Watch The 2nd World 4 Player Chess Teams Championship Finals Today and Tomorrow
Today and tomorrow, two teams will fight for the second world championship of Teams Four Player Chess, a new Chess.com variant where each game is contested by four sets of pieces. The winners will earn a prize of $400 per player and the second finishers will earn a prize of $100 per player.
- Watch the Four Player Chess championship this Saturday, Feb. 15 and Sunday, Feb 16, live on Twitch.tv/chesscomevents at 10 a.m. PST / 1 p.m. EST.
- New to Four Player Chess? Read our guide to the game for rules and strategy, and then jump in to play.
The two finalist teams won their way through a field of 16 in earlier play to reach the finals. The championship will be determined by two sessions of play in a best-of-12 format. The first team to reach 6.5 points will be declared the champions, and the first six games are today. The final six games are tomorrow.
A game of Four Player Chess.
The top-seeded duo from the 16-team bracket delivered the chalk and reached the finals. GM Dmitry Kononenko (@valger) of Ukraine partners with the Norwegian world class sailor Lars Johan Brodtkorb (@icystun) to form a Four Player Chess powerhouse.
These two will battle the second seed of the tournament, a Polish team of GM Tomasz Warakomski (@Wraku89) with FM Wojciech Reza (@rezacz).
All three titled players are returning finalists. Brodtkorb is a new finalist and has played in all three World 4 Player Chess Championships, missing the finals by one game in both of the inaugural Teams and Solo championships. He was chosen as a teammate by the captain of the team that knocked him out in the Semi-Final last year, 3-2.
Last year, Kononenko's team lost to the Polish duo in the prelims 3-1 and then won tremendously in the rematch against them, 7-5. This year, the two teams did not face each other until today, as the Polish team lost to the North American duo, @CleanWindows and @MalburySoapGoodSoap 3-2 initially in the prelims and came back against them with a convincing victory 3-0 in the Semi-Finals.
In this new variant of multiplayer chess, the finalists have explored and improved opening theory. These finalists even have Four Player Chess openings named after them:
"The Valger Defense": 1. h3 d6 h12 NL9
"The Icystun-Rezacz Defense": 1. h3 c7 h12 L10
The championship match between these two heavyweight teams will be covered live by popular Chess.com streamers and commenters. Wouter "Bikfoot" Bik will helm the live broadcast for this weekend.
Bikfoot will comment on all the Four Player Chess championship action while explaining the rules and basic strategies to the audience.
Championship Format:
- During the first 12 games, team A will go first in game 1, second in games 2-3, first in games 4-5, second in games 6-7, and so on until going first in game 12.
- After odd-numbered games, players will rematch each other.
- After even-numbered games, the tournament director will rotate the players' colors (red player becomes yellow, yellow becomes red, etc.).
- A tiebreak (if needed) will be played in games 13-17. Game 17 is a sudden-death game, where a draw goes to the player that moved last before the draw.
More Information:
- Four Player Chess Championship Information / Results (must join club to read):
- Four Player Championship Rules
Watch, Learn and Play:
