M. F. Kirsten-Haas: CLARA CLAN – Ein virtuelles Matriarchat

113
by Son Martin
This special game is sort of an adapted Chess
with some new rules matching the matriarchal
thinking:
The ideal setting for MC would be four persons
i.e. two pairs or at least three players (white
having two persons). Surely you can sense the
difference (black represents the patriarchal system,
white stands for the Matriarchal Order).
The two leading pieces (white M and black P) on
both sides have two lives.
The white King is not in the game in the beginning,
because the white Queen is the „Matriarch“.
She is „transformed“ into the King piece,
(then called Lady-King (L)), when she should be
taken the first time.
Her (matriarchal) husband is represented by a
characteristic extra piece (in the photo a snail
on a mill-piece). But that piece may differ according
to the phantasy of the players. The reason
for this extra piece is the special quality of matriarchal
men: they are strong but nonviolent. They
are also (authentic) priests by their nature. Consequently
that piece is called the „Priest“ and
has a small „p“ letter as symbol (in contrast to
the black King on his horse with capital P as his
symbol). He (p) moves one field in each direction
like a King piece but can neither strike nor
being taken himself.
His own party may walk over him as if he would
be invisible, but for the opposing party (Black)
he is blocking the path like a regular piece. Thus
„p“ somehow acts like a shield for his Matri-Clan
members (White).
As the black King is the Patriarch (P) he is sitting
on an extra (flat) piece, which resembles a Horse:
he can therefore move either like a Knight
(N) or like a Pawn. (See also the example game
at our website).
If P is taken (for the first time), he loses the Millpiece
he is sitting on and henceforth becomes
simply a King (K). Neighboring to P sit the two
Knights (N) and at his Queen‘s side are the two
Bishops (B). Similarly on the white side, M is
with the Bishops and p with the Knights. The Patriarch
P will also become K if he moves other
than Pawn or Knight, e.g. backwards one field
(like only K could do).
As they have two lives, both M and P may enter
a single threat, if they choose to do so, or stay
threatened. But if a second threat is given, it is
like check and has to be answered.
Both the black or the white party may open the
game. If black (patriarchal system) has the lot, a
zero-move is initially done with black only.
Neither M nor P may enter in each others check,
as they both have two lives. When one party has
no pieces left (p does not count) M or P transform
automatically into L or K.
Terminology and abbreviations are as follows:
M Matriarch (L Ladyking)
P Patrirarch (K King)
R Rock
B Bishop
N Knight
Checkmate
draw (Remis)
pinned (gefesselt)
capture (schlagen)
piece
move
ranks (1-8)
files (abc).
Castling is not part of MC.
When a pawn is promoted (reaching rank 8 or
1), only those pieces can be used which already
have been taken by the opposing party.
May Matriarchy win – but it‘s fun in any case :-).