Double Your Pleasure... with Four-Player Chess!
As Erik announced a few days back, we've been at work on a bit of a passion project lately, and although it's still highly "experimental," our Four Player Chess server is available for the Chess.com community to try out! It's lots of fun, and a little crazy too!...
You already know how the pieces move, and checkmate is still a thing to fear, but this is a very different game, won or lost on a point system that awards players for capturing material, checking enemy Kings, and outlasting your opponents! Here's an overview of how it works:
- Pieces move and capture like always (though there is no en passant at this time)
- Points are usually earned by capturing pieces: Pawns are +1 point, Knights are +3, Bishops and Rooks are +5, Queens are +9, Kings are +15
- Checkmate eliminates a player and earns +15 points
- Your pawns promote to Queens on your 8th rank
- Promoted Queens are worth only 1 point
- Dead (grey) pieces in the armies of eliminated players do not provide points
- Delivering a double-check is worth +5, and triple-checks are worth +15
- When a player resigns or times out, leaving two or more active players on the board, their King remains in color and is still worth +15 to whoever can capture it; but if there is only one player remaining, that player gets +15 immediately, and the game is over
- The player with the most points at the end, wins!
The only other thing you should know to play Four Player Chess is that it's still a bit rough around the edges. The server may go down from time to time as we do updates. There are no ratings or leaderboards - or chat (yet). And all games are currently using a 5-minute time control. We're still trying to iron out the rules and account for all the interesting things that can happen in this game. But it's a great start, and if you haven't tried it yet, you really should!
You might have to wait a bit to get a game, depending on the time of day, but tell your friends! The more people trying it out, the shorter the wait. And if you would like to arrange a game or discuss the rules or talk strategy, there's even a special Four Player Club!
Thanks for reading! We hope you enjoy this fun new variant. Please let us know what you think in the Comments!
