Chess Variants/Minichess

Minichess is a catch-all term referring to a number of chess variants played on a smaller board than the standard game.

Many of these variants were invented in the latter half of the 20th century, usually motivated by a desire to make the variant shorter and simpler than standard chess.

This page will go over these small variants from smaller and larger ones. Not that not all of the small chess variants are included, only the most notable ones.

In 1981 the mathematician David Silverman proposed a 4 by 4 variant of chess, seen at right. Because the two armies begin directly next to each other and there are no knights, the game always begins with a pawn capture.

Assuming perfect play from both sides, this variant has been solved as an easy win for White: 1. axb3+ Qxb3 2. cxb3+ Kxb3 (or 2...Kb4 3. bxc3#) 3. bxa3+ Kc4 4. Qa2#).

To solve this problem Silverman proposed a variant: before the game begins Black can select one of White's pawns, and White must move that pawn as their first move. However, this variant results in an easy win for Black: select pawn b2, 1. bxa3 (or 1.bxc3) b2+ 2. Qxb2 Qxb2#.

Tic Tac Chec was released in 1995 by Don Green. In this 4 by 4 variant, both players are given a pawn, knight, bishop and rook each. The board begins empty, and the game begins with each player placing one of their pieces on any unoccupied square on the board. Once each player has three pieces in play, pieces may be moved. Captured pieces are returned to the opponent and may be replayed later. The goal is to arrange one's pieces into a line of four.

To make his 4 by 4 variant more playable, David Silverman proposed a 4 by 5 version where an extra row of squares is inserted in between the armies. In this variant the pawns are allowed their initial two-step move if the destination square is unoccupied and the path is free of obstructions.

With an initial position perhaps inspired by the shogi variant microshogi, Microchess was invented by Glimne in 1995. Castling is allowed in this variant provided the usual conditions are met.

A fairy chess board needs to be at least five squares wide to contain all of the non-pawn pieces on the first rank. The first such variant was proposed by American mathematician Martin Gardner in 1969. It soon developed a following in Italy, where it was picked up by AISE (Associazione Italiana Scacchi Eterodossi, the Italian Heterodox Chess Association), and opening theory was developed. Initially the variant was played with the pawn double-step, castling and en passant, but these rules were later dropped due to the board's small size.

The variant has been weakly solved - assuming perfect play from both sides in the initial position, the game will always end in a draw.

This is an alternate setup of Gardner minichess proposed by Gardner in 1989. Compared to Gardner minichess the arrangement of the black pieces in their home rank is reversed.

This variant was proposed by Paul Jacobs and Marco Meirovitz in 1995.

This variant was proposed by Jeff Mallett, author of the Windows board game program Zillions of Games. The variant is a forced win for White in 25 moves; however, if the knights and bishops are reversed, then theoretically the game will end in a draw with perfect play from both sides.

Petty chess (also known as petite chess) is one of the oldest minichess variants. It was created in 1930 by B. Walker Watson, and the rules were published in September of that year in the British Chess Magazine.

This variant was created by a Dutchman, Mr. den Oude, in 1988 and was picked up by Centre Parcs, a Dutch company that rents holiday houses. During a certain period around 1992, visitors to these holiday houses would received a package that contained a set for this variant.

This variant was invented by Sergei Sirotkin in 1999, but otherwise not much is known about it.

This variant was invented by Joe Miccio in 1991 and published by the company Amerigames International as a tool to help children learn the rules of standard chess, for which it received the National Parenting Publications Award in 1993.

This variant has the same setup as Gardner minichess, but adapted to the 5 by 6 board. It has been published by Norwegian company Yes Games AS since 2008, and has been endorsed by Magnus Carlsen and Alexandra Kosteniuk.

This variant, published in 2010, uses the Gardner setup but with the black pieces reversed. Some other rules that set it apart from other minichess variants:

• There is no check or checkmate - the enemy king must actually be captured to win the game.
• Stalemate is considered a win for the player delivering the stalemate.
• If the game lasts for 40 moves it automatically ends in a draw.
• The bishop is allowed to move one square forward, backwards or sideways in addition to its usual movement.

This variant has its own page, which can be viewed here.

Diana chess (also known as Ladies chess) was invented in 1870. There are no queens on the board and pawns cannot promote to queens. Castling is done by switching the positions of the king and rook, providing all of the usual conditions are met.

This variant is essentially Diana chess but with the starting positions of the black king and knight reversed. In addition knights cannot move for the first three turns of the game, and the kings may move to their knights' positions without losing the right to castle.

Simpler chess is a family of minichess variants proposed by A. Wardley in 1977, in which a pair of pieces is removed from both sides. The variant can be played with the rooks, knights or royal pieces removed. If the royal pieces are removed then the objective becomes to capture all of the opponent's pieces.\

This variant is a similar affair to Mallett's 5 by 5 variant, putting two knights against two bishops.