If you have read "System" you will know that a chess game plays a prominent role. It's not just any old chess game however, but the version which emerged from the complex culture of the novel. Here are the rules of "hexapod chess" as played in the...
In my novel, "System", there is a chess game - but it isn't quite chess as we know it.
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The story is set in a world in which humans are capable of tweaking their DNA, but have also mingled with synthetic life forms and artificial personalities. One key element of this mix is an intelligent creature known as a 'hexapod'. As their name suggests, hexapods tend to think in terms of the number six, and one impact of their involvement in global culture is the prevalence of hexagons.
The game now known as 'hexapod chess' is a mix of human chess and a game known as Grach-Bal (literally: Rival Clans) - which is normally played with coloured stones.
In the novel, we learn that players of Grach-Bal would mark out a grid on the ground using their fingers. Hexapods lived in a dry dusty environment so it was fairly easy for them to create hexagonal patterns in the dirt using their six-fingered hands.
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The official board consists of forty-three hexagonal tiles, which are usually marked out in three colours or decorated by three different motifs.
