Here are the world's most popular Chess variants. The Asian variants are depicted below with pieces that use Asian characters, but western sets are also available for these games. All of these games come in a variety of board/piece combinations, and players may further configure them to their own liking. The following presets enforce the rules.

Small Steps from Chess

For those who are new to Chess variants, you might like to begin with those that are more like Chess. The learning curve will be smaller, and it will give you a taste of what Chess variants have to offer.

Randomized Setups

Invented by Bobby Fischer as a way to eliminate the use of opening theory in Chess, Fischer Random Chess is Chess with a randomized setup and modified castling rules. Similar games include Transcendental Chess and Brand X Random Chess.

Double Move Variants

Double move variants, which allow a each player to move twice per turn, have been popular for correspondence games, because they allow the games to move faster. Marseillais Chess may be the oldest and best known of double move variants. My own Extra Move Chess puts some restrictions on the second move that help make the game feel more Chess-like. Mats Winther has created a couple double move variants in which you move a Pawn before making a regular move: Twinmove Chess (uncompelled) and Twinmove Chess (compulsory).

Chess with the Missing Compound Pieces

In Chess, the Queen is a Rook/Bishop compound. The two compounds missing from Chess, the Knight/Bishop and the Knight/Rook, are the two most popular Chess variant pieces outside of Chess. Commonly used in 10x8 variants, they date back to Carrera's Chess in 1617. Modern Carrera's Chess uses the same setup with the rules of the early 20th century game Capablanca Chess. Some recent additions to this family keep all Pawns protected in the opening array, some of the best being Embassy Chess, Schoolbook Chess, and Victorian Chess. My own games of this sort include Grotesque Chess and Univers Chess, though I consider them flawed. There is also the randomized setup version Capablanca Random Chess. One popular 10x10 variant with these pieces is Grand Chess.

Chess with Cannons

The most distinctive piece from Chinese Chess is the Cannon, which moves as a Rook but captures by hopping over an intervening piece. Games that use the Cannon with Chess pieces include Jean-Louis Cazaux's Shako, David Paulowich's Mir Chess, and my own Eurasian Chess and Yang Qi.

Chess with Drops

In Shogi, the Japanese form of Chess, players keep the pieces they capture and may later drop them back on the board as their own. The most direct applications of this idea to Chess are Mad Queen Shogi, Crazyhouse and Chessgi. Similar games include John Leslie's Hostage Chess, which has been featured in D. B. Pritchard's book Popular Chess Variants, and my own games Shatranji, Mortal Chessgi, and Clockwork Orange Chess, each increasingly more different from Chess.

Hexagonal Chess

These games translate Chess to a hexagonal board, which has 12 directions instead of just 8. The most popular may be Glinski's Hexagonal Chess, but the most accurate translation of Chess to a hexagonal board is McCooey's Hexagonal Chess.