Try playing where you are allowed to go off the left side and come out the right side and same for the reverse. It’s so hard, much harder than regular chess. The bishops are a pain to protect against, they come out of nowhere, it’s great!
That sounds kinda cool. I have acouple of chess boards at home that are set up so 4 players can play at once. There are the normal 64 squares, and each side has two extra rows of 8, so the board looks kinda like a cross. I haven’t been able to get 3 other chess playing friends together to actually play it with me, so I don’t know how it actually plays out.
Sounds interesting. Kinda a wrap around effect. Throw all the old strategies in the trash. The purists will jump your ass for even suggesting this, but I like it.
Speaking of chess variants, Knightmare Chess sounds very interesting…
I’ve played all kinds of variants of chess. One of my favorites is normal rules except pawns go backwards and promote on the first rank.
Another interesting one is called “Irish chess” (I have no idea where the name comes from). White makes one move, black makes two moves in a row, white makes three moves,etc… However, once you put the opponent in check, you turn is over, and the player’s first move on the next turn must get the king out of check. Games ends once one player is checkmated.
That sounds kind of like a variant I found called “Fouray” - four players, each player to a board edge. Black and White are opposite, as normal, and each has an “ally”: Blue for Black, Red for White. Each player has a set-up area 3 rows deep (so everyone is setup normally, but there is an extra row before you get onto the 64x64 board proper). The game is played normally (I think the order of play goes something like White-Black-Red-Blue), except it does not end with the check-mate of either Red or Blue - they are simply out of the game until the mate can be cleared by the appropriate main color.
It definitely plays different from normal chess; none of the people I used to play with could quite grasp the new strategies 
Of course, now I can’t find anyone to play it with.
Blur & Darwin: you might like an old Avalon Hill game called Feudal. Sort of like chess with a huge army and large board. What was cool is that each player (up to four) set his/her army up secretly and then the board was put together, so each game began from a unique starting point. A neat game, often available on Ebay if you’re interested.
My favorite chess variant is kriegspiel, where you cannot see your opponent’s pieces: hilarious! You can log onto ICC and play this for free as a guest.
Blur,
Must be other variant boards like yours - I have a 4 player game where the side boards are 4x8, so the whole board is triple usual size.
A friend had a game where they had side boards coming up at a 45 [sup]o[/sup] angle from each corner, and you reflected - i.e. you could go in the zone on the 4 rank (is it rank?), reflect up, hit the other side, reflect, and come out on the 6th headed the other way (old angle of incidence equal to the angle of reflection...) Think it was Zonal Chess, but it's been a LONG time..I used to play a lot of games on the “4-way extended” board described by blur & Darwin’s Finch – although I think the board we had may have had 3 extra rows on each side. We played the ‘partner’ method, but you could not speak to your partner about your moves. Players whose king was checkmated could continue with their other pieces (after spending one turn removing the king) as long as their partner was not checkmated. Also, since your partner could conceivably ‘rescue’ you, checkmate was not in effect until it was your turn to move.
This variant tends to produce rather tactical games, since the board is so big. The value of a bishop is at least equal to a rook, especially early on. Pawns are really only useful as defensive pieces.
We had some quite good games until one day our usual partners discovered that whoever went first could win very quickly by immediately sacrificing one queen to force the king out, then checkmating both very quickly. We did find a defense – it involved losing one king and trading queens on the other side. (This turns out to be about even, since a queen without a king is quite deadly).
Another 4-player version I’ve played is “Doubles Chess”. This looks like what would happen if you took two boards, cut & stretched them, then attached them along the center lines (a4-d4 connects to h4-e4). This is pretty fun, but hard to get used to – the path of a bishop can be a curve.
I’ve played most of these variations, and they’re kinda fun. The 4 person one is interesting because your main threats are not from the person across from you, but your opponents on either side. The rule is, checkmates don’t end the person’s game, you must capture their king and then their pieces are removed from the board. The problem is, if you and another opponent help each other to capture one king, whoever does the deed leaves their piece open for capture on the very next turn.
But of all the varients, why not play the one that seems to be gaining legitimacy within the chess world: double blitz AKA bughouse. Here’s how it works: you and a teammate set up two boards right next to each other. One of you plays white and the other plays black against two opponents. 5 minutes on the clock. If you capture a piece, you give it to your partner and he can opt to use one of his turns placing that piece anywhere on the board he likes. The only rule is pawns cannot be placed on the 1st or 8th rank. Other than that, it’s a free for all.
It’s fun because the rules of chess turn upside down. Innocent pawn moves leave holes in your defense that good opponents can take advantage of. Bishops become sacraficial material for the sole purpose of pushing your opponent’s king into the open. You have to watch two games at once and communicate to your partner what pieces you need on your side to set up a defense or attack. It’s fun…and you can get rated!
I looked at my 4-way board again, and it is 3 extra spaces deep, not two. Now if I can only find some people to play with.
You mean nobody plays Tri-Dimensional Chess? I have little luck persuading anyone to tackle this. What good’s having the board if you have to play by yourself? 
Enderw24: That’s yet another variant my friends and I used to play in college! These, of course, were the same people who couldn’t quite grasp the “four players on one board” strategies…
The double-board version is certainly a hoot, though. We usually played until any one person was check-mated. We never played with a clock, though I suspect no move ever took more than about 10 seconds to complete
Darwin’s Finch, you have to play with a clock. That’s one of the primary strategies of Bughouse. This is a game where you can win on time before time has run out. Imagine a situation where you’ve got your opponent one move away from checkmate and there’s nothing he can do to prevent it. What can he do? Let his time keep ticking and pray that the his teammate wins before he flags. Now, your teammate, knowing this, can, if he chooses, play until his time is greater than your opponent’s. Now your side is guaranteed a win merely by the fact that, if he sits, your opponent will flag before your partner does.
It sounds cheap…hey, it all comes out as a 1 on the score sheet. And if you have a friendly game with a group of people waiting to catch “risers” (losing team gives up their seat), any win is a good win.
Another chess varient (of my devising): Each player starts with a hundred points. Before each move, both players secretly write a number from one to their current total. Both players then show their number and both subtract their numbers from their total. The player that wrote a higher number can now move a piece as per standard chess rules. If their numbers tied, both are subtracted and neither player moves. If a player’s total hits zero, he loses.
Strategy here is to strike a balance between the advantages of moving your pieces against the disadvantages of using up your points.
There’s a site that has this game, as well as others. What you describe is chess on a torus; for fun, try chess on a Klein Bottle.
How cool could that be if there is no removal of clothing involved.
Zebra,
Have you every played chess? You know…with chess players? You want to play strip chess? You know…with chess players?
[sub]and Irina Krush is still a minor people![/sub]
Good point there Ender,
So it must include some heavy drinking first then clothing removal.
Another variation I’ve heard is “run-around-the-house” chess, supposedly invented by Alan Turing. In this game, you move, and then you run around the perimeter of your house. If your opponent hasn’t moved by the time you get back, you get another move.
But I wouldn’t recommend playing that one after heavy drinking. 