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Interesting. Hmmm, I have to think this through. I believe that if the game followed normal chess rules, except for replacing the pieces with queens, then games where the captures are all even trades would result in draws, but if one side could come out ahead with K+Q vs K, then there would be the usual mate sequence.

HOWEVER the rule OP added that "a piece may only move if it is adjacent to another piece of either color" slightly complicates the endgame. My normal tendency would be to put the queen far away from the action to avoid blundering it, but here that would instantly deactivate it. It's kind of funny to picture the kings racing across the board to capture or reactivate the last inert queen.

I think one can still get the usual style of mate in this variant, you just have to walk the king and queen together, and pay extra attention to avoiding stalemate. For example, imagining white king on e1, black king on e3, black queen on d3. If white to move then Qb1# or Qe2#, fairly standard maneuvers (though if black to move that's a stalemate).

This is an interesting modification to the game, I'd play a few rounds...

discuss

Someone|10 months ago

> It's kind of funny to picture the kings racing across the board to capture or reactivate the last inert queen.

That would never happen. Because of the “of either color” clause, a king can’t even move to a square adjacent to a queen of the other color, as that activates the queen, moving the king into check.

Also, if the kings are included in the “piece” category of “a piece may only move if it is adjacent to another piece of either color” (which, I think/guess the OP didn’t consider), a lone king cannot race across the board.

mitchellpkt|10 months ago

Oh yeah totally agree, I was thinking of the king as separate from the pieces. If a lone king cannot move, that changes the dynamics considerably.

AnimalMuppet|10 months ago

I could see an endgame where the last exchange leaves all the remaining pieces isolated from each other. By the rules, then, no piece on either side can move. Stalemate? Or a flaw in the rules?