Four-player chess: Difference between revisions

| genre = {{ubl|[[Abstract strategy game]] <br />|[[Chess variant]]}}

'''Four-player chess''' (also known as '''four-handed chess''') is a family of [[chess variant]]s played with four people. The game features a special [[Chessboard|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, [[Chess|regular chess]]. There are a variety of different rule variations; most variations, however, share a somewhat similar board and piece setup.

According to [[David Pritchard (chess player)|D. B. PrichardPritchard]], Fourfour-player chess "is generally understood to be a partnership game played with two sets on a standard board with four extensions, one on each side, usually of 8×3 squares (arguably the best arrangement) but sometimes 8×2 or 8×4, on which the pieces are set up in the normal array positions."<ref name=":0">{{cite book

The ''Taḥqīq mā li-l-hind min maqūlah maqbūlah fī al-ʿaql aw mardhūlah'' (c. {{circa|1030}}) of [[al-Biruni]], an encyclopedia of Indian culture, contains a description of [[chaturaji]], a four-player chess-like game played with dice, which al-Biruni claims was unknown among the Arabs of his time. Either a four-sided rectangular die or a six-sided cubic die was rolled to determine which type of piece (king, elephant, horse, boat, pawn) was to be moved on a given turn. This game had unusual longevity by [[chess variant]] standards, as it was still played in its original form in the 15th century, and a version of the game without dice was still played in India in 1900, according to a contemporary article in the ''[[British Chess Magazine]]''.<ref>{{cite book|lastlast1=Murray |first1=H.J.R. |title=A History of Chess |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1913 |isbn=0-19-827403-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Contadini |first=Anna |year=1995 |chapter=Islamic Ivory Chess Pieces, Draughtsmen and Dice in the Ashmolean Museum |editor=James W. Allan |title=Islamic Art in the Ashmolean Museum |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=30–51 |url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/426/}}</ref> While chaturaji never spread outside of India, possibly due to Islamic laws against gambling, a (likely coincidentally) similar game known as Four Seasons Chess was played in 13th -century Spain which was notable enough to be included in ''[[Libro de los Juegos]]''.

|isbn= 978-0-7864-9427-9}}</ref> [[William Coxe (historian)|William Coxe]] also wrote that same year that a four-player chess game, possibly [[fortress chess]], was played in Russia at the time.<ref>{{cite book|lastlast1=Coxe |first1=William |title=Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden and Denmark |year=1784}}</ref> It is possible that one of these games inspired the other, and likely that one or both of them were inspired by Filippo Marinelli's [[three-player chess]] game invented in Italy in 1722.<ref>{{cite book|lastlast1=Marinelli |first1=Filippo |title=Il giuoco degli scacchi fra tre |year=1722}}</ref> Four-handed Chess, as it was called, grew in popularity throughout the 19th century, with variations of the game appearing in Germany, Britain and the United States, among others.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref name=":0" /> [[Cox-Forbes theory]], a popular theory among chess historians at the time that was developed during the century by [[Hiram Cox]] and [[Duncan Forbes (linguist)|Duncan Forbes]], proposed that chaturaji was approximately 5000 years old and was the predecessor to modern chess. However, this theory was refuted in the latter half of the century by [[{{ill|Antonius van der Linde]]|de}} and [[Albrecht Weber]], and is now rejected by all serious chess historians.<ref name=":2">{{cite book

George Hope Lloyd-Verney, a pivotal figure in the game's history, was first introduced to it by [[Horatia Nelson]].<ref name=":0" /> On September 20th20, 1881, a leading article in ''[[theThe Times]]'' referred to the game as "failed", which prompted Verney, who was a seasoned player by then, to send a letter in response that same day.<ref name=":3">{{cite book

|year=1885}}</ref> Verney also founded a Four-handed Chess Club in London in 1884. It was somewhat well known in London, and it had eighty people attend its inaugural meeting.<ref name=":1" /> The club started off by following Verney's ruleset, but this changed a few years later in 1888 when Montague Edward Hughes-Hughes, in an attempt to improve the game's popularity, invented a new ruleset that was slightly more similar to standard chess, which quickly became the preferred ruleset of the club. The club played until World War II.<ref name=":1" />

|year=1881}}</ref> However, the figure most commonly associated with the game is [[Vladimir Lenin]]. Lenin is said to have played the game passionately with his family, including [[Anna Ulyanova]], in his youth.<ref name=":0" /> After becoming an active revolutionary, Lenin came up with the idea of using a four-player chess table, which was constructed in 1894-18951894–1895, to hide illegal documents in through a hollowed out table leg.<ref name=":5">{{cite book |last=Ulyanova |first=Anna |title=Memories of Ilyich |year=1934}}</ref> The table survived Lenin's arrest in 1895, and ended up in the hands of Ulyanova the year after. In 1900, the table was replaced after [[Mark Yelizarov]] came up with a new idea for storing documents, that being a secret drawer within the table. This new table survived many police searches without suspicion, keeping documents safe for Lenin, his family and his allies right up until the [[February Revolution]].<ref name=":5" /> The table is now on display in the [[State Historical Museum]].

The game fell out of popularity at around the beginning of the 20th century. However, beginning in the 1960s, a resurgence of the game took place as various four-player chess board games were created.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.chess.com/article/view/double-the-fun | title=Double the Fun | publisher=Chess.com | date=November 8, 2017 | url-status=live }}</ref> While they maintained the layout of the variants of previous centuries, most of these games were marketed as FFA games, ditching the historically preferred teams format. The game remained relatively obscure throughout the century, appealing almost exclusively to casual players. In 2016, a university student named John Flickinger created a chess website named Hello Chess that was focused towards FFA four-player chess and general casual chess play.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.hellochess.com | title=Hello Chess | archive-date=October 19, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019150143/https://www.hellochess.com/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> The website was successful enough to attract the attention of Erik Allebest, the co-founder and CEO of [[Chess.com]], who wanted to port the game to his site.<ref name=":6">{{cite web | url=https://www.chess.com/article/view/four-player-chess-how-to-play-and-win | title=4 Player Chess: How To Play And Win | publisher=Chess.com | date=June 21, 2022 | url-status=live }}</ref> During the summer of 2017, Flickinger, who was brought on board by Allebest, worked alongside various other developers to bring the game to Chess.com. During development, Jay Severson, the other co-founder and CTO of Chess.com, came up with the idea of winning via a points system rather than via being the last player left.<ref>{{cite web |title=Why You Should Play 4-Player Chess |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9O5yjHqLjQ |website=youtube.com |language=en}}</ref> This idea was implemented and the game was officially released on October 28th28, 2016, being given its own section of the site.<ref name=":6" /> This embracing by Chess.com gave four-player chess unprecedented popularity. A teams variant, which did not use the points system, was added soon after.

Contemporarily, four-player chess is one of the most popular chess variants. It frequently tops Chess.com's concurrent player rankings on its variants section.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.chess.com/variants | title=4 Player & Variants | publisher=Chess.com | url-status=live}}</ref> [[Hikaru Nakamura|GM Hikaru Nakamura]] has played the game numerous times in live streams, often alongside prominent figures like [[Levy Rozman]], [[Alexandra Botez]] and [[Anish Giri|GM Anish Giri]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Nakamura |first=Hikaru |title=4 Player Chess and other Variants |url=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4KCWZ5Ti2H6ZNzYdi8qw8d_BKQw1unMi |website=youtube.com |language=en}}</ref> A FFA 4 Player Chess Championship has been hosted and funded by Chess.com annually since 2019. In 2023, the Championship split into two separate "Original Solo" and "Standard FFA" Championships, with each having a slightly different ruleset and starting position.<ref name=":7">{{cite web | url=https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/2023-solo-ffa-world-4-player-chess-championships-season-5 | title=🪓 2023 Original Solo (FFA) World 4 Player Chess Championships, 🏆 Season 5 ⚔️ DISCUSSION | publisher=Chess.com | url-status=live}}</ref> The most recent (2023) winners are Delan Lara (Original Solo) and Carlos Tadeo (Standard FFA).<ref name=":7" /><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/2023-standard-ffa-world-4-player-chess-championships-season-1-discussion | title=🪓 2023 Standard FFA World 4 Player Chess Championships 🏆 Season 5 ⚔️ (DISCUSSION) | publisher=Chess.com | url-status=live}}</ref>

{{SeeFurther|Rules of 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.

Play starts with red, and turns are clockwise.

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

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 playersplayer's attacks, or choosing not to attack a player because you would think it would benefit you.

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 vice- versa. Players are checkmated on their turn. This means that, theoretically, their opposite can block the checkmate, in some cases.

For teams, players attempt to coordinate their attacks with their opposite. If this is not possible, then players should attempt to play strong moves, developing their pieces to premtivelypreemptively prevent typically double attacks from their opponents and put their pieces in strong positions to be able to coordinate attacks with their opposite. It is wise to play openings, such as (for the first player) moving the king's pawn up one, which shields against double-attacks, checks, and develop strong pieces.<ref name=":2" />

In FFA, it is wise to be more cautious, developing pieces and improving kingsking safety. Trades should only be done when they are beneficial, because, when there are four people, this weakens the traders compared to the other players. Bishops are about as strong as rooks, and both are stronger than knights. The queen is the strongest piece. One should try to develop their pieces and protect their king. In addition, players should try to avoid opening themselves up to attacks. For example, if the player to the left attacks them, then the player across from them or the player to their right can attack them as- well, guaranteeing loss of material. Likewise, players should often look for ways to attack players that allow other players to join in.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

* [http://fourwaychess.webs.com/ 4-Way Chess rules of play] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150311174748/http://fourwaychess.webs.com/ |date=2015-03-11 }}

* [http://www.chessvariants.org/multiplayer.dir/fourhanded1.html I]{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} [http://www.chessvariants.org/multiplayer.dir/fourhanded2.html II][http://www.chessvariants.org/multiplayer.dir/fourhanded3.html III] at ''[[The Chess Variant Pages]]''

* [http://www.chessvariants.org/books.dir/4handed/index.html Four-handed Chess by Capt. George Hope Verney] , ''[[The Chess Variant Pages]]''