The Variability of Chess - It's a Very Very Good Thing
The Variability of the Game of Chess...
This is the game of Chess as we know it today. 64 squares, half of which are black and the other half white. We arrange the back ranks moving inward as Rook, Knight, Bishop, to King or Queen. The queen takes her matching colored square (white on white, black on black), and the pawns are then placed in front of each piece. This game has been around for thousands of years and for several hundred has been played the way we are now. But, although this is the standard way of playing chess, other kinds of chess and variations of the game can prove helpful in understanding tactics, piece maneuvering and planning. Plus it is fun to step outside of the box once in a while and "switch things up".
Consider this...
Now, we make one small adjustment. Switch the queens so that they are opposite to a king; this eliminates the illegal position above, while maintaining most of the symmetry.
Sure, that's great and all... but won't the game be the same as standard chess? Not at all. As seasoned chess players know it requires exactness and moderation when attacking the queen side of the board because the queen is so powerful. Thus, when we make the change to queens as the object of the game, the entire game must take on that aspect of being exact and moderate in one's attack on the queen. Sacrifice after sacrifice won't help anyone here... well, it may, but that remains to be seen when people start playing Queen's Chess regularly. ;)
Now, there is another possibility to changing the game of chess... shifting the armies one rank towards the center... vacating the last rank for pieces to recoordinate and reposition themselves. This is especially useful for kings, queens and rooks.
