People behind the games
Meet some of the designers whose ideas became playable variants on PyChess. Select a tile to read a short biography and open the related rules pages.
Chess variant author
José Raúl Capablanca (1888–1942) was a Cuban chess prodigy and the third world chess champion, holding the title from 1921 to 1927. Famous for his clear positional play and endgame technique, he also designed Capablanca Chess in the 1920s, expanding the board and adding two compound pieces.
Biography source • Portrait by Unknown photographer — source, Public domain
Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) was an American grandmaster and the eleventh world chess champion. In 1996 he introduced Fischer Random Chess, now usually called Chess960, to reduce dependence on memorized openings and make original play begin with the first move.
Biography source • Portrait by Bert Verhoeff / Anefo — source, CC0 1.0
David Bronstein (1924–2006) was a Soviet and Russian grandmaster, world championship challenger, and one of chess's most celebrated creative players. In the late 1940s he promoted the player-built starting-position idea later known as Placement Chess, Pre-Chess, or Shuffle-Chess, in which the back-rank pieces are placed alternately before normal play begins.
Biography source • Portrait by Eric Koch / Anefo / Dutch National Archives — source, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL
Yasser Seirawan is an American grandmaster, 1979 World Junior Champion, four-time United States champion, author, and commentator. Together with Bruce Harper he unveiled Seirawan Chess in 2007, adding the hawk and elephant to orthodox chess through a new gating mechanism.
Biography source • Portrait by Georgios Souleidis — source, CC BY 2.0
Christian Freeling (1947–2026) was a Dutch designer of abstract strategy games. His many designs include Havannah, Dameo, and Grand Chess, the highly regarded 10×10 chess variant he created in 1984.
Biography source • Portrait by Christian Freeling, inventor of abstract games — source, CC BY-SA 3.0
Madoka Kitao is a retired Japanese women's professional shogi player, teacher, and promoter of the game. She devised the rules of Dōbutsu Shogi as an approachable introduction for young children; illustrator Maiko Fujita created its friendly animal-piece artwork.
Biography source • Portrait by Unknownspb; retouched by PawełMM — source, CC BY-SA 4.0
Miguel Illescas is a Spanish grandmaster, eight-time Spanish champion, trainer, author, and computer scientist. He worked on IBM's Deep Blue team and later created Dragon Chess, whose reserve dragon combines the moves of a bishop and a knight.
Biography source • Portrait by Przemysław Jahr / Wikimedia Commons — source, CC BY-SA 3.0
Vernon Rylands Parton (1897–1974) was an English teacher and prolific inventor of chess variants whose designs were often inspired by Lewis Carroll. He created Alice Chess in 1953 and Racing Kings in 1961, two of his best-known games and both playable on PyChess.
Biography source • Illustration by Sir John Tenniel — source, Public domain Representative Alice artwork is used because no freely reusable portrait of Parton is currently known.
Peter Michaelsen is the designer of Cannon Shogi, introduced in February 1998. The variant keeps the standard 9×9 shogi framework while adding four cannon families inspired by Xiangqi and Janggi and replacing the normal pawn array with five more mobile soldiers.
Biography source • Representative image from the PyChess Cannon Shogi rules guide — source Representative Cannon Shogi artwork is used instead of an author portrait.
Dr Tim Paulden was president of Exeter Chess Club in Devon, England, when he invented Duck Chess in early 2016. The game adds a jointly controlled rubber duck that blocks one square and must be repositioned after every ordinary chess move.
Biography source • Photo published by Exeter Chess Club — source The source photograph shows Duck Chess being played at Exeter Chess Club.
Chess variant authors
Jens Bæk Nielsen and Torben Osted created Dark Chess together in 1989 after experimenting with a correspondence game under altered visibility rules. Now widely known as Fog of War Chess, their design hides most of the opposing army and makes capture of the king, rather than checkmate, the goal.
Biography source • Representative image from the PyChess Fog of War rules guide — source Representative Fog of War artwork is used instead of author portraits.
Jean-Louis Cazaux is a French historian of chess and board games, author, and prolific game designer. His creations include Rollerball, Metamachy, and Shako, the 10×10 chess variant he completed in 1990 by adding the cannon and elephant to the orthodox army.
Biography source • Representative image from the PyChess Shako rules guide — source Representative Shako artwork is used instead of an author portrait.
S. D. Streetman, also credited as Steven Streetman, created Spartan Chess. Recorded in 2010, the deliberately asymmetric design pits an orthodox Persian army against Spartans with two kings and an entirely different set of pieces. Streetman has also described how he designed and balanced the game.
Biography source • Representative image from the PyChess Spartan Chess rules guide — source Representative Spartan Chess artwork is used instead of an author portrait.
Tamiya Katsuya is the Japanese game designer credited with inventing Kyoto Shogi around 1976. The compact 5×5 game is distinguished by pieces that flip after every move between paired identities, including the lance and tokin whose names combine to form ‘Kyoto’.
Biography source • Representative image from the PyChess Kyoto Shogi rules guide — source Representative Kyoto Shogi artwork is used instead of an author portrait.
Toyota Genryu was a pupil of the ninth shogi Meijin, Ōhashi Sōei. Modern accounts credit Toyota with inventing Tori Shogi in 1799, although the bird-themed 7×7 game was traditionally attributed to his master. It is one of the oldest shogi variants to use captured-piece drops.
Biography source • Representative image from the PyChess Tori Shogi rules guide — source Representative Tori Shogi artwork is used instead of an author portrait.