client/src/translations/rules/Eightpieces/en.pug

   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 rank.
   8
   9 h3 About the initial position
  10
  11 p.
  12   Since truly random start can allow a mate in 3 with a knight,
  13   the kings have at least one knight neighbor in the initial position.
  14   This allows to move free out of potential check from the very beginning.
  15
  16 p.
  17   A less constraining condition would be to require the two knights to stand on
  18   two squares of different colors, but it's not enough as proved by the
  19   following diagram.
  20   White can mate in 3: 1.Nc6 followed by Nb4 threatening both a2 and d3.
  21
  22 figure.diagram-container
  23   .diagram
  24     | fen:RBN1BRRQ/PPPPPPP/8/4n3/8/8/Nppppppp/brkbqr1n:
  25   figcaption After 1.Nc6 Nf3 2.Nb4 Ne5 (covers d3 but not a2) 3.Nxa2#
  26
  27 p Note: in the standard initial position, kings and knights are not neighbors.
  28
  29 h3 Source
  30
  31 p
  32   | See for example the
  33   a(href="https://www.chessvariants.com/diffsetup.dir/upside.html") Upside down chess
  34   | &nbsp;page on chessvariants.com.