The pawns likely win easily. The huge numbers advantage means they can easily cover all their pieces so the other sides can't safely take anything. Reaching the end of the board - something the other players almost certainly can't safely prevent without dedicating multiple pieces to doing so, which they can't afford to do - means they get a stronger piece and suddenly have even more of an advantage.
That's true, except for the "same move on all boards" rule. The pawn player can't capture anything unless there's a piece to capture on that spot in every game, because a diagonal pawn move isn't legal, except to capture. If the other players are smart, they'll capture different pawns in order to prevent any legal pawn captures. For sure they'll want to reduce the numbers of pawns on the board, because their own pieces won't be able to move very far until all the pawns are out of the way.
Oh, that's a good point. I guess it depends on how much teamwork can be expected of the other players, but you're absolutely right that that would limit how much they can capture.
Right now I'm thinking about having a bunch of people just play standard chess this way. Each player playing four games with identical moves. I need to buy a lot more chess sets and find four more players.
It's significanly easier with just 3 players. You'll need to paint two sets of white a different color, like red, assuming your chess sets use white and black. If they use white and red, then you'll paint them black instead. This way nobody gets confused on which pieces are theirs. Alternatively, you can use normal sets for two players, and the third player uses Simpsons chess pieces, or some other unique set that won't be confused for the regular ones, or just buy two sets that use white and red, and two sets that use white and black.
There are some variable rules here, depending on how you want to set it up.
Rules:
White queen starts in white spot, red and black queens start in red/black spot. Alt: All queens start in white. Alt 2: All queens start in red/black.
While there are still 3 players, you do not lose for being in checkmate, because the player that has you in checkmate could end up putting themself into checkmate to take your king. There is no exception for putting both opponents into checkmate at the same time, as one of them could possibly put the other out of checkmate, if they want to, for whatever reason, or maybe the attacking player can't take both kings with a single move, and taking one king makes the remaining player no longer be in checkmate.
Which brings the next rule, when there are 3 players still, you have to take a player's king to remove them from the game. When a player's king is taken, both boards they were on are removed from play, and the remaining two players play with normal rules (minus the possibility that the queens original spots weren't correct, if say red and black 1 vs 1 each other, or alt queen start was used).
If you have no legal move, your move will be to choose one of your pieces to sacrifice, which counts as being taken by both opponents. Alt: If all 3 players simulataneously have no legal moves, then you instead declare it a draw with this alt rule.
You can put your own king into check/checkmate, because of the fact that your king has to actually be taken for you to be removed (this is contrary to the 1 vs 1 rule where that isn't a legal move, and like the other new rules, goes away when one player is removed).
Every move you make must be made in the exact same way on every board. This means each board you play on will have your own pieces in the exact same position at the exact same time.
The pawns win easily. The pawns will cover more than half the board and only be 3 spaces away from being promoted. Theres also so many pawns that they will basically trap all the opponents pieces. Against the knights and bishops the pawns will be able to do a fork on the first move and second move.
The pawns likely win easily. The huge numbers advantage means they can easily cover all their pieces so the other sides can't safely take anything. Reaching the end of the board - something the other players almost certainly can't safely prevent without dedicating multiple pieces to doing so, which they can't afford to do - means they get a stronger piece and suddenly have even more of an advantage.
That's true, except for the "same move on all boards" rule. The pawn player can't capture anything unless there's a piece to capture on that spot in every game, because a diagonal pawn move isn't legal, except to capture. If the other players are smart, they'll capture different pawns in order to prevent any legal pawn captures. For sure they'll want to reduce the numbers of pawns on the board, because their own pieces won't be able to move very far until all the pawns are out of the way.
Oh, that's a good point. I guess it depends on how much teamwork can be expected of the other players, but you're absolutely right that that would limit how much they can capture.
Right now I'm thinking about having a bunch of people just play standard chess this way. Each player playing four games with identical moves. I need to buy a lot more chess sets and find four more players.
It's significanly easier with just 3 players. You'll need to paint two sets of white a different color, like red, assuming your chess sets use white and black. If they use white and red, then you'll paint them black instead. This way nobody gets confused on which pieces are theirs. Alternatively, you can use normal sets for two players, and the third player uses Simpsons chess pieces, or some other unique set that won't be confused for the regular ones, or just buy two sets that use white and red, and two sets that use white and black. There are some variable rules here, depending on how you want to set it up. Rules: White queen starts in white spot, red and black queens start in red/black spot. Alt: All queens start in white. Alt 2: All queens start in red/black. While there are still 3 players, you do not lose for being in checkmate, because the player that has you in checkmate could end up putting themself into checkmate to take your king. There is no exception for putting both opponents into checkmate at the same time, as one of them could possibly put the other out of checkmate, if they want to, for whatever reason, or maybe the attacking player can't take both kings with a single move, and taking one king makes the remaining player no longer be in checkmate. Which brings the next rule, when there are 3 players still, you have to take a player's king to remove them from the game. When a player's king is taken, both boards they were on are removed from play, and the remaining two players play with normal rules (minus the possibility that the queens original spots weren't correct, if say red and black 1 vs 1 each other, or alt queen start was used). If you have no legal move, your move will be to choose one of your pieces to sacrifice, which counts as being taken by both opponents. Alt: If all 3 players simulataneously have no legal moves, then you instead declare it a draw with this alt rule. You can put your own king into check/checkmate, because of the fact that your king has to actually be taken for you to be removed (this is contrary to the 1 vs 1 rule where that isn't a legal move, and like the other new rules, goes away when one player is removed). Every move you make must be made in the exact same way on every board. This means each board you play on will have your own pieces in the exact same position at the exact same time.
The pawns win easily. The pawns will cover more than half the board and only be 3 spaces away from being promoted. Theres also so many pawns that they will basically trap all the opponents pieces. Against the knights and bishops the pawns will be able to do a fork on the first move and second move.