4 Player Chess FFA - The Basics

4 Player FFA (Free-for-all) is by far the most popular variant on the variants server. It might be scary to newcomers since there are 4 players which means there's a lot more possible moves, ideas, and positions to consider, but in reality, it's not that hard. Just don't play for 3rd. Please.

The Goal and Gameplay Rules

The main goal of this game is to end up with the most points.

The rules are simple (but it's kind of a long list):

1. Piece Values
   1. Pawns - 1 point
   2. Knights - 3 points
   3. Bishops and Rooks - 5 points
   4. Queen - 9 points.
   5. King (by checkmate) - 20 points.*
   6. Promoted pawn - depends on the promotion choice. If it's QRBN promotion, depends on what piece you choose. Otherwise, it's going to be promotion to a 1-point queen (a queen that is worth 1 point—what did you expect?).
2. Resigned & Zombie Kings
   1. If there is one resigned/zombie king (three alive players, one dead player that resigned or timed-out), then the player that checkmates it still receives 20 points. However, if it is stalemated, the 20 points are split evenly—each player gets 7 points (because rounding 🤷‍♂️). 
   2. If there are two resigned/zombie kings (two alive players, two dead players that resigned or timed-out), then the player that checkmates one of the kings still receives 20 points. However, if it is stalemated, the 20 points are split evenly—each player gets 10 points. 
   3. If there are still zombie kings left at the end of the game, the last player standing receives 20 points for checkmating their opponent, plus another 20 points for each zombie king that is left. You can earn a maximum of 60 points this way (20 points for checkmating the opponent, and 20 points each from the two other zombie kings).
3. Extra Points
   1. Getting stalemated (while you are still in the game and haven't resigned or timed-out) gives you 20 points.*
   2. Checking two (alive) players' kings in the same move—what we call a double check, different from regular chess terminology— awards 1 point, and checking three (alive) players' kings—a triple check—awards 5 points.
4. Insufficient Material, Threefold Repetition, the 50-Move-Rule, and Claim Win
   1. Insufficient Material: If none of the players have enough material to force a checkmate, the points will be split evenly. This is most commonly seen in the endgame where there are only two players left. However, it can technically occur in the 4 player and 3 player stages as well. 
   2. Threefold Repetition and the 50-Move-Rule: If the same exact position has been repeated (including zombie kings!) three times at any point, or if 50 moves have been made without a capture or a pawn being pushed, the game will end and the points will be split evenly based on the number of alive and zombie kings left. 
   3. Claim Win: Claiming the win is essentially resigning when you have enough points to end the game in first place. It is helpful when you know you will win regardless and don't want to continue playing. A player can claim the win in the 2 player stage if they are in first place and have at least 21 more points than the player in second place, assuming there are no zombie kings left on the board. If there is one zombie king, the first place player will need at least 41 more points than the second place player, and if there are two zombie kings, 61 more points are necessary. If the opponent has insufficient checkmating material, the first place player must only have 1 more point to claim the win (because each player gets 10 points by insufficient material). For each extra zombie king, you will need to have 20 more points to claim the win. Claiming the win is not possible in the 3 and 4 player stages. In some cases, autoclaim will be triggered. Autoclaim occurs to protect the player in second place from being overrun by the player in third place because the first place finisher decides to feed points to the third place finisher. 

*Note that the points for checkmate might vary from game to game. The default is 20 points, but sometimes it can be 40, 80, or even something else (though you can't play these games rated, only casual). This will also mess with the claim win rules.

And that's about it. This is really just an extended guide to the rules that you can find by clicking the question mark in the menu:

How to Actually Play

So the idea is simple. You want to keep the game balanced. If you let one player get a massive lead in points or material (and sometimes time, usually in blitz and bullet), they are probably going to win the game. So it's up to you and the other players to come to a mutual understanding and not attack each other until the major threat has been brought down to something more manageable. Of course, this is harder than it seems. Especially because there's always 2500s playing for 3rd.

I think this "maintaining the balance" thing is a skill that's easy to learn but hard to master and comes with practice. The more games you play, the better you are at evaluating the position and the relative strength of the players involved.

For now, though, you probably have more important things to deal with, such as making it out of the first stage of the game, the 4 player stage.

This is where most people get scared. They keep thinking, Oh no, I'm going to get teamed on by the other players, and some people are so paranoid that they think teaming is cheating and so they report the players involved in the teaming—when, in reality, teaming is perfectly legal and is actually the proven best way to play out the 4 player stage of (standard) FFA. But no one really understands this concept until you reach 2000 or so, and it isn't heavily applied until 23000-2400. So for now, you'll have to work on maintaining a solid structure, promoting pawns, and taking checkmates when possible. That's really how you get past the barrier that is the rating of 2000. Here are some setups I used that are solid and can keep you in the game for a while. You might have to adapt depending on what the other players are doing, but usually, this works quite well.

The idea here is to push both rook pawns out, then the knight pawns, to create a pawn blockade. Then you can move your king to the queenside (which I usually find safer since there's more pieces there). Castling is fine, but manually moving the king over worked better for me since the rook in the corner defends the pawn from weird sacrifices that some people like to do for no reason other than to be annoying. And make sure to have a bishop—or in some cases, even your queen—fianchettoed, so it defends against long-range diagonal attacks wherever your king is. For example, red here can simply play Be2 and then slide the king over, then put the queen behind the two center pawns and start pushing them to promotion. Or, you can play like blue by fianchettoing both bishops and bringing the knights out, then castling one way or another (again, I find queenside king shuffle is the best, but you do you). You can also play like yellow or green and get a head start on promotion.

But beware! Opening too many lines before you are well-developed or safe could result in you being an easy target for the other players. So be mindful of that—don't make yourself a target. That doesn't mean be passive. If you see a chance to take free pieces, go for it. If you see a forced checkmate, take it, even if it means you have to lose your queen, because gaining 20 points is worth it. Just make sure not to compromise your position.

Congrats! A player has been eliminated (the fastest and best way is to cooperate with your opposite and attack a side player until they get mated), and you weren't that player! You have successfully entered the 3 player stage of the game, which is usually where the fate of the game and the players is decided. This is where the "maintaining the balance" skill comes into play. It's essentially that you don't accidentally give one player too much of an advantage. If you do, you are playing for 2nd, or sometimes even worse, playing for 3rd. And no one will like you after that. Here, you should stop playing aggressively and start consolidating.

Bring back your pieces and start pushing pawns. Make sure your king is safe. But don't push too many pawns, or you will make yourself a target because the other players think you are becoming too strong by promoting too many queens, even though more than 2 queens is kind of useless. It's just paranoia, I'm telling you. But anyway, your goal here shouldn't be to try and checkmate another player, but rather to shuffle, keep your king safe, keep your pieces together, take pieces when you can, and try your best to not let someone get a major advantage. Again, all of this comes with practice, and unfortunately, it's not something I can explain in full detail. 

So hopefully this guide helped you on your journey to becoming a better FFA player and a better 4pc player overall. I'll make another post regarding Teams, and then maybe a more advanced guide for 4pc in general in the future? Let me know your thoughts. As always, if you have questions or concerns, feel free to post them in the comments or DM me. Thanks for reading!