I wonder if chess is a draw with less ranks

[Uri Blass]

With 4 ranks it is obviously mate in 1 for white who win by e2xf3#
What about 5 ranks or 6 rankss?

Is there a software to analyze it?

rules are the same as normal chess when pawns can go 2 squares forward only in the first move and promote when they go to their last rank.

I guess white is going to win with 5 ranks but I know no software to make a serious analysis.

Not sure about 6 ranks or 7 ranks

[jefk]

you could setup some prototype(s) - in a rather easy- way with
Zillionsofgames and then see how it goes; disadvantage then is that
the engine isn't strong. So that would result in yet some more chess
variants; thereby with much less ranks i would be inclined to let the
first pawns moves only going one rank further (instead of two).

[Jouni]

I guess, that 5, 6 and possible 7 ranks can be fully analyzed in reasonable time.

[Uri Blass]

I guess, that 5, 6 and possible 7 ranks can be fully analyzed in reasonable time.

I agree about 5 but I am not sure if it is possible to analyze 6 ranks in a reasonable time.
Even without solving the game we probably can get conclusions about 6 and 7 based on engine-engines games like we do in chess because all engine-engine games end at the same result but it is not a proof.

We can have 2 options for the pawn moves.
Generalization of chess can claim that the pawn is allowed to move 2 squares forward in the first move but another generalization is when the pawn is allowed to move 2 pawns forward only when it is at distance of at least 6 ranks from promotion and in this case smaller board means not being able to move 2 squares forward.

Both are natural generalization of chess.

I guess it is simpler to solve the problem when the pawn is not allowed to move 2 squares forward because we have less possibilities.