Kamikaze Chess

Kamikaze Chess is also known as HARA-KIRI CHESS. As far as we can tell, the game was invented by B. G. Laws around January 1928 or shortly before. Laws, who was the President of the British Chess Problem Society at the time, composed a problem stipulating the rules of this game as problem #196 on page 44 of The Problemist for January 1928. Since this was only the beginning of the publications's third year, and Laws had been an active composer for longer than this publication had been around, it remains possible that he invented the game at an earlier date or that someone else invented it before him. Notably, he did not name the game or claim invention of it. All he did was give the stipulation When a man captures, both capturing and captured men are removed from the board. Since World War II, Kamikaze Chess has been a fitting name for this game, but since Laws died in 1931, well before this war started, it's likely that he never called it by this name. In fact, in The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, David Pritchard says the game was not named until 1965, citing as his source The Oxford Companion to Chess. Here is the problem by Laws that was published in 1928:

Rules

As David Pritchard describes this game in The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants,

A piece making a capture is removed from the board together with the captured man. It follows that a king cannot defend himself by capturing an attacker.

An earlier version of this page included the rule that the kamikaze effect doesn't apply to the Kings. This is not mentioned in the stipulation given by Laws, and Pritchard and AISE also disagree with it. But if players choose, they can play this variation of the game.

Pritchard mentions another version in which checks are not allowed, and the object is to get a Pawn to the last rank.

An unpublished problem of Kamikaze Chess, by Vito Rallo (Italy)

Helpmate 3 move Kamikaze

White(7): Ne8, Ne7, Pe6, Bg5, Pc4, Pe4, Kd3
Black(6): Bh7, Ng6, Qh5, Pd4, Kd1, Be1

KAMIKAZE PROGRESSIVE CHESS

Kamikaze Chess is played only like progressive chess. In Progressive Chess white starts moving once in turn, Black moves twice in turn, the White three times, etc.

In AISE tournaments, the King is subjected to the kamikaze effect. Therefore if the player must make a capture with the king, he loses the game. The best players in AISE tournaments have been Vito Rallo (Italy) and Deumo Polacco (Italy).