I came across an interesting chess variant recently, which we called "Paratrooper Chess" (not sure if there is another name for it). It was meant to be a crazyhouse-like game which is easier to play with a real chessboard (i.e. pieces don't have to change color).
As in crazyhouse, you have a hand of pieces which you can drop in lieu of your regular move. However, these aren't pieces you've captured from your opponent -- instead, you can spend a move to take one of your own pieces (not your king though) off the board and into your hand.
Captured pieces are just captured and are removed from the game permanently, like in regular chess.
In the few games I've played of this, a few interesting things have come up:
(i) openings tend to involve a lot of building a large hand rather than moving pieces on the board
(ii) attacks fizzle out much quicker than in crazyhouse since you can't add a piece to your hand without forfeiting your whole move
(iii) this variant has endgames, and they involve a lot of taking pawns into your hand and placing them on the 7th / 2nd rank for quick promotions.
Thoughts?
Standard Disclaimer: I'm not really asking for this variant (though having more variants is always better), just throwing it out there to see if anyone else has tried this / has any thoughts about it.
As in crazyhouse, you have a hand of pieces which you can drop in lieu of your regular move. However, these aren't pieces you've captured from your opponent -- instead, you can spend a move to take one of your own pieces (not your king though) off the board and into your hand.
Captured pieces are just captured and are removed from the game permanently, like in regular chess.
In the few games I've played of this, a few interesting things have come up:
(i) openings tend to involve a lot of building a large hand rather than moving pieces on the board
(ii) attacks fizzle out much quicker than in crazyhouse since you can't add a piece to your hand without forfeiting your whole move
(iii) this variant has endgames, and they involve a lot of taking pawns into your hand and placing them on the 7th / 2nd rank for quick promotions.
Thoughts?
Standard Disclaimer: I'm not really asking for this variant (though having more variants is always better), just throwing it out there to see if anyone else has tried this / has any thoughts about it.