Designing a Ridiculous Chess Variant

Imagine you were given the incredible power to design a brand new variant of chess. I'm curious, what would be the most outlandishly ridiculous rule you'd implement? Picture a world where the traditional rules go out the window, and you have the freedom to introduce any zany, unconventional, or even absurd element into the game. I can't wait to hear your wild and imaginative ideas! Let's unleash our creativity and see what kind of mind-bending chess variant we can come up with together.

I have a great idea (=> off topic?) but don't know how to implement it.

We call it castle-chess: Black wins if they succeed to castle long, white wins if black loses queenside castle rights. Otherwise like normal chess (checkmate etc).

I suspect that there's a way for one of the sides to get a forced win quite early, and that it could quite easily be brute force analysed with a computer, but I don't know how to do it :-(.

I think truly ridiculous variants can be quite easily designed in various ways:

(a) Nonstandard starting position: e.g., let's keep the kings (makes it less ridiculous, I admit, but is it still chess otherwise?), and
(a-1) make all other pieces the same, e.g.: (i) queens, or (ii) all knights, or ....

(a-2) fill the board up to the middle (i.e. 4 rows full of pieces initially), maybe rows 2-4 all pawns, or as in (1), all queens or all knights or...

(b) Nonstandard board size: use a board of size 8 x 16 or 16x 16 or 8 x 32 or 8 x 64 or 64x64... and/or cyclic (going beyond the h- (or zz-)file, you come back on the a-file, and vice versa). Or infinite sized board. (That would be quite truly ridiculous, I guess.) Or a 3D board (you can go N/S, W/E but also up/down on other levels where you have "parallel" (2D-) boards).

(c) nonstandard moves: some or all pieces can make a weird move, maybe just once in a game, or for each piece they capture they can once (or infinitely often) move as that piece. Or they can "warp" to any place, maybe just once in a game. (I'd call that chatGPT chess ... )

In my opinion, Castle-Chess sounds like an interesting variant of chess with a unique win condition. It introduces a different strategic element by emphasizing the importance of castling and the protection of the queenside castle rights.

Regarding the possibility of one side having a forced win early on, it's challenging to determine without conducting a thorough analysis. As you rightly mentioned, computer analysis could be useful in examining the game and assessing potential imbalances or improprieties.

Designing ridiculous variants of chess with nonstandard elements, such as nonstandard starting positions, board sizes, or moves, can undoubtedly lead to unique and entertaining gameplay. With nonstandard moves that make your head spin and starting positions that defy logic, it's a wild and wacky ride. Just remember to bring your sense of humor and a side order of chaos because, in this realm, even ChatGPT might consider challenging you to a game of wink.png chess.