Chess Varieties – Different Types of Chess

There are several types of chess in vogue among the chess players. Chess as a game was played ever since the ancient times and it was known by various names throughout the world. The variety of chess games is a testimony to the tremendous popularity of the game. All of the varieties of chess are derived from the same ancestral game that was known as ‘shatranj’ in India and by different names in other countries.

Chess has several types and forms – thousands in fact. The causes for this remarkable variety can be gauged from the fact that chess can be played as a board game on different boards, using different kinds of pieces and colours and figures.

There are estimates that there are over 2000 varieties of chess variety games and it is just the published number of games that are being counted. The online chess varieties are growing in number and there is software that can be used to create the variants from the basic versions. It is because of the popularity of a game that there are different varieties that are invented from time to time.

The varieties of chess are divided into the categories according to the starting positions and the chess with the different forces. The chess variants according to the different boards are the ones that have the names of Alice chess and the circular chess. These are played with two or more boards and the players move one piece on one board and the other players take their turn playing the pieces.

There are chess varieties based on the kinds of pieces that are used. There are chess variants that use the kings and the pawns according to the position of the board and there are other varieties that use the placement of the pieces according to the way in which the moves can be made. For instance, the moves can be different from the usual moves that are played in a chessboard and these are based on the different starting positions of the forces.

There are different varieties of chess that are based on the different rules in force and these are according to the starting positions and the like. In a different kind of way, chess is based on the availability of information that is not the case with other games like poker. So, there are variants of chess where the players do not have all the information and thus can see only parts of the board. The players have to make decisions based on this. This is however different from blindfold chess where the players play with the ones blindfolded and have to think through the moves without looking at the board.

The varieties of chess covered so far are the ones that are on the published list and those that are popular among the players. However, there are other varieties of chess that are equally well known but played in areas where there is no media visibility and hence are not mentioned in the published list of varieties.