Chess Variant Research

This webpage has some of my research about Chess variants and even some non-Chess abstract games.

Chess 960. The most balanced setup is RQKBNNBR; this page also shows that there are some 430 setups more balanced than Classic Chess, and even shows good opening moves for each setup, as well as showing balanced “pie rule” moves.
Capablanca Chess. This discusses the rules and history of possible Capablance Chess opening setups, and then evaluates and shows good (as well as “pie rule”) moves for 720 different setups.
- Capa36. This is a 25-ply look in to 36 of those 720 different Capablanca Chess opening setups.
- 25-ply evaluations of 93 Capa720 setups, including all Capa36 setups
- 30-ply evaluations of 8 Capa720 setups
Turtle Shell Most Chess variants are on square boards, with a handful of variants on hex boards and even fewer variants on other boards. This takes an unusual tiling of the plane, and looks at both playing Chess and Go on said tiling.
- Turtle Shell Go, one of many possible abstract games that can be played on the Turtle Shell grid. Includes five playable Gobans (boards).
100,000,000 possible Chess variant pieces. We look at a system which gives us some 100,000,000 possible pieces for Chess variant play; over 99% of those pieces can reach any square on the board.