Is there an online chess game or app that allows for custom setup of pieces?

Question

Question arose with a friend when he he posted this picture on his blog.

Is there a game where you could configure a game with the pieces like this? I know it is a bit odd, but he and I suspected it would be a somewhat fun diversion to actually play that board. Obviously you could do it with a physical board, but I usually play online or on my phone.

Answer 1

You can use Xboard/Winboard depending of the OS you have and uncheck the option "Test Legality" at the general options menu, I did it myself with in my Xbord/Linux configuration and this is it:

Answer 2

Almost any commercially decent chess software allows you to set up your own position.

Chessbase, crafty, and numerous other chess engines allow you to do that. However, in the picture that you have posted, there are more than 16 pieces of one color. Since this is not possible in a real chess game (not matter how wild) most of these engines will reject the position as being 'illegal.'

If a position is legal, you can set it up as the starting point and play against a computer engine, or get an evaluation for that position.

Hope that helps.