Removing one row seems interesting.
But I must object to your 'simplification'. You attempt to complicate the moves of the pawn moves. Yet, how do explain that even 6 year old children can grasp the standard chess rules quite easily.
How hard is it to grasp that a pawn can reach the center of the board in one move, and a pawn that it bypasses can capture it?
Except for stalemate, capturing the king only benefits novices and very BAD players. I dont see how this benefits the game in general. (note this is for 2 player std chess-like game not for other variants)
No serious chess player would take this variant seriously especially since it destroys the game it attempts to 'improve'.
I suggest emphasizing the 7 rows more so as to make this a real chess variant .., keep 1 step pawn movement, no castling, promotion rules but revert back to std chess checkmate stalemate /draw rules.