Chess Cards

INTRODUCTION

I found the essence of this game in Sid Sackson's A GAMUT OF GAMES, Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., Second edition 1982. It is the first game discussed (entitled MATE), and played with a particular subset of 20 playing cards from a regular deck.

According to Sackson: 'In Hanover, Germany, in the year 1915, G. Capellen published a small booklet entitled "Zwei neue Kriegspiele!" (that is, "Two New Wargames!" ). Sackson infers that the timing was not right for the emergence of new war games "..while the reality of World War I occupied the center of the stage", as the booklet subsequently passed into obscurity. One of the games in the booklet was MATE, the heart of this article. ¹

Note that this card game is not a game of chance; there is a unique playing mechanism to eliminate the 'luck of the draw' no matter how the cards are dealt.

In this game we have:

I have added the concept of using 'Chess Cards' in place of regular playing cards to give the game more of a chess 'flavour'. Further, the concept of 'foreplacing' a card (as specified in the original article) has been replaced by a more general concept of 'sacrificing' cards, and minor changes have been made to scoring, terminology and gameplay. I would refer the reader to the original article in Sid Sackson's book if a more definitive comparison is required.

Other than these 'cosmetics', it is G. Capellen who deserves credit for the mechanics of this rather unique and interesting card game.

The Chess Cards for this game consist of a set of 20 cards comprising 5 piece types (Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight and Pawn), each in 4 suits (Black, Red, Yellow and White). The King is imaginary, but subject to 'threats' by the Chess Cards in play.

You may wish to obtain your own set of Chess Cards here (colour printer required).

¹_{The other game was called Free Chess, and noted to be a 'chess variant', although no rules were specified in Sackson's book.}

Queen=11 Rook=10 Bishop=4 Knight=3 Pawn=7

In case of a draw, neither player scores.

In its most elementary form (that is, no sacrifices have taken place), the value of the mating-card is multiplied by the move number to obtain the score:

Score = Mating Card Value x Move Number

For example, mating with a knight on the first move: Score = 3 x 1 = 3. Mating with a Queen on the 10th move: Score = 11 x 10 = 110.

Note that, in advanced play (see below), additional parameters are used to calculate the score.

Playing two games as such constitutes a match. It is the player who has accumulated the greater score at the end of the match that is deemed the winner. The difference between the two players scores at the end of the match may be used as a relative measure of victory.
Note that games can be played quite quickly; a match typically lasts < 30 minutes.

Examples of play are examined in the sample games section, but for the moment, let us consider some calculations of score when sacrifice(s) have taken place as we will need to understand this in relation to the discussion of overmate which will be considered shortly.

The player who has sacrificed a card(s) and succeeds in giving mate has the multiplying number of the move increased by one for each card sacrificed.
(A common motif, when you know that you can force mate, is to sacrifice a card just prior to delivering the mating card).

For example, a mate given in the seventh move by a bishop would score as follows:
Score = 4 x (7 + 1) = 32 for one card sacrificed, and
Score = 4 x (7 + 2) = 36 for two cards sacrificed.
Note that the 'multiplying number of the move' (the calculation that occurs within the brackets) = move number + number of cards sacrificed.

Please note that these are but trivial examples of what may be achieved.

I would refer the reader once more to the sample games section for illustration.

The term overmate pertains to the situation where a player who has sacrificed one or more cards succeeds, (by employing his 'last played card' as mentioned above), in giving mate and the 'multiplying number of the move' is then calculated to be greater than 10. Remember that the 'multiplying number of the move' is incremented by '1' for each card sacrificed, i.e.
'multiplying number of the move' = move number + number of sacrificed cards.

Thus, if a player has sacrificed, say, 2 cards and succeeds in mating on the tenth move, his 'multiplying number of the move' is going to be greater than 10 (10 plus '1' for each card sacrificed). Anytime the 'multiplying number of the move' is calculated to be greater than 10, this situation is known as overmate and attracts further bonuses. The overmate number (see table below) is the number of units above 10; in the previous example, the overmate number would be 2.

Since there is a maximum of 10 moves per game, and since each card sacrificed must be followed by a 'normal move', then it follows that a maximum of 5 cards could possibly be sacrificed by a player in a game.
Theoretically then, if move 5 by Player A was a Queen, and mate was given on the tenth move by this player, he having played his fifth card also as his sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth cards, then his final score would be:

Score=mating card value x (move number + number of sacrificed cards) x bonus
= 11 x (10 + 5) x 6 = 990 (theoretical maximum mate score), although it has yet to be demonstrated that this can be achieved in actual play.

Please refer to the sample games section for an example of overmate.

All sample games have pictorial and text-notation representation.

PLAYING SUGGESTION

Initially, or whenever space allows, players may place their cards face-up in a row in front of them, ordered in suits and pieces if desired, so that all cards are in view during play.