[mikk_w]

I played a good bit of Really Bad Chess when I was first getting into chess. I'm a big fan of Zach Gage's games, I think compared to his other works it's not as platonically good as his other works, but what I love about RBC is that the difficulty of the board is chosen based on your skill level, so when you're a beginner you get positions that are absurdly unbalanced in your favor, but then as you get better you eventually get the tables turned and have to work your way out of a difficult situation. It goes a long way to make chess feel more accessible and enjoyable for someone who doesn't know what they're doing.

That said, Really Bad Chess isn't really a chess variant. It's just orthodox chess with a semi-randomized board layout, but it changes none of the core mechanics, and all the pieces are the same as orthodox chess