Chess variation where the goal is to lose all pieces A friend challenged me to a chess variation I have never heard of.

All chess rules apply.
If you have an opportunity to take a piece, you must take it, you cannot avoid or block exchanges.
The only piece that cannot be taken is the king and there's no checkmate but you can check the king, and you can castle.
The strategy is to force your opponent to take all your pieces.
The winner is the one who has no pieces on board except the king.

Questions:

Have you ever heard of this variation before? What is it called? Is it formally recognized like Chess960?
I played black and lost all the matches. Does White have a decisive advantage since he can play d4 followed by Bh6, and losing a piece and stay ing one move ahead? This variation does not seem fair because it looks like a race to lose everything, hence White will win the race by force every time.
If it exists and have a community, what are the main tactics and strategies, especially when playing black?
I played black and lost all the matches. Does white have a decisive advantage since he can play d4 followed by bh6 and lose a piece and stay one move ahead?


According to Dr Mark Watkins of The University of Sydney, losing chess has been solved and White can force a win with 1. e3:


  The move 1. e3 has been solved as a win for White under both FICS and
  International Rules. The final leg was actually much easier than expected,
  as I wasted around a year on false leads. In fact, the not-too-deep idea
  1. e3 b6 2. a4 e6 3. Ra3 Bxa3 4. Nxa3 Qh4 5. a5 bxa5 6. Qh5! leads to
  some queen races where White just needs a bit deeper search to show
  a good score