lichess.org
Donate

moving two opening pawns simultaneously allowed?

i played otb chess with a friend of mine for the first time.
she claimes she used to be an old university chess club (poland) player.
her first move was white opening by moving TWO pawns at once. d2.d3 and e2.e3
i looked at here in disbelief and laughed about here strange move and said this is not allowed to play. she claimed by high and low it is allowed. she was not joking. i refused this opening and told here to move one pawn only. she took one pawn back and continued play. she played very knowledgeable and won the game. i can not find the existence of this rule but she insist it is allowed. here playing style and background let me believe it can be a (old) rule?
anyone ever heard of this rule and is it allowed?
It comes from an older version of chess. Never been part of modern Chess at all.
Many people display such symptoms when it comes to chess, that is, they pick rule from different variations/time period and mush them together to create a new breed of chess.
However, this is the first time i hear about this "ancient" rule.
First time I read about it was in an old chess book. Published in the 1920s. It's also a rule that can form easily by transmission error.
Aah, the old, revered 'Flippity-floppity make-up-your-own-rules rule'!

Of course it is allowed, and you didn't act gentleman-like at all to forbid it to her! ;)
Well, the Russians have their own version of draughts/chequers. So perhaps there is such a thing as Polish chess - maybe.
This is a common chess handicap according to Wikipedia. Maybe she used to play against much stronger players who allowed it?
when I was a kid I played the grandfather of a friend. the game went on for half an hour before he checkmated my queen. I said, "You cant checkmate my queen."
"That's your king," he said. "I thought you knew how to play."
"Why do you think it's my king?"
"Because," he said, wearily, "the piece is wearing a crown. Can't you see?" He held it close to my face. "Don't they teach you in school the king always wears a crown?"
He had me there.

This topic has been archived and can no longer be replied to.