My sense from a Benjamin Franklin chess anecdote (he takes his opponent's king and says, In America, we take kings!) is that in the 1700s, taking a king if your opponent allowed it, was not illegal or at least the rule against it had not been uniformly adopted.
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Or are you looking for something more like chess.stackexchange.com/questions/16495/…?– Brian McCutchonMay 7, 2022 at 0:42
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This question (as asked in the body of the posting) is not answered by the referenced posting, which only answers the question asked in the head, but does not go into the Franklin quotation. It seems at least possible that Franklin was not playing according to 'normal' chess rules as a allusion to current political conditions.– user30536May 8, 2022 at 5:44
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@user30536: Yes, thanks. I am a fairly experienced player and have read history -- I wondering indeed whether Franklin was playing (in taking the king) by rules fairly commonly observed in those days, at least in some places. Note that in speed chess, kings in some sense may be taken or more broadly, any illegal move is penalized by losing (after one presses the clock -- I do not think even if playing touch move an illegal move is made until the clock is pressed).– releseabeMay 8, 2022 at 8:17
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