We have covered in this blog several topics in Horde Chess, from general tips to reviewing openings and endgames. But if you are new to Horde Chess, you might wonder how one even start playing Horde Chess in the first place? This is when this blog post comes to your help.
Play online with Lichess
My favorite platform for playing Horde Chess online is Lichess. It’s an open-source, crowd-funded online chess platform that supports the Horde variant.
To play Horde Chess on Lichess, follow the following steps:
- Head to lichess.org
- On the main screen, click on “Custom” under the “Quick pairing” tab
3. On the opened screen, select “Horde” as the variant
4. Select your favorite time control (I like the 3 minutes and 2 seconds increment), and color
5. Wait for an opponent and start playing
If you open an account on Lichess you will gain some features, like a rating score that will enable you to play against opponents closer to you in their level.
Horde Chess playing on Chess.com
The biggest online chess platform offers playing Horde chess, but only for registered users.
- Head to chess.com
- Sign up or login to your existing chess.com account
3. Click on “Play”, then on “Variants”
4. Scroll down and select “Horde”
5. Adjust settings and press “done”
Play Horde Chess locally on your computer
For playing Horde Chess on your computer, you will need a chess GUI, and optionally a chess engine, both supports Horde Chess.
The only chess GUI that supports Horde Chess, as far as I know, is Cute Chess. The instructions are:
- Download and install Cute Chess from the link above.
- Select Game > New
3. Select the Horde variant, and adjust other settings
4. Play against yourself or a friend
5. Optionally, you can download Stockfish Multi Variant and play against the computer. After downloading an executable, configure it from Cute Chess’ setting > Engines. After that, in the “new game” dialog you can select to play against CPU, and try to beat the leading engine on Horde Chess.
On a physical board
Just like the good old days. Grab a regular chess set, and buy 28 extra white pawns online. This is a good option if you have a friend that into Horde Chess already (or a friend you can easily convert into it)
So what is your favorite way to play Horde Chess? Share in the comments
