It's not a job for King
Two relatively modest games, playing with power and royality. Since they have alike (but still different) ideas, they are on one page.Game I
Setup is usual, but each player have two warriors instead of king and queen. Warriors moves as king, but not royal and may be captured. There is no castling. Instead of moving, player may transform any non-pawn piece into Maharajah. It's a very strong piece, able to move as rook, bishop or knight, but it's weakness is that it's royal: it may not be left under check. Also, one may transform Maharajah back to it's original form instead of moving (one have to remember, what was Maharajah's original form - e.g., if originally he was warrior, he can't turn into rook). One player may not make two transformations of any kind in two successive turns - if you turned non-royal piece into Maharajah or Maharajah back to non-royal piece, you must make a move on next turn. It's possible to have two or more Maharajahs, but if they all must be safe. If two or more Maharajahs are forked, only way to escape the checkmate is to capture attacking piece. It's not allowed to escape check by turning Maharajah back to non-royal piece. Pawn can promote to warrior, bishop, knight or rook. Pawn can't promote to queen and Maharajah. However, promoted pawn may be turned into Maharajah on further turns. Promotion is not considered as transformation, and player may make transformation after promotion move. Once there is only one non-pawn piece left, it can't turn into Maharajah, and if it is currently Maharajah, it instantly transforms to normal state. But once that player promoted at least one pawn, getting two or more non-pawn pieces again, it's allowed to turn them into Maharajahs again. Win by checkmating or stalemating Maharajah(s). If opponent have no Maharajahs, win by capturing all opponent's pieces. In FIDE draw outcomes (other than stalemate), winner is the player, who has captured more points. Pawn Costs 1 point. Warrior, bishop and knight costs 3 points each. Rook costs 5 points. Since Maharajah can't be captured, there is no need to value him. If players has captured equal powers, black (second player) wins.
Game II
Each player have two kings instead of one king and one queen. They both are royal, but it's another kind of multi-royality, not as in previous game. To win, capture all opponent's kings. Both kings may castle to either side. Castling through or out of check is not allowed. Also, king may not castle if he ever transformed. Instead of moving, player may transform king into non-royal compound piece - queen (rook + bishop), marshal (rook + knight) or cardinal (knight + bishop). These compound pieces can be transformed back into king. One compound piece can't be transformed into another compound piece immediately, but king can transform into different compound piece for different time. If player have only one king, he can't be transformed, player always must have at least one king on board. Pawn may promote into king, queen, marshal or cardinal, and they may be transformed on further moves. I don't see reasons of promoting to basic rook, bishop or knight. Unlike Game I, player must make 3 moves before transforming piece again, but, also unlike Game I, counter is not for enture side, but for separate pieces. That is, e.g., if queen transformed into king, another king can transform to some compound on subsequent turn, provided that he did not transform on last 3 turns. Also, piece may not transform for first 3 turns after being introduced into game: that is, original kings on first 3 turns of the entire game, and promoted pawn.
I can suggest to play with more kings in initial position (e.g., move two pawns one square forward and put two additional knigs on their original positions).
This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.
By Daniil Frolov.
Web page created: 2014-01-12. Web page last updated: 2014-01-12