Matt (card game)
Matt is a card - trick game for two players, played with a French or German card hand of 20 or 24 cards. The game was developed by Georg Capellen and published in his book Zwei neue Kriegsspiele in 1915 . In 1969, the American collector games and developers grabbed Sid Sackson the game in his 1969 book, A Gamut of Games (German 1981 Games unlike other ) and published the rules and a sample round of the game.
Style of play
Game flow
The game is played by two people with a hand of 20 cards (simple mate card). The four aces , kings , queens and the 10s and 7s are used. Alternatively, a hand of 24 cards can be played as a double mate card, in which the 7 of clubs, the king of spades, the 10 of hearts and the ace of diamonds each appear twice. The values of the cards are in the order of clubs 
, spades 
, hearts 
and diamonds 
; within the suit of cards the order of Ace, 10, King, Queen and 7 applies.
The game consists of two rounds, each consisting of two rounds. At the beginning the dealer shuffles the playing cards and deals half of the cards to both players. The cards are put into hand so that each player knows his own and thus also the opponent's cards. The dealer or attracter opens the game with any card and places it in front of him. The other player or the follower must react with a card of the same color ( compulsory color ) or, if this is not possible, play the same card value (obligation to serve). He also places the card in front of him and the player with the higher card value beats the opponent without taking his card. If the players play with the double mate card, the double card played first beats the second. The player who won the last move plays the next card on the previous one and again the opponent has to react accordingly.
The first round is lost to the player who cannot serve any more cards, i.e. cannot play a card of the same color or one of the same value and has thus been checkmated by his opponent. If this situation does not occur after 10 moves, the round ends in a draw. After the scoring, the cards are swapped and the players play the second round of the round with the cards that the opponent had previously. Only after the second round and thus after the first round will the cards be reshuffled and distributed by the player who played forehand in the first round. The second round also takes place over two rounds, after which the game ends with the overall ranking.
Rating
The game is played over two rounds, whereby the individual rounds are scored accordingly. A player receives a score for a checkmate, which results from the number of moves multiplied by the value of the checkmate card. An ace is scored with 11 points, a 10 with 10 points, a king with 4 points, a queen with 3 points and a 7 with 7 points. The later they can checkmate their opponent, the more points they get. The winner of the game is the one who gets the most points after two rounds and thus four rounds.
variants
The game can be made more complex through the rules of pre-filing and overmate . This belongs to the standard game, but is only recommended by Sackson for advanced players. When placing cards in advance , each player, beginning with the person who attracts, may, at the beginning of his turn, put one of his cards aside and not use it in the passage. He names the card and shows it to the opponent, then he puts it aside face down. The follower may also put in advance, but may not discard any cards of the same color or value. For the evaluation, the previous placement is counted as another round in the game and added accordingly to the number of moves. If both players have already played, the game only consists of 9 moves. If only one player has discarded, the game is played over 10 rounds and the player with only nine cards uses the last card laid down twice in a row on the tenth turn and the number of moves is increased to 11 (10 + 1) through the discard. The overmate arises when the previous player manages to checkmate the opponent in the last move with his double played card, or the non-discarded checkmate with the tenth card. In the case of an over matt, the number of points in the evaluation is doubled.
In addition to the standard game with single and double checkmate cards and the rules described for the advanced game, Sid Sackson described some modifications of the game that can be played by arrangement:
- Free message: Each player may use the value instead of the color of the card once in the game, although he still has a card of the color in hand. He must announce this when playing with the announcement "free".
- King's privilege: A played king must, if possible, be served with another king, and only in second priority with the suit of cards. If you play with the double mate card, the double king is regarded as a color service.
- Figure privilege: A played figure card (king, queen) must, as with the king privilege, be served with the value, if possible, and only in second priority with the color of the card. If you play with the double mate card, double figure cards are treated as color controls.
- Free notification with king or figure privilege : As with the simple free notification, the operating priority can be reversed once by each player, even with the privilege cards. In this case, it means that a player may prefer the color service instead of the value service.
Development and reception
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The game was developed by the German Georg Capellen and published in his booklet Zwei neue Kriegsspiele in 1915 together with the chess variant Freischach , which he “Exz. Field Marshal General von Hindenburg ”. In 1969, American game collector and developer Sid Sackson picked up the game in his 1969 book A Gamut of Games and published the rules and an example round of the game. In 1981 the book was published as a German-language edition under the title Games different from others .
Sid Sackson described Matt as a forgotten game that "deserves to be brought back to life" and as a "mind game." Sackson speculated
“Probably the time was not the right time for war games when the reality of World War I dominated the scene. That is why Mr. Capellen's writing never reached a broader public. "
He himself came across an antiquarian copy of the book through a bookseller who specialized in chess literature, which he subsequently translated with the help of a dictionary.
In the card game lexicon The Great Humboldt Encyclopedia of Card Games by Hugo Kastner and Gerald Kador Folkvord from 2005, Matt was also included with a reference to Sid Sackson and described as a “real unique among card games” because “Matt, in contrast to most pleasures, is pure Thinking game [is] quite comparable to classics in this sector such as chess or Go . "
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Matt In: Sid Sackson : Games different from others. Second edition, Heinrich Hugendubel Verlag, Munich 1982; Pp. 13-17. ISBN 3-88034-091-9 .
- ^ Georg Capellen : Two new war games. A. Wilh. Ecks, Hannover 1915. described in Sackson 1982
- ^ Matt In: Hugo Kastner, Gerald Kador Folkvord: The great Humboldt encyclopedia of card games (= Humboldt-Taschenbuch. Freizeit & Hobby. Volume 4058). Schlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 2005; Pp. 430-434. ISBN 3-89994-058-X .
literature
- "Matt." In: Sid Sackson : Games different from others. Heinrich Hugendubel Verlag, Munich 1981 (second edition 1982); Pp. 13-17. ISBN 3-88034-091-9 .
- "Matt." In: Hugo Kastner, Gerald Kador Folkvord: The great Humboldt encyclopedia of card games (= Humboldt-Taschenbuch. Freizeit & Hobby. Volume 4058). Schlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 2005; Pp. 430-434. ISBN 3-89994-058-X .
