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Kamikaze III. If the lone queen checks, she wins.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

J. Gryphon wrote on Wed, Oct 12, 2011 06:06 AM UTC:

The key difference between this variant and Maharaja and the Sepoys is that
the Maharaja need only check the King -- not checkmate it -- to win the
game, and it doesn't matter if it puts itself into danger doing so.
Because of this, the Kamikaze Queen is much more powerful than the Q+K
compound.

Now, I'm not anywhere near a master Chess player, but I played it against
myself a few times. Most of the White openings I've seen are Fool's Mates
that open the King up to be checked in one or two turns, thus losing the
game.

I suspect that Red is intended to be played by a very weak player; with
strong players I expect the kamikaze should have a major advantage, though
with some deep level of perfect play, I suppose it might be possible for
White to win, but I haven't seen anything like that yet myself. If anyone
can prove that Red doesn't have a forced win, that'd be much
appreciated.

I think it's really more of a puzzle than a game, in any case.