4 Player Chess is a category of chess variants played by four people at the same time and on the same board.
how to play 4 player chess has a different color for his or her set of pieces, namely red, blue, yellow, and green. The overall game always starts with Red and follows in a clockwise order. Another difference of 4 Player Chess may be the board, which includes 160 squares because three extra ranks are put into each side.
The guidelines for regular chess mostly apply to these games, alongside additional regulations specific to each variant. In 4 Player Chess, Free-for-All and Teams will be the two main variants. Players may also customize rules to add even more flavor to their games.
Rules Of Standard Free-For-All 4 Player Chess
One of the prominent variants of 4 Player Chess may be the Free-for-All game. As possible guess by its name, in this type of match, each of the four players is battling alone against the other three.
During the game, a player is eliminated by resigning, being stalemated, checkmated, or if their time runs out.
Whenever a player is checkmated or stalemated, all their pieces become inactive and are grayed out. Capturing those pieces will not provide any points.
Whenever a player resigns or runs out of time, their king remains alive and moves randomly. Checkmating a king yields 20 points to the ball player whose delivers the mate, and stalemating it awards 10 points to each remaining active player.
If you have a draw by threefold repetition, insufficient material, or the 50-move rule, all active players receive 10 points each.
The game ends when three players are eliminated. Additionally, a game can end when just two players remain, and something of them is ahead on the scoreboard by 21 or more points. That player can claim victory by resigning and awarding the other player 20 points not enough to reach first place.
It is important to note that in Free-for-All standard games, one cannot talk to other players to join forces. Doing this is prohibited and will allow you to get banned. However, another 4 Player Chess variant called Diplomacy encourages this type of "unofficial" coordination.
Rules Of Standard Teams 4 Player Chess
As implied by teams in its name, this variant differs in play from Free-For-All. Teams are composed of two players each, that are always over the board from each other. Players cannot capture their teammate's pieces.
Since team play is vital in this variant, players must communicate with their partner to get an advantage. Chess.com allows you for you yourself to share your ideas with a teammate by drawing arrows on the board. The in-game chat also allows you to send private messages on a team channel, therefore the opposing players do not know what you are organizing.
Unlike in Free-for-All games, for Teams matches, pawns promote on the 11th rank. For standard Teams matches, underpromotion can be possible.
The goal of the overall game is to checkmate one person in the opposing team. Stalemating causes the game to draw. Both only happen once the mated or stalemated player's turn to go is reached, so it's even possible to "escape" a pending checkmate by checkmating another player first. Check out this video of the 4 Player Chess Team Championship held here on Chess.com where it happened.
The game may also end if a player runs out of time or resigns. In cases like this, the other team wins the match.