What strange chess rules can you think up?

I always liked the idea of beginning the game with a curtain dividing the board between your half and the opponent's half.  You can setup the pieces however you want on your half of the board and your opponent can do likewise -- neither person being able to see the other person's setup.  Then you raise the curtain and play the game.  I never really figured out what would be the best arrangement of pieces.

I should try that, cool idea.

if you are weaeing a wig the yiu must take it off

Do Si Do:  Like castling, except that the king trades places with the queen before either have moved in the game.

If a player wishes to capture en passant, s/he must first stand up and perform the Hokey-Pokey. The part where they put their Whole Self un, and then their Whole Self Out.......

And shake it all about!!!!!!!!!

How about instead of promoting your pawn on the eighth rank, you have the option of just forcing your opponent to remove his queen.

how would you notate that

and...

Sure it would be checkmate if it happened before black's move. I guess, anyway.

no, it is black to move

I guess I'll just have to stick with shaking it all about, then.

So of course, you don't give this 'checkmate' (with a double question mark) - you eat that h pawn first, before he eats you. You checkmate later. 

We used to play this variation when we got bored:

Once  every game, you can insist that your opponent takes back his move and makes a different one, you have to be real careful of mates tha can only be defended once:

How about this: the king is just another piece. No checkmate. The game is won once all of the opponents pieces have been captured

Rooperi In my chess club a slightly different version was used, which was lots of fun, in a 5 minute game - 

after every move, a player could ask his opponent to take it back (once per move, though), and play something else! The exception being, if a move was the only legal move, at which case it couldn't be objected to. 

The guy would say - "no, play something else" and hit the clock again... hilarious!

A game could go: Player A - 1. e4. Player B - no, I disagree (hitting the clock); player A (retracting his move) - ok then, 1. d4 (now player B can't object anymore and actually has to play, and so on). 

Every pawn, every piece, needs to be defended TWICE so it's REALLY protected. 

Sometimes, to fool your opponent, you'd play your second best move first, and then the opponent needs to see that it's only the second best, and not object! As he may then receive a chess-blow. 

Sometimes, holding a threat that can be objected to, such as capturing a piece which is defended only once, is useful as playing around it in such a way that the opponent doesn't dare object - such as, after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 for example, every move by white has as a 'background' the threat to go Nxe5. 

For example - 3. Bc4 (Player B - "NO!") Player A - fine then... 3. Nxe5. 

Player b: 3... de. Player A - "forget it!" player B, fine then... 3...Qe7 (planning to take on e4 later)

Player A: 4. Nf3. Player B: "no you don't" Player A - ok... 4. Nc4 - and player B now discovers that player A won't allow taking on e4... however this is a threat and he can do pretty much what he wants...

fascinating! I miss those games...

Super-King Chess

I've played a variant of chess in which the king can move like every other piece. However, only one player gets this "super king". The player with the super king has no other pieces, while the other player gets standard rules and pieces. The side playing against the super king has a pawn(he can select which one) that, if captured, means that he loses the game. He wins by surviving for 50 full turns or capturing the enemy king..

Cannibal Chess:

The king can gain the powers of a piece by capturing its own pieces. So if the king wanted to move like a bishop, it would capture its own bishop. Capturing enemy pieces will not give it powers. Since this means that checkmating the other king is very difficult, there is a rule that if a king can capture a pawn or piece, it must capture it. Kings can be captured just like any other piece, and there is no check or checkmate. You win by capturing all your opponent's pieces.

Summon Chess:

The game is set up like normal. However, each player has an extra set of pieces(8 pawns, 2 bishops, 2 rooks, 2 knights, 1 queen and 1 king) that he can summon at any time to any square of the board with one exception:pawns may not be summoned to the first rank or to a rank higher than the fourth rank. You only have a limited number of pieces to summon, but a queen suddenly appearing on a8(after black castles queenside) can be a sudden and brutal mate. You can only summon one piece a turn and summoning counts as a move, so you can't move a piece after summoning.

Ghost Chess:

At the start of the game, there are 4 extra grey rooks. These rooks are known as the "ghosts". Both players may control ghosts, but they count as a piece so controlling them costs a move. Ghosts initially start off the board, but can teleport to any square on the board. Once on the board, they still retain their teleporting powers, but will be knocked off the board if a piece moves onto the square they're on. Ghosts do not interact with any other pieces until they materialize. A player can use his move to materialize a ghost currently on the board. Materialized ghosts function like normal rooks, but can be used by both sides to checkmate each other. If your opponent moves a ghost, materialized or not, you may not return it to the square it was previously on. For example, if White plays Ghost g4 to b2, Black may not play Ghost b2 to g4, but may play it to any other square or make another move and then on his next turn play Ghost b2 to g4. Materialized ghosts cannot be unmaterialized, so think carefully before materializing them.

Prayer Chess:

Every turn, instead of moving a piece, a player may choose to "pray". Every time you pray, you can 1 worship point(use tokens or counters to keep track of these). If you have 3 worship points, you can choose not to move a piece but instead trade those three points in so that you can use a Blessing. If you have 5 worship points, at any time you can trade them in for a Miracle. Using Miracles doesn't cost a move, unlike Blessings, so you can use several of them a turn.

Blessings:

Choose a piece. That piece is invincible next move.

Choose an enemy piece. That piece must capture one of your pieces next turn if it is legal, even if doing so leaves it en prise.

Miracles:

Choose three pieces. They are all invincible next move.

Choose an enemy piece and instantly remove it from the board.

OK, here's my strange chess variant. Take out all the middle squares and add more around the edges. Divide all the squares into group of 2 or 3 and give each group its own color. Change the pieces to thimbles and top-hats and cars and the object of the game is to buy groups of squares of the same color and make the opponent pay big [oh, did I mention the players get money now?] when they land on those squares. Movement is determined by throwing a pair of dice and moving that number of squares clockwise.

Only i can say---checkmate !