New Variant Idea: Hidden King

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Avatar of OwlLicks_Sander

I wanna see a mode where the royal piece (the piece that must be captured for you to win) is chosen by the player. Whichever piece you choose to be the royal one, must remain to move like that piece. (ex. if you make your royal piece a pawn, it can still only move forward and capture diagonally) The game starts once both players have clicked on any of their pieces to be the royal one. You will have no idea which piece your opponent chose as their royal piece, and they dont know which one you chose, and pretty much the game will go on until you or your opponents chosen royal piece gets captured. There are no checks so you can choose to leave your royal piece hanging, to trick your opponent into thinking its just one of your normal pieces of lower (or higher) value. I feel like there can be so many funny games with this feature, like one player chooses to have their royal piece be the h2 pawn, but they win because the opponent didnt think that they made that piece the king and never ended up capturing it.

Avatar of 24xru

Intresting

Avatar of 3ab3aty_jr

Cool idea

Avatar of HoangMinh220716
Lkk
Avatar of Green_Sleeves

I actually suggested almost this exact idea under the name of Ahab Chess.

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-variants/new-variant-idea-ahab-chess

And a month before that, independently of me, someone else suggested something similar but a bit different in rules.

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-variants/i-request-to-include-my-secret-kings-variant

Pretty crazy 😆

(I assume you came up with this independently and weren’t copying either of us, right?)

Avatar of long_quach

Bad idea.

How are you going to corner a Queen?

Avatar of long_quach

Chess already has everything we need.

There is the King. But there is also the Queen. We have to pay attention to both. The Queen is just as powerful as the King.

And any Pawns can be a Queen.

And any piece can checkmate you.

Offensively, any piece can kill you. The offense is hidden in the pieces.

Avatar of long_quach

Decoy King exists in history.

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/how-much-is-a-king-worth?page=2#comment-89436699

Avatar of long_quach

It's a bad concept.

It's a reverse concept.

Compare Chinese Chess to soccer, ice hockey, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiangqi

The King is in one spot. Like the head. It can bob and weave. It has shoulders to protect it. It has boxing blocks to protect it.

In MMA, the target is the head.

The leader of the X-Men is Professor X, a guy in wheel chair. He doesn't run around too much.

It's not Mystique who can be anybody. She's not the Leader.

Chess and X-Men:

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/what-if-chess-never-existed-1?page=4#comment-92441603

Avatar of long_quach
OwlLicks_Sander wrote:

Hidden King

It already exists.

In cards.

Any card can have the King on the other side of the card.

"You've got to know when to hold 'em. Know when to fold 'em. Know when to run . . ."

Avatar of T-jankins9522
I also came up with this idea under the name secret royalty chess.
Avatar of HGMuller

So invented 4 times independently within the year.

Problem of course is that chosing the Queen is almost a guarantee that you won't lose, as it would be impossible to checkmate. You wouldn't even care that the opponent knows you picked the Queen.

Avatar of Green_Sleeves

Indeed. In my variant (Ahab Chess), I said that king and queen weren’t available options.

Avatar of tobinthegreat11

I love this idea and also am wondering how to play variants on android phone? The awards for playing crazyhouse and 3 check are there, i just don't know where to find them

Avatar of Green_Sleeves

Variants doesn’t really work well on mobile devices. It’s okay on a tablet, but on phones the interface is pretty glitchy.

Avatar of SacrifycedStoat
I think that works, but I would add one rule:
You do not know if you check your opponent’s Royal piece, but your opponent must defend the check.