Draconian Chess!

Fig. 1

Long ago I thought of this: New chess variant: DRACONIAN CHESS!

Fig. 2

Same as regular chess but, in any move, you can “kill” and remove any of your own pieces. For instance, in Fig. 1 white mates in one with 1. xh2#. Note that stalemate usually loses in this variant because the side to move will have to kill one of his pieces. In both Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, white wins with 1. Ke6! In the first it’s checkmate (the only “legal” move for black would be to kill its king so it’s mate) and in the second, black loses after 1. … xa3 (only move) 2. a4#. Although this would drastically reduce the number of draws, for most (read: non IMs/GMs) players, a huge part of the opening theory would still be relevant. Also, this would surely promote lots of exciting tactic and strategic “sacrifices”.

Fig. 3