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PyChess-Variants

Self-hostable web server for playing chess variants online

Game Servers ★ 316 stars Hard setup GPL-3.0

PyChess-Variants is the open-source software powering pychess.org, a website for playing chess and many chess variants in the browser. It can be self-hosted to run a private variant chess server.

Official siteSource code

Key features

  • Browser-based variant chess
  • Real-time multiplayer
  • Engine analysis
  • Tournament support

Pros & cons

Strengths

  • Huge variant selection
  • Active development

Trade-offs

  • Complex to self-host
  • Niche audience

Is PyChess-Variants secure?

OSV.dev has no published security advisories for PyChess-Variants's repository. No known vulnerabilities is not proof of security: it means none have been publicly catalogued.

Source: OSV.dev, checked 2026-10-14. How this is measured.

PyChess-Variants replaces

Self-hosted Chess.com alternativesSelf-hosted Lichess alternatives

Health badge

Maintain PyChess-Variants? Add its health score to your README. The badge links back to this page.

SelfHostIndex: 72 · good

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The score is recomputed on every nightly rebuild from public repository data — see how it is calculated.

Compare PyChess-Variants

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