King/Queen chess variation In Canada, there is a variation of chess in which king and queen are swapped from the normal starting position. However, some argue this makes no difference. Canadians are split. So the question is:


  Does swapping king/queen from the onset affect the game?
This does not make any difference.  Exchanging the positions of king and queen on both sides just corresponds to mirroring the whole game horizontally.  Thus they are equivalent.