| 1 | p.boxed |
| 2 | | Pawns start on the 7th rank. Move a knight to promote them. |
| 3 | |
| 4 | p. |
| 5 | ...Only the initial position changes, but this makes a huge difference. |
| 6 | In particular, castling would be rather pointless so it's disabled here. |
| 7 | En-passant captures are impossible because all pawns already reached 7th |
| 8 | rank. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | h3 About the initial position |
| 11 | |
| 12 | p. |
| 13 | Since truly random start can allow a mate in 3 with a knight, |
| 14 | the kings have at least one knight neighbor in the initial position. |
| 15 | This allows to move free out of potential check from the very beginning. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | p. |
| 18 | A less constraining condition would be to require the two knights to stand on |
| 19 | two squares of different colors, but it's not enough as proved by the |
| 20 | following diagram. |
| 21 | White can mate in 3: 1.Nc6 followed by Nb4 threatening both a2 and d3. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | figure.diagram-container |
| 24 | .diagram |
| 25 | | fen:RBN1BRRQ/PPPPPPP/8/4n3/8/8/Nppppppp/brkbqr1n: |
| 26 | figcaption After 1.Nc6 Nf3 2.Nb4 Ne5 (covers d3 but not a2) 3.Nxa2# |
| 27 | |
| 28 | p Note: in the standard initial position, kings and knights are not neighbors. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | h3 Source |
| 31 | |
| 32 | p |
| 33 | | See for example the |
| 34 | a(href="https://www.chessvariants.com/diffsetup.dir/upside.html") |
| 35 | | Upside down chess |
| 36 | | page on chessvariants.com. |