Revenge of the King

Setup

The setup is the same as in normal chess.

Pieces

Pieces are the same as in normal chess, but the king can become a "mounted king" (see rules below).

Rules

Whenever a player is without a queen, his king moves and takes like a knight. The king is called "mounted king" then. Whenever the player has a queen, the king moves like a king in normal chess. Castling rules are unaffected, i.e. regular and mounted king can castle as long as they didn't move in any of both forms yet and all other requirements are met.

Notes

The motivation for this modest variant is making losing a queen less devastating and an exchange of queens less desireable. Should both players exchange queens anyway, the game is less likely to lose vitality.

There's also a German description available which is entitled "Vergeltung des Königs".