Daniil Frolov wrote on Wed, Jun 23, 2010 12:41 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
I played similar variant, but with 2 differences:
1. Kings must be dropped on first moves.
2. Pawns may be dropped anywhere, expect 1st and 8th ranks.
Another variant, i can suggest (i did not played it yet):
Pawns have same defination of forward. This one may be played with 3 players. Actually, with any number of players, from 2 to 16. For multiplayer variant, rules for capturing/mating king and pieces of lost player must be chosen before playing, many variants are possible.