Divided Forces Chess

Introduction

Reynold Sebok sent us this variant in September 2005. The concept is simple -- divide each players' starting forces by placing half of them on the other end of the board.

Setup

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| Q | B | P | P |*p*|*b*|*n*|*k*| 8
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| R | N |   |   |   |*p*|*p*|*r*| 7
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| P | P |   |   |   |   |   |*p*| 6
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 5
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 4
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|*p*|*p*|   |   |   |   |   | P | 3
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|*r*|*n*|   |   |   | P | P | R | 2
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|*q*|*b*|*p*|*p*| P | B | N | K | 1
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h

Rules

As in international chess, except:

There is no castling.
White pawns on a6, b6, c8, and d8 move towards (and promote on) the first rank (row 1).
Black pawns on a3, b3, c1, and d1 move towards (and promote on) the last rank (row 8).
Pawns starting on row 1, 2, 7 or 8 may move two squares forward on their first move.
Pawns starting on row 3 or 6 may not make a two square first move.
En-passant may come into play between pawns moving in the same direction, as well as for pawns moving in the opposite directions. For example, if white move the pawn on e1 to e3, black would be able to make an en-passant move of d1-e2 capturing the pawn on e3.