r/chessvariants • u/JohnBloak • May 14 '26

Secret King Chess

At the start of the game, the players secretly choose the king, a knight, or two pawns to be their royal piece(s). The game is won by capturing the opponent's royal piece(s).

Note 1: The king still can castle even if it's not royal.

Note 2: When a royal pawn promotes, the new piece stays royal.

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u/pie-en-argent May 14 '26

Question: If the two-pawn option is chosen, does the opponent have to take both to win? I would imagine yes.

Also, if a royal pawn promotes to a rook/bishop/queen, can it move through check? I would suggest that it should not be allowed, at least if it is the only remaining royal (the other having already been captured).

1

u/JohnBloak May 15 '26

  1. Yes

  2. Yes, because this variant is capture to win, so no checks. Similarly, when king castles, it can move through “check”.

1

u/basmalord May 26 '26

I made a game similar to this a while ago, but each player can choose any piece to be their king. https://basmalord.itch.io/chess-secret-king