Proposition of a new chess variant: Capture the Imposter

a variation in which you don't know which piece is your king(THE IMPOSTER) until move 10. And therefore the king is that other piece instead.

Ideally, this would be better played with a 3rd person that acts as a referee that rolls the dice, hide the number and reveal it when necessary. But if not, it is still possible to do it with 2 players. Online it would be very easy and fun because the program would act as a perfect automatic referee.

RULES (for 2 players without referee):

To randomize the Imposter You roll a dice before the start (1 dice - 3 times and make a sum) and hide the secret number. Your opponent will do a random operation (like for example x+2 being 'x' the secret number)on a paper and hide the paper. The secret number can only be in the range of 3-18 and it will be assigned to your pieces in your starting squares, every number represents one piece, In the move 10 you discover which piece is the king by revealing the number of the square). 

The imposter will be equal for both sides

*If by the move 8 you are down one pawn(or more) you get the reveal before the opponent. But still can't capture the enemy king until the opponent gets his reveal in the move 10. If your missing piece happens to be the king then you lost. So, to reveal it it in case you are down a pawn or more: after move 8. you can grab the opponent's secret paper and do the operation that is on the paper. Then divide the resulting number by 18; the substract will signify the number of the square where the Imposter is

The Imposter can be captured or checkmated. If the opponent doesn't move it after a check then it's taken and you win the game.

(((I invented this, and played with a friend, it was amazing)))

Hey @Idrinkyourhealth3 👋

Wow, that’s a seriously creative idea! “Capture the Imposter” sounds like a mix between chess and Among Us, with a bit of mystery and chaos thrown in. I love it. The concept of not knowing which piece is your king until later in the game adds a really fun psychological twist.

It’s like a mix of strategy and bluffing, where both players have to defend *everything* just in case it’s their imposter piece. I can totally see this being a great casual variant with friends or even as an online mode someday.

You might want to post this in the Chess Variants*club too, they’d definitely appreciate this idea and maybe even help refine the rules a bit more.

Really clever concept, nicely done! 😄

@JosephReidNZ ♟

Hi JosephReidNZ, thanks ! If enough people like it enough then somebody may repost this naturally. Otherwise I would feel like spamming before getting any public feedback. Also if nobody makes the game I may do It myself in the near future if I have extra time.

I also thought about balancing some stuff because a lot of things can be improved(like the number of moves without knowing the Imposter, the leveraged advantage of 8th move reveal and the dice roll that makes some pieces more likely to be The Imposter than others).

The idea itself is simple so I think It would be quite fun to build from it. Already have in mind some sub-variants that can be even better.. if this takes off somehow in the first place

interesting, i wonder if this could lead to playing super passively in the opening to avoid any risks, possibly killing the fun (although i understand that is the point). still, a nice way to avoid theory, sounds fun

Hey!

Its sounds interesting also if somebody wants you can try Dice Chess on www.dicechess.com