I have a couple of drinks worth of experience with a number of entertaining variants, which have no official name that I'm aware of: (EDIT: The first is "progr

I have a couple of drinks worth of experience with a number of entertaining variants, which have no official name that I'm aware of: (EDIT: The first is "progressive chess" and there are a few different rule sets for handling checks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_chess http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_chess) - Accelerating chess. White gets 1 move, Black gets 2 moves, White gets 3 moves, and so on, until someone wins. Rule to make it not suck: You can't put someone in check during your intermediary moves. This involves more skill than you might expect, and if your opponent is an adept defender at the end of his turn(s), it can be surprisingly hard to mate without putting the enemy in check, even with 5, 6, or 7 moves at your disposal. Sometimes you will find an extremely clever combination and feel very special. - "Camelot." You can jump your knight on top of your rook, at which point it can move like either a knight or a rook. If you like, you can jump it back off afterward. If someone captures it, they capture both. Bonus carnage rule: You can move it like a rook AND proceed to jump the knight off in the same turn. This leads to hilariously powerful and unbelievably bizarre mate threats. - Additional rule that works well with Camelot to add variety: X-ray bishops. Your bishop can move through enemy pieces and capture a piece which would normally be concealed by a pin. I bet you think this is a dumb ability but try it out. You have to be careful not to get mated on move 2.