Goose Chess

Hi, I just wanted to put this here as well as on the forum that I originally posted it.

    I have an idea for a new variant. This variant is based on Magician Chess (https://musketeerchess.net/p/games/magician/rules/rules.php) and Duck Chess (https://www.chess.com/variants/duck-chess). It would be helpful if you were familiar with the rules of those variants before reading this post. You might even want to play a few games!

    Goose Chess is intended to be a more attacking-friendly version of Duck Chess. It would feature two new Pieces, the Goose and the Egg. The Goose, like the Duck, must be Moved after each turn by either Player. Unlike the Duck, it does not start in White's Bank, instead Starting on e4. Unlike the Duck, the Goose is Short. What does this mean? I will explain it in the next paragraph, but essentially, it means Pieces can jump over it. The Egg, unlike the Goose, starts on the Board on d4. Every time the Goose is Moved, the Egg immediately moves to the square that the Goose just moved off of. The Egg has the effect of making any Pieces, including Pawns, that are orthogonally adjacent to it Short. Pieces stop being Short as soon as the Egg is no longer orthogonally adjacent to them. However, the Egg itself is not Short. Neither the Goose nor the Egg may be captured.

    By now, you are probably wondering what it means for a Piece to be Short. Essentially, shortness in Goose Chess is the equivalent of Transparency in Magician Chess. A Short Piece can be jumped over by any Piece except for the King. Short Pieces may jump over other Short Pieces as well. Pieces are not required to jump over a Short Piece, though. A piece may instead choose to Capture a Short Piece as normal. An example is below, with the duck representing the Goose and a gray pawn representing the Egg.

In this position, the White Bishop is simultaneously attacking the Pawn on c3, the Pawn on d4, and the Knight on g7, and it could Capture any of the three on the next move. It is attacking the Pawn on c3 directly, but it can also choose to jump over it, leaving it intact, and capture the Pawn on d4. It can even jump over both Pawns and the Goose (which, remember, is always Short) to Capture the Knight on g7. However, it cannot Capture the Goose or land on the same Square as the Goose because the Goose may not be Captured.

Of course, in the above Position, the Rook cannot capture any Pieces as it cannot move Diagonally, even when there are Short Pieces there.

    The last thing to do is clear up some ambiguities. First of all, it is important to note that Kings may never jump over Pieces even if they are Short. Normally, since the King can only move 1 Square, this doesn't matter as it wouldn't be able to jump over a Piece and land on the other side anyway as that is too far for it to move. However, it does become important in Castling because a King can move 2 Squares when Castling. When Castling, the Square the King moves through and the Square it lands on must not have any Pieces on them, but in the case of Queenside Castling, the square on the b-File that the Rook goes through may have a Short Piece on it.

    The second ambiguity I'd like to clear up is En Passant.

From this Position, the White Pawn would be able to Move to d4 as shown as it is just jumping over a Short Piece. Let's say White then decides to move the Goose to h1, leaving the following position.

The Black Pawn would not be able to Capture the White Pawn En Passant because that would require Moving to the Square with the Egg on it, which would require Capturing the Egg, which is Illegal. The same would apply if it had been a Black Piece the White Pawn had jumped over since the Black Pawn can't capture another Black Piece. However, if it had been a White Piece the White Pawn had jumped over, the Black Pawn would be able to Capture the White Piece, which would simultaneously Capture the White Pawn En Passant.

    The final thing to note is the starting Position of the game. Here is the starting Position.

As previously noted, the Egg and Goose start on e4 and d4, respectively. This of course prevents White from opening with 1. d4 or 1. e4. Indeed, it prevents 2. e4 as well. In addition to this, White's Queen is replaced with a Chancellor. Pawns of either color may, upon reaching the opposite side of the Board, Promote to a Chancellor instead of a Queen, Rook, Bishop, or Knight.

    Please let me know what you think! Of course, the ball is in Chess.com's court now, and they can modify any of these rules if they do decide to implement this variant.

A few clarifications and notes: I should probably clarify that the Goose may only be Moved to empty Squares. It cannot Capture. The Egg also cannot Capture as it only moves to Squares just left by the Goose. I got the idea of using the new pieces to hamper White's development from Ralph Betza's Black Ghost, and I got the idea of giving one side the Chancellor instead of the Queen from his Sort of Almost Chess.

I like the idea, I think this reduces the overall attacking prospects but is very interesting with the inclusion of the egg.