New variant idea: Omnicastle

This variant is similar to normal chess, but the rules for castling are modified. The name "Omnicastle" is just a suggestion as well.

The King can pick any piece to castle with, including enemy pieces, provided that:

1. It's in a straight vertical, horizontal, or diagonal line from the King without other pieces in between.
2. It's at least 3 squares away in the relevant direction (i.e. there must be at least 2 empty squares between the King and the chosen piece)

The King will then move 2 steps in the direction of that piece, and the piece is placed on the square just behind the King (the square the King would have ended up on if he'd only taken one step).

It doesn't matter whether the King or the chosen piece have moved. The only restrictions on the King's ability to castle are that the King can't start in check, can't end in check, and that the King may not pass through a square that is attacked by an enemy piece.

Of course this does necessitate a slight change to notation, as 0-0 and 0-0-0 are either ambiguous or redundant in this variant. One option is to simply record the King moving 2 steps (so 0-0 would become Kg1), while another is to invent a new notation, such as for example K0 indicating the King choosing to castle, and the square after it being the location of the targeted piece (so 0-0 would become K0h1).

Thoughts?

actually not a bad idea

+1

+1

+1

One more thing I thought of: since pawns can be moved backwards by the King moving towards them, it becomes necessary to decide whether only a pawn's first move can be 2 steps, or whether any pawn on the second/seventh rank (depending on colour) can move 2 steps. In the interest of not having to keep track of whether your pawns have moved individually, I propose that if a pawn gets brought back to the rank it started on, it can move 2 steps forward despite having moved.

Or maybe you can't castle with pawns

Wow, this is a really cool idea! This would fit in really well with the other variants we have here, and would really change some fundamental checkmates. +2

The whole concept of the variant is that you can castle with anything at almost any time, so it'd be kind of odd to have an exception specifically for pawns. I also feel like it'd restrict some of the more creative ways of playing this variant. Pawns ordinarily don't have much freedom of movement, which makes the King's ability to move them around quite interesting.

I only thought that because in atomic, you can't explode pawns

but yes true, it would add another interesting mechanic to the game

A very nice idea

so how many times wil can king castle,

infinity?

Correct. Castling becomes a repeatable move. Relevant pieces no longer have to occupy their original position to castle.

ok...