=David Wilson A drop consists of placing a piece from the draw pile on one of the first four ranks. - The king must be dropped on each player's first play. - The king may not be dropped in check. ...
Sounds interesting, but I'm wee confused. By "the first four ranks" do you mean A. White and Black must only drop pieces into their "own" side of the board, or B. both players must only drop into "White's half" of the board (ie rows 1-4, with rows 5-8 outside the legal drop zone)? I ask because, although I initially was visualizing variant "A" -- it seems more similar to ordinary chess -- these later rules seem to require the wilder alternative "B", because only in that case is it even possible to drop into check (ie Black drops their king right next to White's king). Amusing idea: you could notate drops as a "capture" of an empty square. So if White has a P at a2, "a3" would signify an ordinary push, but "Pxa3" would drop a new P.