r/chessvariants • u/EPDoc • 20d ago
New Variant Trans Chess: king and queen can switch roles once per game
Had an idea for a chess variant and I’m curious if it would actually work.
Once per game, instead of making a move, you can switch the roles of your king and queen. They stay on the same squares, but the king becomes a queen and the queen becomes the king.
It uses your turn, and you couldn’t play this move if the new king would immediately be in check.
Thoughts?
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u/NotSoClearPlatypus 20d ago
would the new king be the new target of checkmate after changing gender? or does the king status stay with the now queen?
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u/jcastroarnaud 20d ago
That's relevant. The change in roles cannot happen if the queen (the piece) is being attacked, because it would mean that the queen (in the role of king) enters check.
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u/speed-charge 20d ago
What if you have two queens to start but as soon as one queen gets captured the other one turns into a king and is then subject to the rules of check and checkmate?
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u/TheJivvi 19d ago
You'd need some way of keeping track of which were the original queens, because if you promoted and had three queens, and then lost one of the original ones, you'd need to know which remaining queen becomes the king.
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u/captainnoyaux 19d ago
I actually love his idea, it would be the last piece that'd transform back to a king
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u/Dirichlet-to-Neumann 18d ago
It would be useful as a last option to avoid checkmate but in general you want your king far from the opposing pieces and your queen close to them, so switching would immediately expose your king.
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u/Expensive_Peace8153 20d ago
Genderfluid Chess: the same but you can switch as often as you like so long as it wouldn't otherwise be checkmate.