Did you do anything to check this isn’t an easy win for either player?
I don’t see one, but do not rule out one, either. A series of sacrifices could lead to a position where white’s queens have a superior position over black’s ones, or vice versa.
My guess is that it's possible to prove that each side can force a draw. Just exchange the queens until there are too few that you are back in a normal chess game.
I'm not sure if I'm underestimating the number of possible moves, that is huge, but I hope not sooooooooo huge.
Interesting. Hmmm, I have to think this through. I believe that if the game followed normal chess rules, except for replacing the pieces with queens, then games where the captures are all even trades would result in draws, but if one side could come out ahead with K+Q vs K, then there would be the usual mate sequence.
HOWEVER the rule OP added that "a piece may only move if it is adjacent to another piece of either color" slightly complicates the endgame. My normal tendency would be to put the queen far away from the action to avoid blundering it, but here that would instantly deactivate it. It's kind of funny to picture the kings racing across the board to capture or reactivate the last inert queen.
I think one can still get the usual style of mate in this variant, you just have to walk the king and queen together, and pay extra attention to avoiding stalemate. For example, imagining white king on e1, black king on e3, black queen on d3. If white to move then Qb1# or Qe2#, fairly standard maneuvers (though if black to move that's a stalemate).
This is an interesting modification to the game, I'd play a few rounds...
I could see an endgame where the last exchange leaves all the remaining pieces isolated from each other. By the rules, then, no piece on either side can move. Stalemate? Or a flaw in the rules?
I don’t see one, but do not rule out one, either. A series of sacrifices could lead to a position where white’s queens have a superior position over black’s ones, or vice versa.
Like you said, "I don’t see one, but do not rule out one, either."
I'm not sure if I'm underestimating the number of possible moves, that is huge, but I hope not sooooooooo huge.
HOWEVER the rule OP added that "a piece may only move if it is adjacent to another piece of either color" slightly complicates the endgame. My normal tendency would be to put the queen far away from the action to avoid blundering it, but here that would instantly deactivate it. It's kind of funny to picture the kings racing across the board to capture or reactivate the last inert queen.
I think one can still get the usual style of mate in this variant, you just have to walk the king and queen together, and pay extra attention to avoiding stalemate. For example, imagining white king on e1, black king on e3, black queen on d3. If white to move then Qb1# or Qe2#, fairly standard maneuvers (though if black to move that's a stalemate).
This is an interesting modification to the game, I'd play a few rounds...