Five 4P Hyperbullet Tips
Does hyperbullet have strategy...?
Yes, it turns out it does, at least at the higher level…
I started this guide in October of 2022, but I just finalized it; although most tips here are basic for many players, those who are competing in the W4PCC might still find it useful 
1. Don't make high effort moves
If you're a slow player, in a panic, or in an otherwise losing position, making moves where you have to place a piece at another end of the board is going to cause you to lose a lot of time very quickly.
The below is from a 4 min Blitz game: https://www.chess.com/variants/4-player-chess/game/30844411/345/2
In this position, Blue's queen is pinned by the red queen. Rather than take the queen (which resulted in a loss), move the king, and make sure to hide behind pieces, rather than try to play super actively and dramatically.
In some cases you will have a game winning check that can played if you are fast enough, but those are usually exceptions. While this tip is more so for beginning players, advanced players should also remember to not get cocky and play safe when needed.
2. Setup your next premoves when it isn't your turn (double premove)
This one is pretty self explanatory once described once.
- Make a premove
- Before your turn comes, drag a 2nd piece to its destination, but don’t release.
- Immediately after your initial premove is registered on your move, let go of the 2nd piece you were holding before.
- By repeating this process effectively, you can always essentially have “double premoves”, which will help you move faster.
3. Analyse the position during play
In hyperbullet, both time, position/points, and opponent's skill matters.
You might have more material but less time in a very fast endgame. Consider using those pieces and sacrificing them instead of potentially being smothered or outsmarted.
In addition, deciding who to target is also something you need to calculate fast. Unless someone is at risk of claiming win, points should not be a concern. Time and position are generally more important.
(An exception to this is in rapid and sometimes blitz. Players who have an over abundance of points, usually around 50-70 and ahead of all other players by at least 20-40 points, should definitely be watched, and of course you shouldn’t just let yourself be put into a forced loss on points.)
Skill also plays an important role. If you feel like you will not be able to flag an opponent despite a time advantage, stall for longer and do not enter the 2 Player stage until you need to. The opposite also is true, for if someone is 2200 at 10 seconds versus someone who is 1700 and only at 20 seconds, the 2200 has a very high probability of winning despite the disadvantage.
If you happen to not be playing Hyperbullet, but your game eventually has a stage in which it mimics the time controls (e.g endgame of 10 min), take a few seconds to analyze your opponents and see if they have high ratings in other time controls.
4. Protect your king and defend properly
Protecting your king in hyperbullet is a fairly basic idea. That being said time is not the only factor in this game; and defending early can help you in a critical time situation in the endgame.
By making a fortress (even a basic one that only has 1-2 layers), you can more safely premove, not needing to risk being dirty mated or checked repeatedly.
As an example, this is one of the many fortress designs I use:
https://www.chess.com/variants/4-player-chess/game/30921621/0/2
First move your king over to one side, through castling or through manually moving your king.
Then what you want to do is cluster your pieces. Connect your rooks and connect your knights.
This is so that any attack can be defended by 1 or multiple pieces, without overworking your pieces.
In addition, checks are nonexistent, so you can premove without having to worry, as long as you keep an eye out for any possible sacrifices on your king.
After setting something like this up, you can start pushing pawns to make queens. You generally never want to push pawns on your fortress side unless needed lest you will attract too much attention, but always keep your options open when needed.
5. Value your material. Make the most out of a sacrifice.
Lastly, in this below position from https://www.chess.com/variants/4-player-chess/game/30162648/102/3, Yellow has moved their knight to target the rook. Green does not move the rook away and instead continues to hang it. In any other game, you would immediately take. However, not in hyperbullet.
Keep the knight there. Your opponent will lose time trying to premove a capture back.
A few moves later you have this scenario. After Green moves the queen away, it seems logical to take the knight. However...
Once again, using the same exact piece, you trick your opponent again and take an important pawn in their position, weakening their chance of promotion and cutting down their time more.
One of the best pieces to do this with is your knight. Moving in an irregular form, the knight can be used both to fork pieces and to confuse your opponent. Although harder to move, practice can help you to use it more in your games.
Bonus Tip (for Fairy Chess): Please don't use the Neo piece design
This is the standard piece design for the general. Since it has the king crown and the knight body, it's easy even for beginners to recognize how to move it.
This is the NEO piece design for the general. See any resemblance? Probably not.
Although you might be able to memorize certain piece designs, it's always easier to just use standard, so that you don't forget how to move something mid-game...
