Are international variants of chess on topic here? The FAQ doesn't really address this.
I found this meta question, but it doesn't address international versions.
Examples of international chess variants include:
Shogi
Xiangqi
Janggi
Shatranj
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Since there seems to be a clear consensus on this, the help page should be updated appropriately. Reading the help page right now, it implies that games like shogi are not off topic.– user1954Jan 13, 2019 at 20:17
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@BenCrowell That's because they're not off-topic. The consensus was that they should be allowed :)– SethJan 14, 2019 at 1:03
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The only "International" variation is chess. The rest are rather "local" variations. By the way, why are tic-tac-toe questions off-topic then?– DavidMay 11, 2019 at 12:11
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1 Answer
I personally believe that they should be considered on topic (and I already asked one Shogi question myself, using the other meta post you link to as my justification for doing so :). Our current volume of traffic and questions is such that we would hardly be overloaded by any questions folks might like to ask about these games. And while they aren't as akin to chess as, say, chess960 is, these international games do have a common origin with chess and share many similarities in game play.
I think that many chess players that come to the site would find questions about such international variants to be interesting (though maybe I'm projecting); and of course it's easy enough to ignore these questions if so desired. If the inclusion of these kinds of questions were to somehow become problematic, or detract from the chess focus of the site, then the matter could always be readdressed too. For these reasons, I think questions about these games should be welcomed here at chess.SE.
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2Yup, that's what tags are for, and I'm all for curiosity. I don't think variants' volumes combined could come anywhere close to chess' anyway. Dec 10, 2012 at 23:11
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2I can personally attest that learning variants can improve chess skill. Dec 15, 2012 at 16:29