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Apothecary Chess-Classic. Large board variant obtained through tinkering with known games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
H. G. Muller wrote on Wed, Mar 25, 2020 10:04 AM UTC:

I always like the 'not castling through check' rule as a form of e.p. capture: the King makes a double step, and can then be taken by a capture-capable move to the square it passed through in the subsequent move. As exposing your King to capture is illegal, such a castling would be illegal.

In this interpretation it would be legal to castle over a square that was diagonally attacked by the Joker from a distance, as after the castling that Joker would no longer move like a Bishop, and thus not be able to execute the e.p. capture of the King. I am not sure how the Joker moves after castling: as a Rook, as a King, both or neither. The rules would have to specify that. If it would move as a King, then a black Joker on e2 would make white castling illegal, as that Joker could in the reply become a King and attack f1/d1. Basically the rule would become: the King cannot pass a square during castling that it could not legally move to.

It is always a tricky question whether a Joker can deliver check. In most positions this is not important, as most moves would alter the Joker's capabilities in a way that resolved the check. But it can be important to distinguish checkmate from stalemate. Basically the question boils down to how the Joker would move after a turn pass of the opponent, because the 'in-check' definition involves the fiction of a turn pass. Must it also pass a turn, or will it just keep the move it had on the turn before? In the former case the position w:Ke3, Je2 b:Ke1 would be a stalemate, in the latter case it might be a checkmate (if white black moved Ke1 on the move before).