Some variants are transformed primarily by asymmetry, race objectives or information access rather than by one new piece.
The three key questions are:
Are the sides structurally different? Is the objective a race rather than mate? Is the objective game state fully visible?
Asymmetric Material
An asymmetric variant gives the sides different starting forces or piece types. Material balance must be evaluated by each side's objective and compensating rules, not by mirrored equality.
Asymmetric Objective
The two sides can have different win conditions; symmetry is therefore neither necessary nor sufficient for balance.
Side-Specific Evaluation
Evaluation must be conditioned on which side is being evaluated because the same material/space can serve different objectives.
Balance Is Not Symmetry
A ruleset can be balanced through compensating objectives, move rights or geometry despite asymmetric armies. Conversely, a symmetric ruleset can still have first-move bias.
Horde
Current Lichess Horde uses 36 White pawns against Black's normal army. Black wins by eliminating the entire Horde (including promoted Horde pieces); White wins by checkmating Black's king.
Pawn Horde vs Normal Army
The Horde side lacks a normal royal king structure and instead controls a mass of pawns; the Pieces side retains the orthodox army and royal king.
Side-Specific Win Conditions
The two Lichess Horde sides have different objectives: destroy all Horde units versus checkmate the Pieces king.
Eliminate Horde
The Pieces side wins only when every Horde unit is gone, including pieces promoted from Horde pawns.
Checkmate Piece Side
The Horde side wins by checkmating the Pieces side's king.
Special Pawn Rules
Current Lichess gives special movement to Horde pawns on rank 1: they can make a two-square initial-style move, with a special restriction preventing an otherwise impossible en-passant capture by the Pieces pawns.
Promotion
Promotion options vary across misère games. Current Lichess Antichess even permits promotion to a king because kinghood is non-royal.
Horde Strategy
Horde strategy is side-specific. The Horde side uses pawn mass, connected advances and promotions to open lines toward the royal king, while the Pieces side seeks containment, blockades and exchanges that reduce the pawn mass without allowing breakthrough. A material count is meaningless unless it is tied to which side is closer to its own objective.
Containment vs Breakthrough
Containment and breakthrough are the central opposing plans in Horde. The Pieces side wants stable blockade lines and favorable exchanges before the mass reaches advanced ranks; the Horde side wants to create multiple pawn breaks so one blocked sector can be bypassed. The critical question is whether the pawn mass can generate a protected passer or mating net before being thinned out.
Dunsany / Other Horde-Like Families
Dunsany-style and other horde games vary setup, king status and victory conditions. Treat them as a family, not aliases for the exact Lichess Horde profile.
Racing Kings
Racing Kings uses a special no-pawn setup, forbids giving check and races the kings to rank 8.
Special Starting Position
Racing Kings begins from a special no-pawn arrangement with both armies concentrated on the lower ranks. Because the objective is a king race and giving check is illegal, the initial geometry should be read as a network of king routes, blockers and escort pieces rather than as an orthodox opening position.
No Pawns
The current Lichess Racing Kings starting position contains the normal non-pawn pieces but no pawns.
Checks Forbidden
A move is illegal if it gives check to the opponent king, and a player still cannot move their own king into attack under the current Lichess rule set.
Race King to Eighth Rank
The central objective is to move one's king legally to rank 8.
White-First Compensation Draw Rule — Current Lichess Profile
If White reaches rank 8 first, Black gets one immediate reply; if Black also reaches rank 8 on that move, the current Lichess game is drawn. This compensates for White moving first.
Route Geometry
Route geometry in Racing Kings asks for the shortest legal and safe path to rank 8 while accounting for blocking pieces and the prohibition on giving check. A route that is geometrically short can fail because a needed square is attacked or because moving an escort piece would illegally check the opponent king.
Block / Escort
Blocking and escorting are dual Racing Kings resources. A piece can occupy a square on the opponent king's route while another piece clears or protects the route for its own king; captures are valuable when they change race distance or remove a blocker, not merely because they win material.
Race Tempo
Race tempo is the number of moves each king needs to reach the eighth rank under the variant's legal-move constraints. The current Lichess White-first compensation rule means a nominal one-tempo lead for White can still produce a draw if Black reaches the goal on the immediate reply, so the endpoint rule belongs in every race calculation.
Perfect vs Hidden Information
Perfect information exposes authoritative game state; hidden-information designs intentionally conceal some state/signals.
Kriegspiel
Kriegspiel is a historical hidden-information chess family in which players normally see only their own pieces and an umpire/referee reports allowed information such as legality/captures/checks according to the chosen rules.
Umpire / Referee Information
The umpire defines the information channel: legal/illegal move response, captures, check declarations and other signals. Exact Kriegspiel rules must specify the reporting protocol.
Fog of War / Dark Chess
Fog-of-War/Dark-Chess families hide opponent pieces or squares outside a player's visibility region. Their visibility algorithms differ by platform and must be profiled explicitly.
Visibility Rules
Visibility is persistent game state derived from the rule algorithm; determine whether attacked squares, own-piece moves, king safety or hidden checks affect what can be seen.
Platform Differences
Hidden-information variants are highly implementation-sensitive because the UI itself enforces visibility and may change legality feedback.
Blindfold Is Not Hidden Information
Blindfold chess normally hides the board display but not the objective game state: a player who remembers the move history is entitled to know the complete position. Hidden-information variants deliberately deny some state information.
Family Practice Set
A strong understanding includes comparing asymmetric objectives, race rules and information channels while keeping balance, legality and visibility as separate dimensions.
Asymmetry Requires Side-Specific Evaluation
A material count is meaningless when the two sides have different armies or objectives. Horde is a clear case: the horde side and conventional army side need different success criteria, development goals and danger signals. Evaluate whether each side is progressing toward its own win condition.
Balance is a separate empirical/theoretical question. A game can be asymmetric and balanced, or symmetric and biased.
Racing Games Turn Distance Into a Primary Resource
Racing Kings removes ordinary check-based attack and makes legal king routes, blockers, escorts and move order central. Count route length and interference rather than importing normal king-safety instincts. A piece may be valuable mainly because it takes one square away from the opponent's fastest route.
Hidden Information Creates an Information Game
Kriegspiel and Fog-of-War-style systems add a layer absent from ordinary chess: players may need to reason about possible states, legal-move feedback or visibility. Separate:
- authoritative full state;
- what each player can observe;
- what each player can infer;
- what the interface or umpire is allowed to reveal.
Blindfold chess is different. The board is not visually displayed, but the game state itself is not hidden by the rules.