Has anybody heard of bumper chess? If so, what are the rules?

Answer 1

Yes. It basically goes the same as normal chess, EXCEPT the pieces can bounce against the edges. (Queen, bishop, rook, knight, not too sure about the king.) So, when a piece reaches the edge you can bounce back in the other direction. (Much like a ray of light.) So you can play Qd1-h5-bounce-e8 in one move. You can't play something like Qd1-h5-h1 or h8 (That's not in the direction of the bounce.) If the board is almost empty, you can go for a perpetual bounce around the whole board with the queen. (You're not limited to only one bounce in 1 move) Bouncing with the rook is typically useless because it can only bounce back. (You might just as well make that move without a bounce.) This is a bit of a fun game, you can make your own houserules or look up the official rules, should they exist.
It gets more fun if you play cylinder bumpering. So, the pieces can still bounce on the bottom and top, but they go THROUGH the left and right side returning on the board on the other side, as if the board was a cylinder. (the left and right side are attached to eachother.) This takes some imagination, but it's good practice.

Answer 2

Here is a web site devoted to chess variants: http://www.chessvariants.com/alphabet.html