Please let me know what you think of this.
As chess variants go, I think this is an ok one. The thing I like is that you are not messing with the rules of movement by adding other pieces, changing promotion rules, etc.
It seems like a variant my brother in law and I came up with, we call "strategochess". It's about the same as you described, except you place a cardboard in between during the setup so you can not see your opponents camp.
perhaps it would be better if each side took turns placing one piece at a time (possibly in order (i.e. white king, black king, white queen, black queen, etc.) or in any desired order).
Sittuyin (Burmese Chess) has a setup sort of like this, although it plays with different pieces. One rule that it has which you might think of adding is that you can't put both rooks on one file, a rook and a queen on the same file, or a rook or queen on the same file as the enemy king; unless your opponent allows it.
I like the authors idea of black places his king, then white places all of his peices, then black places the rest of his peices, because I've always admired that chess wasn't player vs player but attcker vs defender. One player must take the role as attacker though. Perhaps peice by peice would be best, but I think it should be how the nfl use to do the draft, where first player places one peice, then they both can set up their base 2 at a time. (to cancel out whites advantage.)
I'll start by saying that I haven't heard of this name for a chess vairant, nor have I heard of this idea before, so as far as I know I just came up with it. If either the name or the idea is already taken, please let me know.
The idea is that each side gets to place their army on the board in whatever arrangement they like, with a few guidelines. You can only place your pieces and pawns on the first three ranks of your side of the board. Beyond that there's a few different options, and I'm not sure which I prefer. White can go first, placing all his pieces and pawns and then black constructs his defense, or whether black should build his fortress first and then white designs his attacking formation. The other option I thought it that perhaps black should have to place his king, then white places all of his pieces, certainly in an attacking formation on the king, then place places all his pieces and pawns defending the king. After the placement, play would continue as normal except there would be no castling, since presumably you will have already placed your king in a secure place. I think it could be fun to try playing this way.
Oh, and of course you'd have to put your bishops on different colors. Besides that I think anything would go. Pawns on the first rank, why not?
Please let me know what you think of this.