4pc Fundamentals: basic concepts (pre-strategy)

I BASIC CONCEPTS (PRE-STRATEGY)

The first thing to consider does not directly concern the board. A number of different elements will influence your quality and style of play.
The first of these, crucial, has to do with motivation, with the expectations you have (if any) in relation to four player chess.
Do you want to pass the time or do you want to progress in your level of play? What time do you have for it? What is the priority you will give to it?
From questions like these one can be situated and decide if following a plan to achieve goals or having fun as the only plan. This series of articles is designed for those who want to progress in their level of play.

1.1 4 Players

The uncertainty principle. In 4pc FFA there is an essential element that makes it unique, that distinguishes it from the logic of "he who plays better, will win". Well, that element is based on the fact that there are four players, four sides. Although TEAMS belongs to 4pc, and several of the strategy principles that follow also apply to it, in TEAMS you have four players but two camps: the camp with better performance will win. The overall logic of classical chess applies to TEAMS: for each move of the opposing side, you select a response (satisfactory or not). In FFA, your answer meets three previous moves and the way they interact with each other. To have an approximation of the complexity of such a situation, we could start from the classification proposed by Roberto Grau for classical chess, where a move can be:
a) attacking
b) defensive
c) neutral
e) an error

Thus, your answer meets three components which can take 4 forms, resulting in the digit of 4^3 (64) possible classifications for the three-component move to which you respond. This is just to highlight the basic difficulty of establishing a response pattern, of programming a software that plays 4pc, for example. In addition, your own moves are part of a unit of three for the others: your response to this or that player depends on the other two, which means that even a very good move on your part can end in your defeat if it is not well articulated with the other two components:

In the diagram, blue has just played 9.Qk5. This move, no matter how yellow replies, results in checkmate on red if green replies with Qxg4. Yellow plays Bxl8 and Green m7xB. Thus blue goes from giving a mate, to losing the queen with red's RxQ. That is, with the green reply, Qk5 ended up being a detrimental move for the blue position.

This translates into the following situation that is often seen in FFA: regardless of your moves, if your flank opponents decide to attack you, and your opponent decides to wait in the distance, you are lost.

Taking this into account, the uncertainty principle is linked to the opponents you will face over the board, of course, and the way they will be distributed, for example. Facing the same three opponents on the board, your winning chances are different for each possible configuration. Let us illustrate this with three examples where to simplify the analysis we will exaggerate the role of the three opponents on the board between submissive (super passive) and dominant (super aggressive).

Diagram 1. In this configuration the principle says that you have a 50% chance of dying first (the other 50% belongs to your opposite).

Diagram 2. Here you could decide with your opposite which of your flank opponents to eliminate or whether to weaken them both

Diagram3. This setup is typical of the highest rated games. Care must be taken: a passive stance on your part may even attract an attack from your opposite against you.  

Moreover, as in classical chess, a single move can determine the outcome of a game, which intensifies the uncertainty principle, because as we saw, a move in 4pc (with three components) is more complex than in classical chess.

From the uncertainty factor the following conclusion can be drawn:

-In 4pc the best player on the board does not always prevail.

And the following invitation:

-Do not take too much credit for the outcome of a game: consider instead how the uncertainty factor helped you to obtain it.

1.2 Opposition

-The importance of the opposite. At the beginning of the game, one player stands out among your three opponents: your opposite opponent. Without the presence of his pieces in that position, for example, your flank opponents would have all that wing at their disposal to advance their pawns without you being able to do much to prevent it, while the advance of yours will disrupt the position of one of your opponents.

-Playing in conformity with the opposite. Let's consider diagrams one and three. Faced with the same flank opponents, it is the attitude of the opponent that will determine your own attitude on the board. In general, in diagram 1 it is advisable to close your position and wait if from the distance you can cause damage to your opposite and it is not recommended to go out aggressively, especially if it is not against the opposite. In diagram three, it is advisable to play aggressively and cooperate with the opposite to dominate the first phase of the game, with all four opponents alive. I leave it to the reader to play with this simple scheme and make changes with the flank opponents: you will notice how the influence of the opposite player is greater than theirs in choosing the strategy to follow during the game. To complement this pre-strategy section, I invite you to read the following article:

Your best friend, backstabber and worst enemy