics collected by the AI bot playing against itself show:

Total games: 2500

Decisive: 2407 (96.3%)

Draws: 93 (3.7%)

Average moves per game: 37.7

Player balance:

Player 1 (White): 1181 wins (47.2%)

Player 2 (Black): 1226 wins (49.0%)

Draws: 93 (3.7%)

What does this tell us?

First, the game is very decisive. Only 3.7% draws — this is an excellent indicator for a chess variant. The game almost always ends with someone's victory, which makes every match tense right until the end.

Second, the balance is nearly perfect. The difference between White and Black is less than 2% in favor of Black. This is a statistically negligible deviation, showing that the first move does not provide a decisive advantage. The game is fair.

Third, the average length is 37.7 moves. This is not a "fast meat grinder," but a full-fledged tactical battle. A small board does not mean a short game — every move requires calculation, and the hunt for knights turns into a long siege.

Finally, I think the concept I proposed can be considered very attractive. Low draw rate + high balance between sides = an ideal formula for competitive play.

Capturing a knight is easy but capturing the last one that is where the real puzzle begins.

reddit.com
u/xbambcem — 7 days ago
▲ 2 r/chessvariants

My invitation into the Rabbit Hole ;) Let's have some fun!

The rules are simple – find and destroy all 16 opponent's Kings. Whoever loses their last King loses the game. All pieces move and capture like in standard chess. Oh, and most importantly – when a piece captures, it disappears together with its victim. It's the Rabbit Hole, after all...

https://preview.redd.it/c5ykr116djzg1.jpg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=942d208f58fcc26b7935100e66b9c79245ae7ebf

SHUFFLE BAFFLE

Full Board Random Chess

For fun and entertainment only.

The Theme

No openings to memorize. No predictable setups. Just a shuffled board where the starting position baffles you from move one. Pure chaos. Pure fun.

Board & Setup

Board: Standard 8×8 chessboard

Pieces per side: 16 Kings, 4 Queens, 4 Rooks, 4 Bishops, 4 Knights

Total pieces on the board: 64 (32 per side)

Starting position: All pieces are placed randomly anywhere on the board (both players' pieces mixed together). Each player has their own 32 pieces, but they are shuffled and placed randomly across all 64 squares.

https://preview.redd.it/07s72vhfdjzg1.png?width=517&format=png&auto=webp&s=9a77993787a8854754cbfc13c1447852005d6ca5

Movement & Capture

Kings, Queens, Rooks, Bishops, Knights – move exactly as in standard chess but DIE ON CAPTURE.

No pawns.

No castling.

No check, no checkmate, no stalemate. The King has no special status – it is just another piece that can be captured like any other.

Multiple Kings Rule

All 16 Kings on each side move and capture exactly like a standard chess King (one square in any direction).

Kings can be placed next to each other – no restriction.

Kings can be captured. Losing a King is like losing any other piece.

Goal

Destroy all 16 opponent Kings. The first player to capture the last remaining King of the opponent wins.

All other pieces (Queens, Rooks, Bishops, Knights) are secondary – they exist to help you hunt down the Kings. You do not need to capture them to win, but they can get in your way.

Draw Conditions

A draw occurs if:

Both players agree to a draw.

50 consecutive moves are made without a capture (standard chess rule).

Why "Shuffle Baffle"?

Because the setup shuffles everything across the entire board, and the resulting chaos will baffle even experienced players. No two games are ever the same.

Play Online

You can play Shuffle Baffle online against real opponents or bots on GridGrove.gg.

reddit.com
u/xbambcem — 8 days ago
▲ 8 r/chessvariants

Designed for No‑Check/No‑Checkmate chess variants.

For extra fun, enable an option where the Paranoid King may capture his own pieces as a legal move. For example, the first move of the game could look like this: Kxe2, d4.

u/xbambcem — 14 days ago
▲ 2 r/gridgrove

When Carrera first introduced in Europe in 1617 a piece combining the moves of the knight and the bishop, and called it the Centaur, this hybrid quickly became established in various chess variants. Moreover, each author of a given variant preferred to name the piece in their own way. For example, the great Capablanca named it the Archbishop for his version of chess, Henry Bird called it the Equerry in Bird's Chess (1874), and Arno von Wilpert called it the Fox in Wolf Chess (1943). Chess problemists generally call the knight-bishop hybrid the Princess.

Following this long-standing and well-established tradition, I also decided that the knight+bishop in my new chess variant will bear its own special name — the Faun. The Faun, a forest god, dwells in thickets, secluded caves, or near babbling springs, where he foretells the future, catches birds, and pursues nymphs. Simply an ideal character for my chess variant.

The Theme

The theme of this chess variant is the inevitable transformation and the paradox of mobility. Unlike traditional chess, where promotion is a reward for a pawn's long journey, here every single move by a pawn immediately and irrevocably turns it into a Faun (a knight-bishop hybrid). This creates a fundamental tension: moving a pawn grants you a powerful piece, but it also removes a static blocker from the board and potentially gives your opponent more opportunities to reach a winning stalemate. Victory goes not to the player who delivers checkmate or captures all enemy pieces, but to the one who first loses the ability to move — a complete inversion of standard chess logic.

Faun AntiChess

The Rules

Board: 5×5

Initial position:

White pawns: all squares of the 1st and 2nd ranks (10 pawns)

Black pawns: all squares of the 4th and 5th ranks (10 pawns)

The 3rd rank is empty

Movement of a pawn:

Normal move: one square straight forward

Two-square jump forward: always allowed (from any rank, as long as the destination square exists)

Capture: one square diagonally forward (standard pawn capture)

Promotion:

When a pawn makes any move (including a two-square jump or a capture), at the end of that move it mandatorily turns into a Faun.

Example: a pawn from the 1st rank moves to the 2nd rank (one square forward) → on the 2nd rank, it becomes a Faun.

The Faun:

Moves like a bishop + knight (a hybrid piece; in chess problem terminology, it is often called a Princess)

Capturing:

Capturing is mandatory — if at least one capture is available, the player must make a capture (any legal capture of their choice).

No checks or checkmates:

There are no kings on the board. Pieces may be captured freely without any restriction.

Stalemate:

If a player cannot make any legal move, that player wins the game.

Goal of the game:

Lose all your pieces (or get stalemated) to win the game.

Discuss the game on a forum.

u/xbambcem — 16 days ago
▲ 1 r/gridgrove

This is a modification of my Tremendous Chess.

HELLGATE

Total Annihilation Chess

The Theme
You stand before the gates of hell. Behind them – no mercy, no escape, no truce. Only total annihilation. The battlefield is vast – 16×16 – and packed with heavy artillery from the very first rank. No pawns. No slow advances. Just pure, immediate carnage. When the gates close behind you, there is only one way out: destroy everything that moves.

Movement & Capture
Rook, Queen, Bishop, Knight – move and capture as in standard chess.
No King.
No Pawns.
One capture per move – no chain captures.

The Hellgate Rule (Mandatory Capture)
If you can capture any opponent piece, you must capture.
If multiple captures exist, you choose which piece captures which target.

Goal
Destroy ALL enemy pieces. The first player to lose their last piece loses.

Draw occurs in the following cases:
Both players agree to a draw.
The same position appears three times (with the same player to move).
64 consecutive moves are made without any capture.

u/xbambcem — 16 days ago