Four-player chess: Difference between revisions

Four-player chess
	A popular four-player chessboard and initial setup
Genres	Abstract strategy game ; Chess variant
Players	4
Chance	None
Skills	Strategy, tactics, pyschology
Synonyms	Four-handed chess ; 4 Player Chess ; Four Player Chess

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Revision as of 21:35, 8 May 2022

Four-player chess (also known as Four-handed chess) is a family of chess variants played with four people. The game features a special board typically made of a standard 8×8 square, with 3 rows of 8 cells each extending from each side, and requires two sets of differently colored pieces. The rules are similar to, but not the same as, regular chess. There are a variety different rule variations; most variantions, however, share a somewhat similar board and piece setup.

The game has been around for hundreds of years, popping up in different places in Europe. Historically, the Four-handed Chess Club, which was founded by George Hope Verney around 1884 in London, is the most well known iteration. Currently, it can be played online, or bought commercially to be played in person.

Gameplay can be in teams, typically with the two partners across from each other. It can also be free-for-all, with each of the players trying to gain a decisive advantage, with no set alliances. Free-for-all can be played for points, or till the first checkmate. Table-talk, such as move suggestions, is not allowed in the FFA gamemode; rather, much of the strategy for this variant is deciding, on your own, when to help or hurt your opponents.

Definition

According to D. B. Prichard, Four-player chess "is generally understood to be a ^[1] game played with two sets on a standard board with four extensions, one on each side, usually of 8x3 squares (arguably the best arrangement) but sometimes 8x2 or 8x4, on which the pieces are set up in the normal array positions"^[2]

History

The earliest known mention of a four-player chess game is a pamphlet from Dessau, Germany, in 1784.^[3] Four-handed Chess, as it was called, grew in popularity throughout the 19th century, with variations of the game appearing in Germany, Britain, Russia, and the United States, among others.^[4] Many different pamphlets sprang up, with minor rule changes, such as where the king and queen were, or how to deal with pawns that ran into each other.^[5]

The biggest and most well known of the variations was the Four-handed Chess Club, founded by George Hope Loyd Verney. It began in 1884, in London. It was somewhat well known in London, and had eighty people attend its inaugural meeting. The club played until World War Two.^[6]

There are a few famous people who played, or are alleged, to play the game. George Hope Verney claimed that the Czar, probably Alexandar III, played the game.^[7] Prince Albert is said to have played it.^[8] In addition, the game was likely played by Vladimir Lenin.^[9]

FFA is a more recent invention, popping up in commercial games, while teams is the game mode historically. Contemporarily, Four-player Chess is not particularly popular. Nevertheless, there are a few commercial versions for in-person play. It can also be played online, with the biggest website being chess.com’s variants.

Rules

Piece movement and captures remain the same as regular chess.

A board made of a standard 8×8 square with an additional 3 rows of 8 cells extending from each side is what is typically used for Four-player chess. Variants vary as to where the king and queen are placed; this doesn't matter for casual play. Otherwise, pieces are set up like regular chess.

Rules vary, in teams, as to how to deal with partners pawns when they run into each other. This happens sometimes because everybody moves in the forward direction, as in regular chess. When this happens for the Chess.com variant, the pawns are blocked, while some variants historically allowed pawns to jump over each other if this happened.

Players are of course free to change all rules to their convenience (see the rules section in the links tab for different variations of the rules).

Chess.com Rules

Play starts with red, and turns are clockwise

Free For All (FFA)

The goal is to have the most points at the end of the game^[10]

Pawns (and promoted queens) are worth one point
A players queen is worth nine points
bishops/rooks are worth five points
knights are worth three points
checkmates (and in rare cases king captures) are worth twenty points

Pawns promote to queens on the eight rank, which is at the middle of the board.

When a player is checkmated, all their pieces turn grey. When this happens, they cannot move and don't give a player any points. It should be noted that a player is checkmated immediately; in other words, they don't have to wait for their opponents to move to be checkmated.

The game ends when three players are defeated. It also ends when there are two players left and one player has more than twenty points more than the other player (because, if they were checkmated, they would still win) In this case, the leading player may have to click a button that says "claim win."

Trying to influence another player to help you by communicating in the chat (such as saying "team with me" or "take queen") is against the rules. However, it is perfectly legal to aid another players attacks, or choosing not to attack a player because you would think it would benefit you.

Teams

In teams, the goal is to checkmate one of the opposing players. You work with your opposite, and can suggest moves with arrows. This time, queen promotion is on the eleventh rank. On chess.com you functionally have two armies, you and your opposite, with the exception that you are the only one that can move your army, and vise-versa. It should be noted that players are checkmated on their turn. This means that, theoretically, their opposite can block the checkmate, in some cases.

Modifications for In-Person Play

In FFA, if players don't wish to record points, they can alternatively play to the first person checkmated, or the last person standing. They can also, instead of playing for checkmate, make it so that a player instead has to capture the king, like any other piece.

In Teams, table-talk is historically not allowed in in-person play. Players can play until a player is checkmated, or they can make it so that both teammates need to be checkmated.

There are many different variations of these rules, including whether the board should be 8x2 or 8x3, or where the king and queen should be.^[11] Some historical variations allow the pawns to move in different directions,^[12] and some current rules remove checkmate, and instead require that the kings be captured.

Four-handed Chess Club Rules

These are the major rules as adopted by the Four-handed Chess Club. This is somewhat quoted from the book 1893 book "Four Chess", which states the rules.^[13]

All laws of ordinary chess which are not contradicted by the following rules, hold also in four-handed chess.

A game is not won unless both opponents are checkmated or resign.

If one player is checkmated and the other stalemated, the game is drawn. If one player is stalemated and the other is free to move, the former simply loses his move and the game continues.

When one player is checkmated, the others continue to move in the same order as before, but he loses his move. His pieces merely occupy and block up the squares upon which they stand; they can neither be taken nor moved over so long as the mate continues. His opponents’ Kings can disregard the check of his pieces and even occupy an adjacent square to the mated King, as long as they do not allow the king to get out of check.

When a player is checkmated his partner may stop the mate by taking one of the mating pieces, inducing it to move, interposing one of his own pieces, or mating one of his opponents whose pieces are necessary to the checkmate. In the latter case he must mate with his pieces alone, since his partner's pieces are inert.

A checkmated player also regains the right to move if his opponents themselves raise the checkmate, and they can do so provided neither of their kings are in check of his pieces.

When the mate is relieved, the mated player's pieces at once become liable to capture and able to give check, and he resumes play as soon as his turn comes round.

No player can so move as to cause check to be given either to his own or to his partner's King; and if he cannot escape a check to his own King without causing check to his partner's, he is mated.

When a pawn is prevented from moving by one of the partner's pawns being on the square immediately in front of it, it can, as a move, hop over that pawn to the square behind it if that square be unoccupied.

A pawn becomes a Queen, or another piece at option of the player, when it reaches the back row of squares (i.e. the row originally occupied by the opponent's pieces) of one of the opponents.

When a pawn reaches the back row of his partner, his motion is reversed and is the same as that of his partner's pawns.

References

^ It should be noted that the original text implied that Four-player chess was only a partnership game. Like the name (Four-handed Chess is also what it is listed as in the book), it is clear that the meaning has changed since the time of that book
^ Pritchard, D. B. (2007). Beasley, John (ed.). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. John Beasley. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1.
^ Cazaux, Jean-Louis (2017). A World of Chess: Its Development and Variations through Centuries and Civilizations. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-9427-9.
^ Pritchard, D. B. (2007). Beasley, John (ed.). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. John Beasley. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1.
^ Pritchard, D. B. (2007). Beasley, John (ed.). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. John Beasley. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1.
^ {{Cazaux, Jean-Louis (2017). A World of Chess: Its Development and Variations through Centuries and Civilizations. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-9427-9.
^ Pritchard, D. B. (2007). Beasley, John (ed.). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. John Beasley. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1.
^ van der Linde, Antonius (1881). Quellenstudien zur Geschichte des Schachspiels.
^ Pritchard, D. B. (2007). Beasley, John (ed.). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. John Beasley. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1.
^ "4 Player Chess". chess.com. chess.com.
^ *Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992). The Oxford Companion to Chess, Second Edition. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1986-6164-1.
^ *Verney, George Hope (1885). Chess Eccentricities.
^ *Blythe, William Henry (1893). Four Chess.

External links

II and III at The Chess Variant Pages
Four-handed Chess by Capt. George Hope Verney by Hans Bodlaender, The Chess Variant Pages
4-Way Chess rules of play
4 Player Chess (1881) at BoardGameGeek
More variants playable online at Green Chess
Live play at Chess.com

[Note14-1] It should be noted that the original text implied that Four-player chess was only a partnership game. Like the name (Four-handed Chess is also what it is listed as in the book), it is clear that the meaning has changed since the time of that book

[2] Pritchard, D. B. (2007). Beasley, John (ed.). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. John Beasley. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1.

[3] Cazaux, Jean-Louis (2017). A World of Chess: Its Development and Variations through Centuries and Civilizations. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-9427-9.

[4] Pritchard, D. B. (2007). Beasley, John (ed.). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. John Beasley. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1.

[5] Pritchard, D. B. (2007). Beasley, John (ed.). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. John Beasley. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1.

[6] {{Cazaux, Jean-Louis (2017). A World of Chess: Its Development and Variations through Centuries and Civilizations. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-9427-9.

[7] Pritchard, D. B. (2007). Beasley, John (ed.). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. John Beasley. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1.

[8] van der Linde, Antonius (1881). Quellenstudien zur Geschichte des Schachspiels.

[9] Pritchard, D. B. (2007). Beasley, John (ed.). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. John Beasley. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1.

[10] "4 Player Chess". chess.com. chess.com.

[11] *Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992). The Oxford Companion to Chess, Second Edition. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1986-6164-1.

[12] *Verney, George Hope (1885). Chess Eccentricities.

[13] *Blythe, William Henry (1893). Four Chess.

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@@ Line 105: / Line 105: @@
 FFA is a more recent invention, popping up in commercial games, while teams is the game mode historically. Contemporarily, Four-player Chess is not particularly popular. Nevertheless, there are a few commercial versions for in-person play. It can also be played online, with the biggest website being [[chess.com]]’s variants.
-==Team==
+==Rules==
+Piece movement and captures remain the same as regular chess. {{See|Rules of chess}}
-Teams is a two vs. two format wherein allied pieces cannot be captured by teammates. The allied players sit across from each other and win by checkmating the opposing team (those to their left or right). In some versions of teams, the game is over when both opposing [[king (chess)|king]]s are [[checkmate]]d.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}} If only one can be checkmated, the game is a draw. In the online version of teams played on Chess.com, however, the game ends in a victory for the team that either checkmates one opposing teammate on that player's turn or when a player captures one of the opposing teammate's kings.
+A board made of a standard 8×8 square with an additional 3 rows of 8 cells extending from each side is what is typically used for Four-player chess. Variants vary as to where the king and queen are placed; this doesn't matter for casual play. Otherwise, pieces are set up like regular chess.
-==Singles (FFA or Solo on Chess.com)==
-Single play arguably draws from a larger set of skills than team play, which means that some believe it may be more difficult than teams. Others believe, however, because teams generally requires sharper calculations, that teams is more difficult. In this mode of play, each player can attack any of the other three players and vice versa. Once a player is checkmated, the checkmated player can remove their pieces from the board, the player that checkmated can use the remaining pieces during that player's turn, or the pieces can remain as "dead" on the board, such that they cannot move, block diagonals, files, and ranks, and do not give players points when captured (standard practice on Chess.com). Play continues until only one player remains. On Chess.com, the player with the highest number of points wins and pawns promote on the 8th rank to queens. Unlike in teams, checkmate is delivered on the turn that the player is checkmated, as opposed to on that player's turn (on Chess.com).
+Rules vary, in teams, as to how to deal with partners pawns when they run into each other. This happens sometimes because everybody moves in the forward direction, as in regular chess. When this happens for the Chess.com variant, the pawns are blocked, while some variants historically allowed pawns to jump over each other if this happened.
-Points (on Chess.com):
-Pawn or promoted pawn: 1 point
-Knights: 3 points
-Bishops or Rooks: 5 points
-Queen: 9 points
-Checkmate: 20 points
-Stalemate: 10 points to all remaining players
+Players are of course free to change all rules to their convenience (see the rules section in the links tab for different variations of the rules).
-==Common game rules==
-* Players can only move their chess pieces on their turns.
+===Chess.com Rules===
-* If a player is placed in check, that player must wait until their designated turn before that player can respond to the threat. In some variations, when a player's move places an opponent in check (for example, by moving their knight so as to expose one opponent's king to another's rook), the second opponent is forbidden from capturing the first's king until they have a chance to deal with the check. On Chess.com, however, the king may be captured, thus ending the game. Funnily, a king may be captured to secure a victory as an only move when a player is otherwise in checkmate on that player's turn. Some variations prohibit moves that would cause one opponent to be in check at the hands of another. These restrictions are intended to discourage [[collusion]] between players, as further discussed below. On Chess.com, however, teamwork is expected and encouraged by the ability to draw arrows and circles to thus suggest moves that only one's team may see. Furthermore, private voice calls between teammates to discuss moves is legal on Chess.com and standard practice in tournament play.
+Play starts with red, and turns are clockwise
-* Pawns move forward only, unless attacking in a diagonal forward manner.
+====Free For All (FFA)====
-* In some variations, in the event a pawn reaches the King's row to the left, right or directly across, that pawn shall receive all the privileges of a pawn reaching King's row during a traditional chess game (i.e. [[promotion (chess)|promoting]] to a queen (most commonly), a rook, a bishop, or a knight). On Chess.com, pawns queen on a player's 13th rank.
+The goal is to have the most points at the end of the game<ref>{{cite web
-* In some variations of teams, it is legal, but should not be communicated, for two or more of the players to team up.
+ |url=https://www.chess.com/terms/4-player-chess
+ |title=4 Player Chess
+ |website=chess.com
+ |publisher=chess.com
+ }}</ref>
+*Pawns (and promoted queens) are worth one point
+*A players queen is worth nine points
+*bishops/rooks are worth five points
+*knights are worth three points
+*checkmates (and in rare cases king captures) are worth twenty points
+Pawns promote to queens on the eight rank, which is at the middle of the board.
+When a player is checkmated, all their pieces turn grey. When this happens, they cannot move and don't give a player any points. It should be noted that a player is checkmated immediately; in other words, they don't have to wait for their opponents to move to be checkmated.
+The game ends when three players are defeated. It also ends when there are two players left and one player has more than twenty points more than the other player (because, if they were checkmated, they would still win) In this case, the leading player may have to click a button that says "claim win."
+Trying to influence another player to help you by communicating in the chat (such as saying "team with me" or "take queen") is against the rules. However, it is perfectly legal to aid another players attacks, or choosing not to attack a player because you would think it would benefit you.
+====Teams====
+In teams, the goal is to checkmate one of the opposing players. You work with your opposite, and can suggest moves with arrows.
+This time, queen promotion is on the eleventh rank. On chess.com you functionally have two armies, you and your opposite, with the exception that you are the only one that can move your army, and vise-versa. It should be noted that players are checkmated on their turn. This means that, theoretically, their opposite can block the checkmate, in some cases.
+===Modifications for In-Person Play===
+In FFA, if players don't wish to record points, they can alternatively play to the first person checkmated, or the last person standing. They can also, instead of playing for [[checkmate]], make it so that a player instead has to capture the king, like any other piece.
+In Teams, table-talk is historically not allowed in in-person play. Players can play until a player is checkmated, or they can make it so that both teammates need to be checkmated.
+There are many different variations of these rules, including whether the board should be 8x2 or 8x3, or where the king and queen should be.<ref>*{{cite book
+ |last1=Hooper
+ |first1=David
+ |last2=Whyld
+ |first2=Kenneth
+ |title=The Oxford Companion to Chess, Second Edition
+ |publisher=Oxford University Press
+ |year=1992
+ |isbn=978-0-1986-6164-1}}</ref> Some historical variations allow the pawns to move in different directions,<ref>*{{cite book
+ |last=Verney
+ |first=George Hope
+ |title=Chess Eccentricities
+ |year=1885}}</ref> and some current rules remove checkmate, and instead require that the kings be captured.
+====Four-handed Chess Club Rules====
+These are the major rules as adopted by the Four-handed Chess Club. This is somewhat quoted from the book 1893 book "Four Chess", which states the rules.<ref>*{{cite book
+ |last=Blythe
+ |first=William Henry
+ |title=Four Chess
+ |year=1893}}</ref>
+*All laws of ordinary chess which are not contradicted by the following rules, hold also in four-handed chess.
+*A game is not won unless both opponents are checkmated or resign.
+*If one player is checkmated and the other stalemated, the game is drawn. If one player is stalemated and the other is free to move, the former simply loses his move and the game continues.
+*When one player is checkmated, the others continue to move in the same order as before, but he loses his move. His pieces merely occupy and block up the squares upon which they stand; they can neither be taken nor moved over so long as the mate continues. His opponents’ Kings can disregard the check of his pieces and even occupy an adjacent square to the mated King, as long as they do not allow the king to get out of check.
+*When a player is checkmated his partner may stop the mate by taking one of the mating pieces, inducing it to move, interposing one of his own pieces, or mating one of his opponents whose pieces are necessary to the checkmate. In the latter case he must mate with his pieces alone, since his partner's pieces are inert.
+*A checkmated player also regains the right to move if his opponents themselves raise the checkmate, and they can do so provided neither of their kings are in check of his pieces.
+*When the mate is relieved, the mated player's pieces at once become liable to capture and able to give check, and he resumes play as soon as his turn comes round.
+*No player can so move as to cause check to be given either to his own or to his partner's King; and if he cannot escape a check to his own King without causing check to his partner's, he is mated.
+*When a pawn is prevented from moving by one of the partner's pawns being on the square immediately in front of it, it can, as a move, hop over that pawn to the square behind it if that square be unoccupied.
+*A pawn becomes a Queen, or another piece at option of the player, when it reaches the back row of squares (i.e. the row originally occupied by the opponent's pieces) of one of the opponents.
+*When a pawn reaches the back row of his partner, his motion is reversed and is the same as that of his partner's pawns.
 ==See also==