Ahab Chess Gameplay Rules

As of right now, we actually have two sets of rules. @arctevious_the_3rd came up with the concept for this game under the name Secret Kings in April 2023, and I independently came up with the concept under the name Ahab Chess in May 2023. The two of us discovered each other and decided to work together to come up with one variant and campaign for chess.com to include it on the Variants server. Our two ideas had different rules to them, though they both operate on a similar foundation.

We intend to decide on one set of rules, but we want to test out both our ideas first to see the pros and cons of each. So below, I will write out the Actevious Rules, followed by the Green_Sleeves Rules.

Ahab Chess: Arctevious Rules

• Each player begins by picking one of his pieces to be the hidden royal piece, unknown to his opponent. He may pick any one of his pieces to be his royal, even the actual king piece.
• White goes first and all pieces move the same as in original chess, including the royal.
  • If the royal piece is a pawn that succeeded in promoting, the piece still retains the same rules as the new piece.
  • Even though the king is not usually royal, it can still castle, in order to help with developing pieces.
• All checking rules apply to the chosen royal piece, but will not to the actual king piece (unless the king was chosen by the player to be the royal), which means you may let your king piece be taken.
• You may not tell the opponent if they are checking your royal.
• A player wins by checkmating his opponent's hidden royal. This is not a capture-the-royal variant.
• Bare piece rule: Players with only one remaining piece are forfeit.

Description:

In this variant, you can pick a secret king and hide it from players! The strategy for which piece is better to choose and endgame results would be fun to investigate! And you could switch it up a little by doing any of the following, choosing a pawn to give low suspicion of the piece for low power, doing the queen for ultimate power but high suspicion, and doing a knight to leap out of checkmates! You could confuse them with picking the original king! This would spark even more love for the chess variant section and would be fun to find the hidden king in the crowd!

Ahab Chess: Green_Sleeves Rules

• Each player begins by picking one of his pieces to be the hidden royal piece, unknown to his opponent. He may not pick his king or queen to be the royal. Any other piece may be picked.
• White goes first and all pieces move the same as in original chess, including the royal.
  • If the royal piece is a pawn that succeeded in promoting, the piece still retains the same rules as the new piece.
  • Even though the king is not royal, it can still castle, in order to help with developing pieces.
• The game is capture-the-royal, meaning that the hidden royal piece may move in and out of danger at will, and must be captured to end the game. Checking rules do not apply.
• Bare piece rule: Players with only one remaining piece are forfeit.

Description:

My idea is that the board would have a standard chess setup, and at the beginning of the game, each player selects any one of his pieces (even a pawn if he really wants to) to be his royal piece (his "Ahab," if you will). Neither player would be able to know which piece his opponent has selected as a royal. Since this is a capture-the-royal variant, you can knowingly put yourself in "check" pretending your piece isn't the royal, taking the risk of possibly losing, or just throwing your opponent off. The only pieces that cannot be royal are the king and queen. (The king cannot be royal because, in the Bible story, the enemy realized that the king was just a decoy; and the queen cannot be royal because it would be very difficult to capture a royal queen (thanks @noahfavelo for that suggestion), plus Ahab was very obviously not pretending to be a queen 😆). Even though the king is just a decoy and is not royal, it can still castle like a normal king in standard chess. Though castling is normally meant to protect the king in standard chess, the purpose of castling in Ahab Chess would be to get your rooks into a better position.

In Actevious Rules, checkmating the royal is very hard to defend the royal pawn and not betting: If you don't checkmate this pawn, you'll go to check another. Green Sleeves Rules solved this problem. This is more betting that you have to capture any piece, and that can let to your capturing piece die.

What is the difference between these? Is it just that the King and Queen cannot be Royal?

I commented 1 of the differences

The main difference is that Arctevious has checking rules, whereas Green_Sleeves rules is capture-the-royal.

Ah, okay!

I like green sleeves rules much better, as checkmating a "hidden" king kinda makes little sense. Plus if you have to move it out of check the opponent would probably catch on quick. However the one aspect i do like is picking the king as the royal. That adds reverse physiology and a tad more strategy. Although i do realize it doesn't comply quite accurately to the story.

yes, i like @Green_Sleeves rules, but i think you should be able to be able to chose the king to maximize fun and the chances of it being implemented.

I too like all the rules of the greensleeves version more, but would like to be able to make the king royal. Just as @Brudo_the_Chess_King stated, it isn't accurate to the story, but it adds another level of strategy.

Being able to select the king is definitely an option I’m open to. My other reason for not being able to select the king (aside from it not matching the story) is that I also have it so that you’re not able to select the queen, because it’s overpowered. I thought it flowed naturally to not select the king either, as it fits with the narrative, “the king is hiding among the common ranks instead of the royalty.”

But if you guys still think the king should be an option, we can certainly try it out.

How about capture the royal and choose king or queen?

Choosing the queen isn't a viable option as the Queen is too overpowered and basically forces a draw at least for the person with the Queen.

Choosing the king allows the player to play regular chess on their end to some extent, and that might be too good because whenever you choose a piece to be Royal, you also lose their power as a fighting piece-- and since the king is not very good at working with others in the middlegame, people might always choose it.

But because it's capture the royal and the whole point is they don't know what piece is royal, so you can still have the fighting power for a royal piece because you can basically just bluff your way through. And if people always choose the king then people will know to target the king, so it will be better to choose a different piece. Because this game has an inherent meta element, you'll never want to choose the piece that's always chosen.

I think green_sleaves' rules are way better

Making the king royal wouldn't fit the narrative but would be playable... making the queen royal is totally unplayable.

yeah I saw the other posts and agreed, edited the post

I was thinking about this, and what occurred to me is that the king is inherently easy to protect and avoid getting into the fray. The whole point of this game is to put your royal out on the front lines where it’s in danger, and protect it while it’s out there. If someone had the option to choose the king, I feel like that would give him an automatic advantage, because he’d be playing normal chess with a protected royal, while his opponent has the king out where it’s in danger.

Frankly, the Bible story indicates what happens if only one side has a disguised king. Ahab dies, and the other side is fine.

That being said, I do want to play some test games down the road where king is an option, just to verify my theory; but from what I can tell, both queen and king give an inherent advantage, so you shouldn’t be able to pick either one.

I was thinking about a stalemate for a pawn, when it was the royal. Who won?

Especially if you can castle.