Do Variants Improve or Worsen Your Chess?

I have never been too fond with Variants. They are fun to play, but I believe they do not help improve your game. Also, I always had this idea that playing Variants might worsen your chess, am I the only one? I would like to hear your opinions.

I play variants (mostly atomic) and it has not worsened, nor improved my standard chess.

i started with chess not too long ago, but since i play more crazyhouse i experience that my vision for chess has improved because of the need to constantly surveiling the board and pieces. For example do i see knight-forks more easily now, because i constantly scan the board for spots.
Also i think that it teaches me a lot about coordination between different pieces and what their strenghts are. But yea they also have a bit different strenghts in crazyhouse compared to chess :)

I think certain variants can help you improve certain aspects of your chess.

For example, King of the Hill has the entire objective of controlling the centre, which can be done either directly (as in the traditional school of chess) or indirectly (more hypermodern style). It also aids with things like controlling files, calculation. I wouldn't say my chess has improved from it; just that it's made me more aware of the centre.

Chess960 is considered by a lot of fans to be more "pure" than normal chess, because you cannot "memorise" openings. Those who enjoy it say that it aids calculation, tactics, spotting combinations, etc. I'm inclined somewhat to agree, but think these benefits may be overstated.

I imagine Crazyhouse can help visualisation, spotting threats, and combinations, but I'm not convinced on this. After doing a Crazyhouse binge, then reverting back to normal chess, I always end up doing really unsound tactics and attacks because I think I'll get the material back...

King of the Hill might be useful for beginners, who should be aware of the importance of central control, and also how imperative it is to move your king in the opening. ;)

Really though, I agree with Cyn, it does increase awareness of *who* controls the center, because he who controls the center can allow his king to reach it, and 960 is great for tactics and et cetera.

3-check, atomic, and anti-chess to me are worthless for standard chess improvement, but I am no chess master.

Without a doubt, the best way to improve in chess is to play/learn standard chess sans any variation whatever, to state the obvious.

Thanks for the opinions, I can understand that varients have the ability to improve one aspect of the game of chess. But I think that if you want to improve, just play classical standard chess.

Yes, if you want to improve in Classical Chess, play Classical Chess.

That's correct. Improve at chess, play chess. Classical is best for improvement.

The variants - fun or not - are merely a distraction in my opinion.

I have a variant that will definitely help your overall game.