Sorry, now I've read what you expected better, so I'm updating the answer.
Based on the HTML5 Specs from W3C, nothing is wrong. I created this JSFiddle test and it's behaving correctly based on the specs (for those browsers based on the specs, like Chrome 11 and Firefox 4):
<form>
<input type="checkbox" name="q" id="a-0" required autofocus>
<label for="a-0">a-1</label>
<br>
<input type="checkbox" name="q" id="a-1" required>
<label for="a-1">a-2</label>
<br>
<input type="checkbox" name="q" id="a-2" required>
<label for="a-2">a-3</label>
<br>
<input type="submit">
</form>
I agree that it isn't very usable (in fact many people have complained about it in the W3C's mailing lists).
But browsers are just following the standard's recommendations, which is correct. The standard is a little misleading, but we can't do anything about it in practice. You can always use JavaScript for form validation, though, like some great jQuery validation plugin.
Another approach would be choosing a polyfill that can make (almost) all browsers interpret form validation rightly.