"Wild 9 is one of the more unusual wild variants. Instead of the usual king bishop, you start out with 2 kings! One king is just a normal piece, while the other is the one that must be checked and mated. However, their roles can change, as the game progresses! As you sweep the board from the bottom left, starting with a1 to a8, then b1 to b8, etc. until h8, the first king that you reach is the one that must be mated. The second king (if it is still on the board) is just a normal piece."
Question: -> Should pawns be allowed to promote to Kings if one monarch get captured earlier in the game?
I am pretty sure you cannot. TwoKings is sort of a 'non-consciously designed' variant. In the early days of the ICS someone just set up a position with two Kings, to see what happened. Since the ICS check test starts by scanning the board to locate the King, it applies the test only to the first King it encounters this way, and ignores the other. The ICS is not in any way aware that this is not normal Chess.
hgm wrote:I am pretty sure you cannot. TwoKings is sort of a 'non-consciously designed' variant. In the early days of the ICS someone just set up a position with two Kings, to see what happened. Since the ICS check test starts by scanning the board to locate the King, it applies the test only to the first King it encounters this way, and ignores the other. The ICS is not in any way aware that this is not normal Chess.
Oh, ok. Thanks for the background. The game makes more sense knowing this. But, knowing this, I think I misunderstood the rules:
If the two kings are on the same file, the one closest to rank 1 is the king you must checkmate.
I had assumed this was each player's first rank, but I now suspect it is rank 1 in an absolute sense. This would make the game assymetric per player, which is very bad. If both kings are on the same file, then white's royal king is the one in the back, whereas black's royal king is the one out front, giving a significant advantage to white (who already has an advantage from first move.) Can someone confirm if that is correct?
Greg Strong wrote:I had assumed this was each player's first rank, but I now suspect it is rank 1 in an absolute sense. This would make the game assymetric per player, which is very bad. If both kings are on the same file, then white's royal king is the one in the back, whereas black's royal king is the one out front, giving a significant advantage to white (who already has an advantage from first move.) Can someone confirm if that is correct?
It is without doubt rank 1 (a1 for white) and rank 8 (a8 for black).
