The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants

Just so many things to study about chess

Editing this was an unforgiving task. Cross-references and text are sometimes incorrect. On the other hand, what riches!

It's essentially impossible to rate a book like this - I enjoy browsing it on a regular basis, but I haven't really tried the variants posted in it. That said, the variants that exist in this book run the gamut from compelling to bizarre to downright unplayable.

Knight court chess - tiny board and likely easily solvable. But a fun step up ftom tic tac toe. 7

A huge amount of work went into this book. Many many variants are completely unplayable, but this is the fault of the respective authors: they are included for completeness. The rules of some games are incomplete, but this is more of an historic-scientific research than a book for playing. Moreover, for the good games (Shogi, Xianqui, Capablanca chess,....) there are complete rules, example games and even strategy hints.

Its a book, not a game; but it does describe many great chess variants.

The taxonomy, summaries, and notes make for enjoyable browsing and inspiration for creating variants of other games, though I wish there was more emphasis on commentary. It can be read as a study in game design.