| 1 | p.boxed |
| 2 | | Pawns start on the 7th rank. Move a knight to promote them. |
| 3 | |
| 4 | h3 Specifications |
| 5 | |
| 6 | ul |
| 7 | li Chessboard: standard. |
| 8 | li Material: standard. |
| 9 | li Non-capturing moves: standard. |
| 10 | li Special moves: no castling (and no en-passant). |
| 11 | li Captures: standard. |
| 12 | li End of game: standard. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | p. |
| 15 | ...(Almost) Only the initial position changes, but this is a very big change. |
| 16 | In particular, castling would be rather pointless so it's disabled here. |
| 17 | En-passant captures are impossible because all pawns already reached 7th rank. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | h3 Note on initial position |
| 20 | |
| 21 | p. |
| 22 | Since truly random start can allow un-defendable mate in 3 with a knight, |
| 23 | the kings touch at least one knight in the initial position. |
| 24 | This allows to move free out of potential check from the very beginning. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | p. |
| 27 | To illustrate this phenomenon, although it's defendable the standard initial |
| 28 | position allows the attack as 1.Na6 (threatening Nc5-Nd3#), |
| 29 | forcing the defense Nf3-Ne5. With a knight next to the king you have more options. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | figure.diagram-container |
| 32 | .diagram |
| 33 | | fen:R1BQKBNR/PPPPPPP/N7/8/8/8/pppppppp/rnbqkbnr: |
| 34 | figcaption Standard initial position after 1.Na6 |
| 35 | |
| 36 | h3 Source |
| 37 | |
| 38 | p |
| 39 | | See for example the |
| 40 | a(href="https://www.chessvariants.com/diffsetup.dir/upside.html") Upside down chess |
| 41 | | page on chessvariants.com. |