Dead King Walking (used to be a 4PC Variant, now is a part of standard rules)

In FFA, Resigned kings will move at random until checkmated or stalemated!

If stalemated, the remaining players will share the points for the king.

Checking resigned kings does not count for double- or triplechecks.

Resigned kings don't get points for capturing pieces (or checkmating players).

Same thing if the player times out?

and will it take its own pieces?

Same if times out, yes.

All his other pieces are dead, and those can be captured as always unless it's Deadwall.

In Deadwall it's quite easy to resign in a way that will get stalemated on next turn (and the points will be shared)

Stupid idea, not smart. Drunk king walking is not good.

I would agree with the predator. I think chess appeals by not being random. If you want your dice rolls to determine most of the outcome, play Monopoly.

The idea of this is precisely to reduce the randomness/luck of who gets the points for a resigned king!

With the king gifter alive instead of resigned, the "luck" is just as bad. Can you see what I'm saying? He can still gift pieces to whom he wants and that is just as much luck as him being dead and his king randomly moving itself around.

I like DKW.

I really like DKW too. But I don't understand what you are saying e4?  the "luck" is just as bad? can still gift pieces? huh?

People have discussed the unfairness/randomness/luck of who get's a resigned kings for as long as I can remember. The fact that resigned kings are worth anything at all is a necessary evil needed so that people don't resign before getting checkmated.

I think the luck factor is greately reduced with DKW. The fun/trickiness of stealing / not giving mates is extended to resigned kings. Further the possibility that the points get shared (by stalemating) is introduced, which in I can envision being much fairer than one lucky player getting the +20 in many cases. A player who was about to checkmate a king when he resigned will generally likely still be quickest to checkmate the walking king. 

On a side note, we have gone back to the original rule that getting stalemated will earn you +20, which makes resigning an infererior option in most cases. Players will play on trying to get stalemated, making the game more interesing for all players. I expect this to lead to a lot fewer resignations overall.

@Predator777rus while i appreciate your opinion, it would be a lot more interesting to hear WHY you think it's stupid/not smart/not good? (like check_out_23 who explained where he is coming from). Otherwise I guess you are just not interested in any kind of discussion, which is kinda sad)

@check_out_23,

> I think chess appeals by not being random.

It is true for 4PC Teams too. But 4PC FFA contains randomness, so adding a walking king changes it only a little.

@BabYagun I guess by randomness you mean the difficulty of predicting the moves of the other three players. Adding a dice is different. It changes the randomness from figurative to literal. Predicting the dice is not just difficult, it is impossible, so you don't even try. It is surely a departure from the most basic properties of chess. But if it's fun, who cares? Btw here is an old thread with even more crazy ideas that involve randomness: Stupid brilliant ideas for a wacky variant with some random events.

Luke and Bab, drunk king walking let this king to make mate! If drunk king moves and opens mate from other color rook, queen or elephant - so this drunk king gets +20 or +40 because mate on drunk king turn! 

good point. i thought i had that covered but i forgot. i have added the obvious rule: no points for drunk kings.

chances of a drunk king checkmating someone are pretty damn small i'd say.

elephant?

elephant = bishop in Russian chess

Russian players use these piece names:

king = king
queen = "ferz" (from Persian chess, means "king's adviser")
rook = "ladia" (ship of ancient Russians, looks like Vikings ship)
bishop = elephant (from Arab and Indian chess)
knight = horse
pawn = "peshka" (no idea what is the source of this word)

If you'll look at Chaturaji board, you'll also see elephants and ships.

Peshka is from peshij (пеший) - basically it means a foot soldier.

test server now hosting dkw "2.0": resigned kings will insta-move (not only on next turn). This introcudes new moves such as Kh1-h2T (timed out and moved to h2), RS (resigned into stalemate, points will be shared), R# (resigned into checkmate, points given to player(s) that are checking (couldn't find a scenario where two players checking was not already mate before resigns, but in case it's possible, points will be shared between the checking players).

try it on test server (enable dkw in edit position)

The source of this word is of slavic origin. It suggests walking on foot, In chess context it can be a conscript, peasant, etc. But the most interesting is why they call the king "king". An english word is completly unexpected here.

They don't, actually. King is korol (derived from Charlemagne).

This issue is a necessary evil. But in about half cases, I think there is still some strategy to capturing a resigned/timed out king. I agree that DKW does add unnecessary randomness. It is best left as originally.

DKW is a fantastic idea! because while a player is trying to kill that DKW, the other two players can attack that greedy player. Many people are reluctant to changes, but only at the beginning. Through time, they will find usefulness and therefore will accept the change.