M-Chess

A little background: I'm the inventor of "Checkers to the Max" (TM), written about in GAMES magazine and the American Checker Federation Bulletin, and available for free Play by E-Mail at www.gamerz.net. (The magazine has also spotlighted one of my non-competitive games.) Working on another game concept, I happened to envision a chess variant with which you might like to experiment:

All the rules of orthodox chess apply, but the rooks, knights, bishops, and queens are _physically_ replaced by checkers. The file on which a checker sits determines its actual value. For example, when the game opens, the checker at A1 has the power of a rook; at B1, a knight; C1, a bishop; D1, a queen. When a checker moves to a different file, it "metamorphoses" (hence "M-Chess") into the piece whose file it's on; for instance, a checker landing on C3 becomes a bishop. [A checker landing on the king's file takes on the power of a king but is called a "monarch" to distinguish it from the real king, i.e., the one and only one that must be checkmated.] There can be as many rooks as there are checkers on the rook files. Likewise for the other pieces. When a pawn is promoted, it is replaced by a checker and starts with the power of the file it's on, e.g., the pawn is initialized as a rook if promoted at H8. (Note: in essence, metamorphosis occurs with each move of a checker.)

I welcome feedback on M-Chess at (email removed contact us for address) tv.net.