Check out Atomic Chess, our featured variant for November, 2024.

Since Java is no longer supported in most browsers, our Java applets probably will not run unless you install an extension that will run them. We recommend installing the CheerpJ Applet Runner extension on Edge, Chrome, or another Chromium browser. If your browser still does support Java, and you're not using this extension, make sure this site is listed in your Java exceptions list. You should find this in the Security tab of your Java control panel.

Hermit Chess

If you had a Java-capable browser, you could play Hermit Chess here.
Keys "s"=save "l"=load "b"=back once

You play White. Red moves randomly. The number of red moves per turn varies from two to eleven in serial games. Red may not check, and need not escape check, until the last move. Karl Scherer, 2001. I playtested this and decided that bare king has to lose, and stalemate loses for Red.

Chess Variants

These are simple illustrations rather than strong opponents.

Bug reports? -- Thank you! Keep them coming!

Written by Ed Friedlander


WWW Page Added: Sunday, June 29, 2003