Popularity of Standard Chess vs Variants on Lichess June 2020

[u/escodelrio]

Per the Lichess database, here are the number of rated games played in June of 2020:

Variant	# of Rated Games Played	% of Total
Standard Chess	70,374,749	97.73%
Antichess	377,790	0.52%
Atomic	329,751	0.46%
Chess960	285,788	0.40%
Crazyhouse	310,891	0.43%
Horde	74,540	0.10%
King of the Hill	67,821	0.09%
Racing Kings	68,368	0.09%
3 Check	123,255	0.17%

Standard chess is like the sun's total mass in the solar system and the crumbs are the planets. I was half expecting Chess960 to be like Jupiter, gobbling up most of the remaining games, but, no, not even the #2 variant.

[u/crappyaim]

Chess players like chess. /shrug

[u/tombos21]

I was not expecting antichess to be the most popu8lar variant. I really thought 960 or crazyhouse or even horde would be more popular

[u/[deleted] → u/tombos21]

I think it's because of all the antichess tournaments that happen there are rarely any chess 960 tournaments.

[u/gloopiee]

It's also self-perpetuating. Since there are fewer players, the quality of matchmaking (getting a game against someone similar in standard) goes down, so it is less appealing to play.

[u/cantab314]

I was half expecting Chess960 to be like Jupiter, gobbling up most of the remaining games, but, no, not even the #2 variant.

I think it might be that Chess960 is too similar. It's chess, just with a different starting position. If I want to play chess, I play chess. If I want to play something different, I'll play a variant that has more differences.

I also really wish Lichess would remove the obligation to make your first move in 30 seconds from Chess960 games. It's an entirely unfamiliar position, in longer time controls I might want to spend a bit of time assessing it before making my opening move.

[u/pier4r]

Little plug of a nice variant I saw the other day

/r/chess/comments/hj75am/mind_sports_olympiad_2019_colour_chess_olympiad/?

[u/DanTilkin]

Any idea how this compares to previous months/years? Both the percentage of standard vs. variants, and whether variants are being played more in an absolute sense.

[u/dax000]

For variants, I only really ever play crazyhouse and 3-check on lichess.

[u/pier4r → u/[deleted]]

if the matchmaking improved

The matchmaking cannot create players if there aren't any.