Sam Trenholme wrote on Fri, Jun 15, 2007 08:40 PM UTC:
Of the various ways of handling multiple kings, I think 'many any of them to win' is the most sensible. Why? Because I feel 'you must mate all of the kings to win' makes games too drawish. Jeff Mallet seems to agree, because, in Zillions, this is the rule when a given variant has more than one royal piece, and it is difficult to override this rule.
Why is it drawish? Because, in the midgame, the common theme in chess is to try and get an attack on you opponents king, often times with a sacrifice. However, if there are two kings, and you have to mate both of them to win, then this very strongly discourages sacrifical play. For, if you make a sacrifice or two, and get one of the opponent's king, your army is now decimated and the other person can easily win by playing the 'exchange down to a favorable endgame' strategy.
Now, having it so you have to get every royal piece to win might make sense in a variant with an obscene amount of power on the board, such as the 'Flying kittens' variants proposed about a year ago.
Why is it drawish? Because, in the midgame, the common theme in chess is to try and get an attack on you opponents king, often times with a sacrifice. However, if there are two kings, and you have to mate both of them to win, then this very strongly discourages sacrifical play. For, if you make a sacrifice or two, and get one of the opponent's king, your army is now decimated and the other person can easily win by playing the 'exchange down to a favorable endgame' strategy.
Now, having it so you have to get every royal piece to win might make sense in a variant with an obscene amount of power on the board, such as the 'Flying kittens' variants proposed about a year ago.