Variant: Primordial Chess

Here is an interesting variant I have come up with. It is loosely based upon a variant that never caught on called prechess. I would like to know what people think and if possible I would love to see it on lichess.

Primordial Chess rules.

1. The game starts with just white pawns along the 2nd rank and black pawns along the 7th rank.

2. All other pieces including the king start the game off the board in the deployment zone. (Similar to having pieces in hand like in bughouse or crazyhouse)

3. For each players first move of the game players are required to deploy their king to an empty square on their first rank.

4. For all subsequent turns players may choose between making a standard chess move or deploying a remaining piece from the deployment zone to an empty square on their back rank.

5. Once a piece or pawn is captured it is removed from the game entirely (as in classical chess) and is NOT returned to the deployment zone.

6. Deploying a piece to create a check and/or block a check is permitted.

7. When a player deploys a bishop his remaining bishop must be deployed in the future to a square of the opposite color to the first one.

8. Castling does not exist.

9. En passant works exactly as it does in standard chess. Note that deploying a piece is considered a move and therefore if a piece is deployed rather than capturing En passant the right is lost.

10. Pawns may be promoted as in classical chess.

Meh, too complicated.

How is it more complicated than Crazyhouse and other variants?

I like it. And I even prefer it to prechess.

I like the idea that you can start attacking even if not all your pieces are deployed.

The number of possibilities in the opening are insane, though. It can be a good thing, but it's also a bad thing in the sense that it's impossible to calculate anything.

"How is it more complicated than Crazyhouse and other variants?"

I declare this complicated not because the rules are hard to get (not at all) but because there are too much dynamic options in the opening that, unfortunately, does not lead to solid play. The lines are slower than atomic and is less likely to develop deep theory aside from keeping a few pieces to make sure both the king side and the queen side is under control. May as well play by lottery.

The entire idea of it is to get rid of "Deep theory". Rather like 960 this variant gives you tons of ways to start the game. The thing it has over 960 though is that you generally end up getting more harmonious chess positions then the awkward ones that arise in 960.

Try it out live with a friend and you will see what I am talking about.

I think Unihedron meant that there is way too many possibilities so that it's not possible to make sensible moves. You can basically play randomly for the first few moves.

How about an even crazier variant when you start with an empty board, you place your king anywhere you want, and then instead of moving you can add a piece anywhere (except pawns that must be placed on the second or seventh rank)?

I'd rather play snakes and ladders than either of these two proposed variants, to be honest.

Me too