The discussion here recently about the development of the moves
of the Bishop and the Queen inspired me to think up a new chess
variant.
However, this variant doesn't seem to be a way to improve Chess.
Instead, dddddddit seems to debase Chess. But even that isn't all bad;
it could be an easy variant for children to help them learn how to play
Chess.

There are three changes to Chess to make the variant; the main one
is listed third.
1. The Bishop continues to have its modern move, of any number of
squares in any diagonal direction. The Queen, however, goes back to
its ancient move of only one square diagonally.
2. As the third rule change will make clear, a Queen is more of a
liability than an asset. So that this doesn't make it immune from
capture, when a Queen is captured, the player capturing it has the
option of placing it back on the board, on any square of the
opponent's back rank.
3. When any of a player's Queens is _en prise_, then that player's
King *cannot move*, not even to escape from check. This means
that a check, when one's Queen is _en prise_, can only be
answered by interposition or by capturing the checking piece.
Therefore, it is _much_ easier to inflict checkmate in this variant,
making draws less likely.

John Savard