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Chessville
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The Chess Variant Pages November 10, 2002
"In January 1995, Hans Bodlaender started a small website on chess variants. First, this was not much more than an html-interface upon a number of files he had saved from the electronic news in the previous years. After that, he wrote descriptions of a number of variants that he found most interesting (e.g., those of several historic chess variants.) After a while, interest began to grow; people began to send additional materials, and he started to make pictures with the starting setup, etc." The Chess Variant Pages (CVP) have continued to grow, and in October 2002 received over two million "hits". CVP chronicles more types of variants then I could count. There are variants on the traditional game (e.g. loser's chess), historic variants, Oriental variants (e.g. Shogi, Xiangqi), 3-D variants (think Star-Trek), multi-player variants, small and large variants, variants with unusual or invisible pieces, even variants on unusual shaped boards - including round, cylindrical, and hexagonal boards. The variants are presented with text written by practitioners of that variant, so you know you're getting the best possible descriptions. Graphics are clear and colorful, making the pages both easy and interesting to follow. Navigation is easy too, with plenty of links to other pages at CVP as well as related external sites. A review function allows viewers to rate or review the page or variant. CVP lists six updates for the week ending 11-6-02 (I am writing this on 11-4-02) and 15 updates for the previous week. Clearly this is a continuously evolving site. CVP has a Forum, but this appears not to receive much use, with the most recent post dated 5-12-2002. For those hardy souls actually wanting to play one of these variants, links to other variant sites are provided, as well as both Chess Variant Yahoo Clubs & Chess Variant Yahoo Groups. CVP grows primarily through contributions from viewers, who are offered guidelines and tips. Personally, I have enough of a challenge trying to figure out the classical form of chess. Once I get that game mastered, then maybe I'll look into some of the variants. OK, OK, so I've dabbled a little; playing the odd game of FischerRandom, loser's chess, even Bughouse or Siamese Chess. I still come back to the classical game. They say variety is the spice of life though, so if your gaming needs a little spicing up, or if you're just curious, The Chess Variant Pages are worth checking out!
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