This is a pretty goofy idea for a variant, but I think it would create some really interesting gameplay and add an extra challenge.
The name "Ahab Chess" comes from a wicked king of Israel in the Bible (named Ahab, of course). In 1 Kings 22:29-38, it tells of an event when Ahab went to war with another country, and he disguised himself as a regular soldier. When the enemy army realized that the "king" up in the chariot was the king of Judah, not Israel, they were confused and didn't know what to do. However, Ahab was struck at random, and ended up dying.
Now that I've finished that little Bible history lesson, perhaps you see where this is going.
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. The only piece that cannot be royal is the king (in the story, the enemy realized that the king was just a decoy). [EDIT: The Queen would be prevented from being royal as well, because of how difficult it would be to capture a royal queen. This suggestion came from @noahfavelo in the comments below.] Neither player would be able to know which piece has been selected as a royal. This would be a capture-the-royal variant, so 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.
What do you think? Is this another dumb idea of mine? XD or would this be good?
So nice idea!
It like a fake soldier!
I like it too