Two Kings Chess
Introduction
On 4 October 1997, we received an email from Rob McCarter, in which he detailed a chess variant called "Two Kings". Here is an excerpt from his email:
I really like your website. I haven't played chess in a long time, but I played a lot in college. Here is a variant that we had a lot of fun with, that I didn't see in your lists.
Rules
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Pawn::::a2-h2
Knight:N:::b1,g1
Bishop::::c1,f1
Rook::::a1,h1
Queen::::
King::KisO2::d1,e1
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Standard setup except players each have a second king in place of a queen. A player wins by either checkmating one of his opponent's kings, or by placing both his opponent's kings in check on the same move. [Note that one could use the queen piece (instead of having to track
down another king piece), but treat it exactly the same as if it were a
king. -- DH] |
Special castling rule: kings may castle as in normal chess, or both kings may castle "kingside" (i.e. with nearest rook) as a single move with normal restrictions applying (see diagram at below).
For pawn promotions, I don't remember whether we allowed pawns to promote
to queens or not, so I assume the game could be played either way.
Comments
The two kings variant, while quite similar to Double King chess, is nice enough to have its own webpage. -HB
Written by Rob McCarter. Editing and diagrams by David Howe.
WWW page created: October 13, 1997. Last modified: June 3, 1998.