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  <title>Variants supported by XBoard</title>
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  <h1>Chess variants supported by XBoard</h1>

  <p>Next to orthodox Chess (aka FIDE or Mad Queen), XBoard
  supports many other Chess variants. This includes the World's
  major forms of Chess: Chinese, FIDE, Japanese, and Thai Chess.
  But also many popular western variants (Suicide Chess,
  Crazyhouse, Chess960, Gothic/Capablanca Chess, Seirawan
  Chess).</p>

  <p>Full support by XBoard means that the latter is fully aware of
  how all pieces move, and what the winning condition is. This
  means the variant can be played with the option Test Legality
  switched on, and that it can accurately check any result claims
  that engines make. Non-supported variants can often be played
  with legality checking switched off. Then any of the 22 piece
  types known by XBoard can be used in ways XBoard does not expect.
  The only real drawback of this is that the game notation looks a
  bit crummy, with many spurious or missing disambiguators, check
  and checkmate symbols. XBoard will always be able to read suh
  games back, however (as on reading it suffers from the same
  misconceptions on piece movement). This can be kept baerable by
  choosing XBoard supported pieces to represent the unsupported
  ones that move as similar as possible.</p>

  <p>Some variants are only partially supported. This means they
  have to be played with legality checking off, although XBoard
  knows they exist, and even implements some of their rules that no
  other variant would allow. For instance, in Berolina Chess Pawns
  move diagonally, and in any other variant this would lead to
  disappearence of other Pawns during the game, as normally XBoard
  interprets a diagonal Pawn move to an empty square as e.p.
  capture.</p>

  <p>The following list tries to group all variants by properties.
  Some duplicates occur when a variant fits in more than one
  group.</p>

  <h3>List of supported variants</h3>

  <table>
    <tr>
      <td bgcolor="#FFFF80"></td>

      <td>= recommended</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Chess.html">FIDE Chess</a></td>

      <td>The modern international game, second in popularity only
      to Xiangqi</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td colspan="2"><b>Shuffle games with normal pieces</b></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Wild.html">Wild Castle</a></td>

      <td>Shuffles the initial FIDE setup, leaving King and Rooks
      in place</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="No.html">No Castle</a></td>

      <td>More aggressive shuffling of the initial FIDE setup,
      without castling</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="FRC.html">Chess960</a></td>

      <td>A Shuffle variant where even Kings and Rooks in
      non-standard location can castle</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td colspan="2"><b>Variants with piece drops</b></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Crazy.html">Crazyhouse</a></td>

      <td>Pieces you capture are added to your army, by dropping
      them back onto the board</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td>Bughouse</td>

      <td>four-player game that XBoard can only play with the aid
      of an Internet Chess Server</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Shogi.html">Shogi</a></td>

      <td>Japanese Chess, where pieces you captured can be dropped
      to strengthen your own army</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td bgcolor="#FFFF80"><a href="Mini.html">mini-Shogi</a></td>

      <td>Highly simplified and very tactical mini version of Shogi
      (on 5x5 board)</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td colspan="2"><b>Unusual winning conditions</b></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Suicide.html">Suicide Chess</a></td>

      <td>Win by getting rid of all your material by mandatory
      capture</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Giveaway.html">Give-Away Chess</a></td>

      <td>Win by getting rid of all your material by mandatory
      capture</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Losers.html">Losers Chess</a></td>

      <td>Win by being left with a bare King</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="3checks.html">3-checks</a></td>

      <td>Lose by being checked 3 times</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td colspan="2"><b>Variants with various intrusive
      rules</b></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Atomic.html">Atomic Chess</a></td>

      <td>Pieces that capture explode, destroying anything in the
      vicinity</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Cylinder.html">Cylinder Chess</a></td>

      <td>The a-file and h-file connect to make the board a
      cylinder</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="TwoKings.html">TwoKings</a></td>

      <td>Play with two Kings, changing which one is royal during
      the game</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td colspan="2"><b>Variants where just a few pieces move in
      unorthodox ways</b></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Shatranj.html">Shatranj</a></td>

      <td>Ancient Arabic/Persian Chess, with primitive Queen and
      Bishops</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Berolina.html">Berolina Chess</a></td>

      <td>Pawns capture straight ahead, and move diagonally</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="ASEAN.html">ASEAN</a></td>

      <td>South-East Asian Chess, a modernized version of
      Makruk</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td bgcolor="#FFFF80"><a href=
      "Knightmate.html">Knightmate</a></td>

      <td>Try to checkmate a single Royal Knight with (amongst
      others) two non-royal Kings</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Falcon.html">Falcon Chess</a></td>

      <td>Two (Rook-class) Falcon pieces augment FIDE on a 10-wide
      board</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td bgcolor="#FFFF80"><a href="Lion.html">Mighty-Lion
      Chess</a></td>

      <td>All-powerful Lions can capture other pieces en-passant,
      or two pieces at once</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td colspan="2"><b>Variants with extra Rook-Knight and
      Bishop-Knight compound pieces</b></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Seirawan.html">Seirawan Chess</a></td>

      <td>Two extra super-pieces can be 'gated' onto the board
      during the opening</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Capablanca.html">Capablanca Chess</a></td>

      <td>Two super-pieces are added to FIDE on a 10-wide
      board</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td bgcolor="#FFFF80"><a href="Gothic.html">Gothic
      Chess</a></td>

      <td>Two super-pieces are added to FIDE on a 10-wide board,
      with stream-lined initial setup</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Janus.html">Janus Chess</a></td>

      <td>Two Janus super-pieces (B-N compounds) are added to FIDE
      on a 10-wide board</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="CRC.html">Capablanca Random Chess</a></td>

      <td>Capablanca Chess with shuffled initial setup, with
      generalized castling rules</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Grand.html">Grand Chess</a></td>

      <td>Chess on a 10x10 board with two extra super-pieces</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td colspan="2"><b>Oriental forms of Chess</b></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Xiangqi.html">Xiangqi</a></td>

      <td>Chinese Chess, where the King is confined to a
      Palace</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Shogi.html">Shogi</a></td>

      <td>Japanese Chess, where pieces you captured can be dropped
      to strengthen your own army</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Sho.html">Sho Shogi</a></td>

      <td>Ancient precurser of the modern Japanese 9x9 Shogi game
      (without drops)</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td bgcolor="#FFFF80"><a href="Chu.html">Chu Shogi</a></td>

      <td>Ancient Japanese Chess with many pieces on a 12x12 board,
      and a Lion super-piece</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Makruk.html">Makruk</a></td>

      <td>Thai Chess, with an interesting Elephant piece</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="ASEAN.html">ASEAN</a></td>

      <td>South-East Asian Chess, a modernized version of
      Makruk</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td colspan="2"><b>Variants with mostly un-orthodox
      pieces</b></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Courier.html">Courier Chess</a></td>

      <td>Mediaval precursor of Chess, combining Shatranj with
      modern pieces on a wide board</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Super.html">Superchess</a></td>

      <td>Randomly picked unorthodox pieces of many kinds replace
      some of your FIDE pieces</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="Great.html">Great Shatranj</a></td>

      <td>Version of Capablanca Chess that replaces all sliding
      moves by 2-square jumps</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td bgcolor="#FFFF80"><a href="Spartan.html">Spartan
      Chess</a></td>

      <td>Two different armies (Persians and Spartans, the latter
      lead by two Kings) battle each other</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="CWDA.html">Chess with Different Armies</a></td>

      <td>Pick one of a set of (mostly) unsual armies to battle a
      completely different army</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td bgcolor="#FFFF80"><a href="Chu.html">Chu Shogi</a></td>

      <td>Ancient Japanese Chess with many pieces on a 12x12 board,
      and a Lion super-piece</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="ChuChess.html">Chu Chess</a></td>

      <td>Intermediate between Chess and Chu shogi, on a 10x10
      board</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="">Cambodian Chess</a></td>

      <td></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><a href="">Ai-Wok Makruk</a></td>

      <td></td>
    </tr>
  </table>
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