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Hey Everyone, Thank you all once again for participating and watching the World 4 Player Chess Championships (W4PCC)! Chess.com will be hosting the third Solo W4PCC commencing Saturday, May 15, 2021. Requirements for participation: 1600+ Standard Rapid/Blitz Solo Rating, with over 20 Standard Rapid/Blitz Solo games An account registered before 1st May 2021 (Exception: Titled Players) No recent severe infractions on Chess.com, before or during the championship You must play on your main account if you have multiple staff-approved accounts Format There are three ways of qualifying: 1) Defending World Champion 2) Arenas 3) Leaderboard 4) 4-Week Performance Evaluation 1) Defending World ChampionThe Defending World Champion (the winner of the previous World 4PC Solo Championships) will be selected to play in the Preliminaries at a time he/she and the Tournament Director agree upon, and the finals will be scheduled in advance based on the agreements as well. In the event that the Defending World Champion declines to participate or withdraws, the next player on the Standard Solo Rapid/Blitz Top 20 Leaderboard on May 30th 18:00 UTC will be selected. The Defending World Champion agrees that if he/she participates in a Qualifier Arena, he/she will lose the spot as a Defending World Champion and must qualify through Arenas, and the next person on the May 30th 18:00 UTC Leaderboard will be selected. Should not enough players from the Leaderboard be able to participate, the next players in Top 100 Performance will be selected. Should not enough from Performance, then, be able to participate, the next highest rated player online will be selected.This year's Defending World Champion will play in the Preliminaries at 16:00 UTC Saturday, June 12, 2021 versus the Top 3 in the Leaderboard, and the Finals are scheduled Saturday, June 26, 2021 and Sunday, June 27, 2021 at 18:00 UTC. The Defending World Champion must continue to meet basic eligibility requirements.2) Arenas:This championship will consist of anonymous, 1-point queen, 1 minute with 5 second increment (1|5) Solo games. There will be 8 Qualifier Arenas, duration 2 hours each. The minimum rating requirement for these arenas is 1600. Arena times are as follows (UTC): May 15 - 16:00, 20:00May 16 - 16:00, 20:00 May 22 - 16:00, 20:00May 23 - 16:00, 20:00 Participants may play in as many arenas they like. 8 players will be selected from these arenas to play in the 2021 W4PCC Solo Preliminaries as follows: The winner of each arena will be selected to play on Sunday, June 13, 2021 at the time in UTC of the arena in which he/she qualified. These players must provide their first and last name and country of origin on their profile, and must provide a webcam/screen-share if requested at any time during the semi-finals or finals. Players can play in as many Qualifier Arenas as they want until they Qualify. Qualifiers must agree to cease playing further Qualifier Arenas. The top 10 players of each arena will be made publicly known, and eliminated players may be called upon during the preliminaries or finals as a replacement. In the event that a qualifying player does not want to, or cannot play in a prelim, the next online player in that arena the player qualified from will be asked to take their place. This means that the top 10 players of each arena have a chance of playing in the preliminaries if they are online at the time of the preliminaries. Replacements will have their scores set to match the withdrawing player's score in the event that a player withdraws mid-match. In the rare event that no players participate in an Arena, that slot will be filled by the next Performance Rating, and then by highest rating, similarly to how this is discussed in 1). 3) Leaderboard A screenshot will be posted of the Top 20 leaderboard from the Solo Standard/Rapid category at 18:00 UTC May 30, 2021. For further purposes, this will be the definition of "Leaderboard". The highest rated active three players in that Leaderboard will be selected. Rating Deviations will be recorded in the event that Performance Calculations cannot be taken. The Bracket in which the Leaderboard Category takes place is against the Defending World Champion (or replacement thereof) at 16:00 UTC Saturday, June 12, 2021. These players must provide their first and last name and country of origin on their profile, and must provide a webcam/screen-share if requested at any time during the semi-finals or finals. The top 20 players of this Leaderboard will be made publicly known, and unselected players from this Leaderboard may be called upon during the preliminaries or finals as a replacement. In the event that a qualifying player does not want to, or cannot play in a prelim, the next player on the Leaderboard will be asked to take their place. This means that the top 20 players of this Leaderboard have a chance of playing in the preliminaries if they are online at the time of the preliminaries. Replacements will have their scores set to match the withdrawing player's score in the event that a player withdraws mid-match. In the rare event that not enough players from this Leaderboard can participate, that slot will be filled by the next Performance Rating, and then by highest rating, similarly to how this is discussed in 1). 4) Performance Evaluation Performance Calculation is defined as the Performance Rating of the most recent 36 rated standard rapid/blitz Solo games played in the Month of May 2, 2021 18:00 UTC - May 30, 2021 18:00 UTC. The players must have played at least 36 rated standard rapid/blitz Solo games in this period or they will not be evaluated. Performance rating is calculated as follows: Formula for selection: [(total opponents’ ratings) + 400 * (wins - [non-first-places divided by 3]) ] / 36 ; based on Performance Rating formula, which can be found on Wikipedia. Playing tough opponents (1900+ for example) and winning 70% of the time will favor a player over another who wins 100% of the time against only 1500's. In a rare tiebreak for the last spot available, the higher rated of the two players will be selected. The Bracket in which the Performance Category takes place takes place at 20:00 UTC Saturday, June 12, 2021. Players with the lowest Rating Deviations from the Leaderboard will be selected in the event that Performance Calculations cannot be taken. These players must provide their first and last name and country of origin on their profile, and must provide a webcam/screen-share if requested at any time during the semi-finals or finals. The top 100 players of this Performance Category will be made publicly known, and unselected players from this Performance Category may be called upon during the preliminaries or finals as a replacement. In the event that a qualifying player does not want to, or cannot play in a prelim, the next player on the Performance Rankings will be asked to take their place. This means that the top 100 players of the Performance Rankings have a chance of playing in the preliminaries if they are online at the time of the preliminaries. Replacements will have their scores set to match the withdrawing player's score in the event that a player withdraws mid-match. In the rare event that not enough players from this Performance Rating category can participate, that slot will be filled by highest rating. Upon qualifying for the Preliminaries, players must meet and agree with Championship / Prize Money Eligibility Terms & Conditions within a week of qualifying/being selected. By playing in these arenas, you agree that you meet the basic eligibility requirements. PreliminariesPreliminaries are in a Best-of-5 (first to 1.25) anonymous, rated, 1|5, 1 point Queen Solo game. The winner will receive 1 whole point; the rest will receive zero. First place ties will be split amongst game-winning players. Here is the overview of when these preliminaries will take place:Bracket 1: Champion/Leaderboard Bracket: Saturday, 06/12 at 16:00 UTC.Bracket 2: Performance Bracket: Saturday, 06/12 at 20:00 UTC.Bracket 3: Winners of 16 UTC times: Sunday, 06/13 at 16:00 UTC.Bracket 4: Winners of 20 UTC times: Sunday, 06/13 at 20:00 UTC. Players may be allowed to declare a short break at the discretion of the Tournament Director in addition to the 5 minutes between games. Players must hit Rematch. Players will have to hit rematch within 5 minutes of the games ending. If the players fail to hit rematch, an administrator will reinvite them all and request that they accept. If they fail to accept within 3 minutes (or if they abort a started game) they will be Disqualified and a replacement player will be selected within 5 minutes. In the event of a tiebreak for advancement to the final, the player who won the most recent game will win. In the rare event that all five (5) games are tied, the player who last moved right before the Draw is declared will be declared a Finalist. Upon qualifying for the Preliminaries, players must meet and agree with Championship / Prize Money Eligibility Terms & Conditions within a week of qualifying/being selected. In the event that a qualifying player does not want to, or cannot play in a final, the next ranked online player in the Bracket/Category this Withdrawn player came from will be selected. This means that the all eligible players may have a chance of playing in the final if they are online at the time of the final, and players prioritized above them are not selected. Replacements will have their scores set to match the withdrawing player's score in the event that a player withdraws mid-match. The Final The 2021 Solo W4PCC World Champion will earn a Prize! This will be a first-to-2.25 (best of 9) anonymous, rated, 1|5, 1 point Queen Solo game in which first-place ties split amongst winners of that game. Please note that the following times are SET : Day 1 will start at 18:00 UTC Saturday, June 26. (5 game Cap) Day 2 will start at 18:00 UTC Sunday, June 27. (Games 6-9 if necessary) Players will be allowed to declare one (1) 10-minute-extra break (Timeout) in this entire final each in addition to the 5 minutes between games. Players will have to hit rematch within 5 minutes of the games ending. If the players fail to hit rematch, an administrator will reinvite them all and request that they accept. If they fail to accept within 3 minutes (or if they abort a started game) they will go through the following penalty process: 1. Timeout deducted 2. Disqualification and a replacement player will be selected within 5 minutes. In the event of a tiebreak, the player who won the most recent game will win. In the rare event that all nine (9) games are tied, the player who last moved right before the Draw is declared will be declared the Champion. Upon qualifying for the Final, players must meet and agree with Championship / Prize Money Eligibility Terms & Conditions within a week of qualifying/being selected. In the event that a qualifying player does not want to, or cannot play in a final, the next ranked online player in the Bracket/Category this Withdrawn player came from will be selected. This means that the all eligible players may have a chance of playing in the final if they are online at the time of the final, and players prioritized above them are not selected. Replacements will have their scores set to match the withdrawing player's score in the event that a player withdraws mid-match.Prize Money: The 2021 Solo W4PCC World Champion will provisionally be awarded $1000 from chess.com. Please understand this may take days to process. Only one player will be awarded prize money, and that player must agree to use the email directly linked to his/her chess.com account to find the link to the Prize Money when Awarded. Please note that the link may appear in your junk/trash/spam folder, so be sure to check those soon after you win the Championship! We look forward to seeing you play in the championship! If there are any questions or errors or concerns or useful feedback, do not hesitate to message me or discuss in this forum. Luke Romanko, W4PCC Director

If a player is thrown in check then that means they cannot be thrown in check by an other player until their out of check.

im 1650.

Hey Everyone, Thank you all once again for participating and watching the World 4 Player Chess Championships (W4PCC)!Chess.com will be hosting the fifth Original Solo/FFA W4PCC commencing Saturday, May 27, 2023. The purpose of this discussion is to gather feedback from the community before officially finalizing it. The previous format will be adopted for the Solo (FFA) W4PCC unless certain formats are overturned, or the Director and Admins decide otherwise. Straw Polls and updates may also be posted here. Most of the polling will occur on the Variants Server under the Variants Poll. On a personal side note, I will be retiring from competing as a player in the W4PCC. 4 years was enough to see what it was like from a player's perspective. Other staff, admins, and referees are allowed to qualify/participate. They will be announced soon. @cha_chaRealSmooth will be this W4PCC's assistant tournament director! I also apologize for all of the controversial decisions in the previous W4PCCs. While not all decisions made in regard to the format and disqualification of players will please everyone, there were some events that occurred during the previous W4PCCs that were caused by my bias and lack of communication. I am taking steps to ensure that this event gets handled fairly. I furthermore apologize for the delays in announcing the W4PCC. There were numerous server issues and other issues regarding the Merge of 4PC to the Variants server. Most of these issues have been resolved although it is my understanding that many players may still be upset regarding the Merge. The purpose of this forum is to allow feedback and determine how to best represent a World Championship for 4 Player Chess. Following this championship after taking into consideration the feedback of the community and administration, a championship for New Standard has been announced following this championship, "2023 Standard FFA W4PCC", which takes place June 15-July 2. Please see the Announcement for further details.

In a game rn and already everyone there had like 10 disconnects is the server good? we cant even finish this game

I've been observing 4p chess for more than 4 years now. I see that a lot of inflation happened to the ratings. For Rapid FFA for instance, 2000 used to be high level 4 years ago, now it's for noobs. Still 2 years ago 2300 players were very good, today they play the 2nd stage FFA terribly, throw games, don't have a clue about the balance (!), etc. And as of today, only from 2550-2600 real high level begins (it's about 150 players only). The leaders of the leaderboard had max. 2700 4 years ago, now they reach 3100 (!). (The main reason of this inflation is that new players with virginal 1500 rating arrive, offer easy points to more experienced players and quite often leave forever, it feeds the system with the points. As for the leaders, they very often benefit from voluntary or involuntary farming and in fact are not THAT strong). I believe it is our collective interest that the ratings reflect the levels accurately. In the same time, the formula behind proved to be good "in se". (As already mentioned earlier, the only one big problem of the current formula is that it takes into account the average level of the players involved and not at all the configuration of the board: if you win in a game where you had 2700 in front and 2300 + 2300 as neighbours it's the same rating variation as for the case you have a 2300 in front and 2300 + 2700 as neigbours, whereas of course it is MUCH more difficult to win in the 2nd case). What I suggest is very simple: 1. The games where the difference in ratings between the best and the worst players is higher than 200 pts, should be discriminated by 10, i.e. the ratings' variations will be divided by 10. As such games are much less relevant than the games with players of approximately same level. 2. The maximum variation (either positive or negative) should be limited to 10 points for all players. (I often see +25, -40... It is of course impossible that the level of a player changes that drastically in just 20 minutes...). The ratings shouldn't be that volatile.

Can you believe that an alone king can deliver a checkmate? In 4PC, if you lose all your material, you can luckily win by a king. What you do is that you go as near as possible to losing kings. You can try to find a stalemate or a checkmate. Hope there a "cooperation" of them and also carelessness of the strong army. This is an example, but specially the alone king is dead: www.chess.com/variants/4-player-chess/game/49229895 Don't forgive, because, "I can do it, you can do it!" (Miss Grand H'Hen Nie).

like in Chaturaji, may make things more interesting, or at least different in a not uninteresting way. Ex, if a king can be allowed to move right next to an enemy queen, because it's 4pc and the other two players can still make moves that prevent your opponent from eating your king and so your king can possibly eat an enemy queen. King then can be a more active piece. But I suppose there was some good reason not to do that in 4pc chess though I don't know what exactly.

how do you win in 4pc teams, if your teamate doesnt listen, if your teamate doesnt know how to play or they just try to annoy you by ignoring you how do you win?

From an FFA game but fun teams puzzle nonetheless. Game/Solution: https://www.chess.com/variants/4-player-chess/game/49576088/186/4

This will only invite comments like "who asked" and its kind as are found here but I just managed to finish a game with a perfectly symmetric pawns and feel I achieved sth

In 4PC, there's a speacial move allowing u to eat (not checkmate) ur opp king. For example, in the game www.chess.com/variants/4-player-chess/game/49086655 my rook was on column k, then blue king didn't move out that column, then yellow move destroyed the protection of blue king. So I easily kill blue. Not only king may be killed in that way, u can kill your far-moved opp by your last opp move. It's so interesting move, maybe for you!

Have anyone played 4PC (FFA) and been team-killed in 2 moves? I have just =)

Later... This is gonna be an interesting W4PCC with all these strategies…

how come people get banned for having more then one account, and when people are mean to other players they dont get banned. i dont understand

If I am not wrong, the main reason why the set-up changed last year was a significant unfair disadvantage for Green. If I remember correctly, under 23%. (In a fair game distribution, it would've been 25% of course). I analysed some 2366 NS FFA games (thanks to Space for the data!), taking only (reasonably) HL games, namely where only 2500+ players were involved. I expected the green disadvantage still to be significant. But it's not the case: Red won in 27.3% of the games, Blue 24.8%, Yellow 23.0%, Green 24.9%. I.e. now the worst colour is Yellow! Unexpected (for me), it was not my intuitive feeling. And it's still 19.2% better to be the best colour (Red) than the worst colour (Yellow). Not very good. Maybe some compensation method should be found (for instance, to give X points from start to B, Y and G!). Furthermore: RY took the first two places in 23.8% of the games, BG in 23.4%, and in 52.8% of the games it was not the 2 opps who took the first 2 places. If we look deeper in detail, we can see that: if blue is first, green has 47.1% of chances to be 2nd, whereas for red it's 27.8% and for yellow it's 25.1%! I.e. despite of the change of the formula (which makes it solo for HL players), either they still tend to "reward" their opp or maybe the configuration of the board makes that. In average the 2nd place is 47.2% for the opp and 26.4% for the sides. I shall continue this thread later, have to go for dinner.

Is it even possible?

The standard behavior is that you can choose what you want (Q, R, B, N) and the pieces will have normal points value. Alternatively you can set which piece all pawns will promote to, without players being able to choose. Queen Rook Bishop Knight King: spare kings behave like regular pieces and are worth 3 points in ffa. 1-point Queen Premoving a promotion will choose a queen for you (if there is a choice). Antichess: King You can also set which rank pawns will promote on. If not set, it will be 8th for FFA and 11th for Teams games.

i don't like this chess it is like a poison

you are always giving me black and white is capturing my king