Tax Chess
It is not unreasonable to think that king's movement ability in chess is the source of drawishness of the game. What if the king had reduced mobility? Too simple. What if the king had mobility defined by the state of the board? Hmm...
In this variant the allowed set of moves a king can make is defined by the placement of the player's pawns! Less pawns, less taxes, less king power!
Setup
Pieces
"Towards lower file" means left for white, right for black.
"Towards higher file" means right for white, left for black.
The list of available squares for a king of color C is determined as follows:
- For each pawn of color C on A file the king can slide 1 square backwards. (N pawns means it can slide N squares)
- For each pawn of color C on B file the king can slide 1 square diagonally backwards towards lower file.
- For each pawn of color C on C file the king can slide 1 square towards lower file. A king can castle queen side only if there's at least one pawn of color C on the C file.
- For each pawn of color C on D file the king can slide 1 square diagonally forwards towards lower file.
- For each pawn of color C on E file the king can slide 1 square forwards.
- For each pawn of color C on F file the king can slide 1 square diagonally forwards towards higher file.
- For each pawn of color C on G file the king can slide 1 square towards higher file. A king can castle king side only if there's at least one pawn of color C on the G file.
- For each pawn of color C on H file the king can slide 1 square diagonally backwards towards higher file.
(Imagine pawns being wrapped around king's starting position)
Note, only each king's own pawns determine the king's available moves, so white king's available moves may differ from black king's moves. Black king's moves are mirrored with respect to white (not rotated) due to forward direction being mirrored.
Every other rule is the same as in chess. All emergent behaviour such as a king potentially attacking an enemy king is consistent with other chess rules.
This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.
By Tomasz Sobczyk.
Last revised by Tomasz Sobczyk.
Web page created: 2020-09-08. Web page last updated: 2020-10-30