In Matron Chess a queen (also called Matron) may not capture a queen if the latter is guarded (visually guarded is enough). In all other respects it's the same as orthochess. In Matron Chess the queens cannot be exchanged directly, but only indirectly. As a result games become more aggressive and less drawish. Note that the queen counts as guarded even if the guarding piece is pinned (this simplifies matters). The Matron queen has great attacking potential. Bishop's opening serves as an example. After 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 black cannot reply 2...Bc5 because after 3.Qh5 black cannot effectively defend the f7 square. There is also a variant with an improved pawn, which has an additional movement direction.
• You can download my free Matron Chess program here, but you must own the software Zillions of Games to be able to run it (I recommend the download version).
• Don't miss my other chess variants.
© M. Winther (Jan 2008).
