Fairy chess is the area of chess composition in which there are some changes to the rules of chess. It may involve changes to the board, pieces, or rules to express an idea or theme impossible in orthodox chess. An altered piece used in fairy chess is known as a fairy chess piece. The term fairy chess was introduced by Henry Tate in 1914. Thomas R. Dawson (1889–1951), the "father of fairy chess", invented many fairy pieces and new conditions. He was also problem editor of Fairy Chess Review (1930–1951).

Although the term fairy chess is sometimes used for games, it is more usually applied in the context of problems. Variations on chess intended to create complete, playable games are more typically referred to as chess variants.

Types of changed rules in fairy chess problems include:

There are fairy chess problems that combine some of these changed rules.^{[clarification needed]}

All entries in the world championships and in the FIDE Albums are divided into eight sections: directmates (2-movers, 3-movers and more-movers), endgame studies, helpmates, selfmates, fairy chess, retros, and mathematical problems.

Books and pamphlets devoted to fairy chess:

Periodicals devoted to fairy chess:

Bibliography