Format: Winner-Takes-All (Solo) Antichess, rated & anonymous, normal starting position, no king of the hill or other variations, 1:00 + 0:05 increment, pawns promote to the 8th rank as Any piece.
will be WTA in FFA (rating FFA) or Solo (rating Solo)?
FYI you are allowed to join multiple qualifiers, even if you already won, but if you won multiple, you must notify me which Preliminary you want to play in by Monday 20:59 UTC; otherwise you will be assumed to play during the first Preliminary you qualified for.
teams or free for all?
teams or free for all?
Free-For-All, except Solo, in which the game ends when one person loses their pieces and that player is the winner.
Nice
HOW TO JOIN THE QUALIFIER ARENAS
You can choose two different ways:
1. Click Leaderboards on the 4 player chess webpage or click https://www.chess.com/4-player-chess?t=leaderboards . Then, select Arenas. When the tournament becomes available, click Join.
2. Select the Play tab on the 4 player chess webpage or click https://www.chess.com/4-player-chess?t=play . Then click the Arena symbol. When an orange (>) symbol appears, click that button.
If you see more than one play button, we encourage you to click the one with more players so that the games can start quicker.
Be careful if you haven't played any 4pc variant before this. Maybe play a game or two before you play this tournament, so you save a few seconds from having to uncheck "Warn me before playing this variant."
Antichess without KOTH will not get a winner based on skills, but based on LUCK. It is exactly as if you were to create a Team tournament, but you cannot choose your teammate. Instead, your teammate is attributed to you by random drawing. So let's say you are rated 2500, and your team mate is rated 1200, and play on his own without playing as a teammate, how relevant will be the championship ? Clearly, the decision to have or not to have KOTH should be voted among the top 20 ranked players, not among people that never play that game, or don't know how to play the game (Or don't even understand the game). KOTH is not a variant. It is the only way to bring skills in an antichess game, because you no longer depends on luck to win the game. Might as well do an internet championship of dice rolling and see who can roll double 2 the most to crown him champion using a computer to roll your dice...
Want to make an antichess competition, make it 2 players. Not luck involved there. in 4 PC, it has to include KOTH, so only skills will prevail, not LUCK.
it is 4pc not 2 pc)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))))))))))))) haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
I mean I get it. Since no admins know how to play antichess, they want to get a competition where luck is the main factor to win instead of skills, so that every player can have a chance to play and win. Maybe one day we will have a competition where skills is involved, not luck.
There's the team championship. Make luck the main factor: Do not let players choose who they will have for teammate. Instead, let the computer randomly pick your team mate. Thereby, just like for the antichess competition, you will have the ability to give the win to the luckiest player...
Antichess is a game that unlike 2 players chess or 4 players chess does not require any skills to play or win. The reason why, is because in order to win this game, you depend 100 % of other players good will to take your pieces. For that specific reason, anyone can win, no matter how good or bad they are. If 2 players are teaming, the other 2 players are systematically doomed to 3rd and 4th place. If one player, that plays very bad, decide to target you, no matter how skilled of a player you are, you will finish 3rd, if not 4th. Therefore, antichess on its own will never be interesting. You could be the best player in the world and have your balls kicked by a 1200 rated player anytime. Not fun, not interesting, boring. I totally understand that for beginners, or low rated players, it is a good game, because they can beat anyone and learn the basics. To me, basic antichess is at chess, what Uno is at a card game; Great for toddlers and pre schoolers.
The game completely change when adding King of the Hill feature. Not because it is a fun variant, but because the entire concept of the game change. You no longer depend on other players good will to win. Skills and strategy will prevail. Only the best players will win, and more importantly, best players will never lose. This is the essence of this game. When you play chess, you expect the best players to win based on their skills, not based on luck and good will of other players.
So have your pre schoolers and toddler competition, and when enough players will have enough skills to play, make a real antichess competition, one that involve KOTH...
@Magicsteph ... If you were correct about it being 100% luck, then every player's ratings trajectory, without exception, would be a random-walk process. Mine does not resemble a random walk. To be good at 4P antichess you need to see patterns of captures that are both forcing and not forcing, and base your decisions accordingly.
@Magicsteph, I will acknowledge that great skill of this game in the long run doesn't take away from the fact that there's luck involved too. I do want to put out there this can be anyone's game potentially. I welcome both beginners and advanced players to this event. @turdmeister does have a point though.
Hi Turdmeister and e4bc4qh5qf7,
Let me ask you this : When was the last time you won 4 antichess games in a row ? Probably never, and you know why ? Not necessarily because you are bad players, but because you play basic antichess, that involve little to no skills, and luck. If you're lucky, you will win one game. Most of them, you will finish 2nd and 3rd. You will also lose some. So yes, that upcoming competition is good for you. You stand a chance. Team up together, then you probably will win the championship, because nothing will prevent you from, game wise. That's the problem. I am not saying that strategy and skills are useless. I am saying that it is not enough to win. You need luck. Therefore, no good player can be above any other one, when you reach a certain level. A level that you may have yet to reach, so that you will come up with the same conclusion.
Add king of the hill feature, and this is a complete different game. Your rating will end up exactly where your skills are. If you're good at antichess, you will quickly go above 2000. If you suck, you will stay in the 1700-1900 forever until your game improve. And you can easily win 4 or 5 games in a row, because of your skills. This is my point. I am not talking about game strategy. I am saying that luck is the main factor into winning the game when there is not definite a goal that you can reach independently from other player's good will. As you include King of the hill, you divide the luck factor by 20 or 25. There is still a little bit of luck involved, but down to 3 %, as opposed to basic antichess that has a 75 % luck factor. The competition as it comes involve a 75 % luck factor, so it is just like rolling dice, or like having a team tournament where your team mate is randomly chosen. Drop on a high rated partner, you will win, drop with a 1200 rated dummy that doesn't even listen to your advice, you will lose. This is exactly my point.
If you're rated 2500 in team, will you play a rated tournament knowing that you can end up with a 1200 rated dummy that plays on his own. Yes, maybe one game. But how many games will you stand like this until your rating drop drastically to say, you know what, it's enough. Maybe i'll stop playing.
Basic antichess is just like that. I played 20 games yesterday and lost 150 rating points because of dummies that play so bad, they drag you to 3rd or 4th with luck, and there's nothing you can do. Players that have little to no understanding of the game, and since you depend on them to win, there is nothing you can do. It is exactly as being with a 1200 rated team mate in team that plays on his own. Nothing you can do.
That does not happen with KOTH, because you can beat dummies, and you can beat team, for the simple reason that skill is the main factor of winning, not luck.
I too once thought KOTH was necessary to make the game sensible; I had convinced myself of the truth of this. But after many more games played, I no longer think so. The same mistake gets made whether it's KOTH or not ... we notice (too late) that one player is caught in a forcing line that will result in another player winning. If we had seen it soon enough, we could have disrupted the position to break the forcing line.
What does mistakes has to do with it ? If you make mistakes, that's your problem, and that's probably based on your level. You are missing out my point: I am saying that without a finite goal to reach, you depend 100 % on other players to win. When KOTH, or any other finite goal exist, you can win even though some players may team up, or make beginner's mistake that ruin your game. Therefore, best players will win based on their skills, and not so good players will lose, just like in regular 4PC games.
Hello all! Thank you to all who have participated and taken interest in the four World 4 Player Chess Championships (W4PCC) so far! I will be hosting our first ever Solo Antichess W4PCC Series starting the weekend of June 13th! This event is open to anyone as long as the player is not a secondary account / cheater and is not under a ban for 4 player chess. There is no need to have played an X number of games anymore. However, we should note that all games played this Championship are rated. There is also no need to pre-register as the Qualifying Tournaments for this Championship are semi-automatic and you can just click play or join on the Solo Antichess W4PCC Qualifier Arena when it is available.
For HOW TO JOIN THE QUALIFIER ARENAS, please refer to post #11 on this page.
Format: Winner-Takes-All (Solo) Antichess, rated & anonymous, normal starting position, no king of the hill or other variations, 1:00 + 0:05 increment, pawns promote to the 8th rank as Any piece.
Qualifiers - Weeks 1 & 2: First place of each arena will advance to the Championship Preliminaries but must agree to play during the time posted for that Division. Players are allowed to join multiple qualifier tournaments, even if they already won, but if you won multiple, you must notify me which Preliminary you want to play in by Monday 20:59 UTC following that weekend which one you intend to play; otherwise you will be assumed to play during the first Preliminary you qualified for.
Preliminaries - Week 3: Single-Elimination Bracket and the first player to win 4 times will advance to the Championship Final
Finals - Week 4: The first player to win 4 times will be our Solo Antichess W4PCC Champion!
BASIC ELIGIBILITY RULES FOR ALL PARTICIPANTS:
1. A player must be clear of cheating, sportsmanship, or rule infraction bans.
2. SINGLE ACCOUNT ELIGIBILITY: If a player is seen multi-accounting, he could be disqualified from the Championship, especially in an extreme case, and at best, all other accounts will be banned from 4 player chess play and the main could be potentially play banned for a period of time. To clarify chess.com’s multi-accounting rules, all players must use only ONE account on this site, EXCEPT for Titled players, who can have one Titled account and one non-titled account (but cannot simultaneously use both).
The winner of this championship may receive prize money, and the championship finals may be streamed on chesstv, but please note that both of these are not guaranteed. We have had success with that during our championships so far. I will update this statement when we have our finals schedule in place.
There will be 16 qualifying tournaments during the weekends of June 13-14 and June 20-21 in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). 1 tournament winner each qualifies. The second place player for that tournament will be the alternate in the case the winner of that tournament withdraws, and so forth. Single elimination.
Division 1 - Winners of each Qualifier Arena in Division 2 must agree to play a First-to-4 Match on Saturday, June 27 at 00:00 UTC. The following Arena Qualifiers will take place to feed into this Division:
Qualifier Arena #1: Saturday, June 13 00:00 UTC
Qualifier Arena #5: Sunday, June 14 00:00 UTC
Qualifier Arena #9: Saturday, June 20 00:00 UTC
Qualifier Arena #13: Sunday, June 21 00:00 UTC
Division 2 - Winners of each Qualifier Arena in Division 2 must agree to play a First-to-4 Match on Saturday, June 27 at 11:00 UTC. The following Arena Qualifiers will take place to feed into this Division:
Qualifier Arena #2: Saturday, June 13 11:00 UTC
Qualifier Arena #6: Sunday, June 14 11:00 UTC
Qualifier Arena #10: Saturday, June 20 11:00 UTC
Qualifier Arena #14: Sunday, June 21 11:00 UTC
Division 3 - Winners of each Qualifier Arena in Division 2 must agree to play a First-to-4 Match on Saturday, June 27 at 16:00 UTC. The following Arena Qualifiers will take place to feed into this Division:
Qualifier Arena #3: Saturday, June 13 16:00 UTC
Qualifier Arena #7: Sunday, June 14 16:00 UTC
Qualifier Arena #11: Saturday, June 20 16:00 UTC
Qualifier Arena #15: Sunday, June 21 16:00 UTC
Division 4 - Winners of each Qualifier Arena in Division 2 must agree to play a First-to-4 Match on Saturday, June 27 at 21:00 UTC. The following Arena Qualifiers will take place to feed into this Division:
Qualifier Arena #4: Saturday, June 13 21:00 UTC
Qualifier Arena #8: Sunday, June 14 21:00 UTC
Qualifier Arena #12: Saturday, June 20 21:00 UTC
Qualifier Arena #16: Sunday, June 21 21:00 UTC
Week 3: Championship Prelims - First to win 3 games will advance to the Final.
Division 1 plays Saturday, June 27 at 00:00 UTC - Proposed: Saturday, June 27th
Division 2 plays Saturday, June 27 at 11:00 UTC - Proposed: Saturday, June 27th
Division 3 plays Saturday, June 27 at 16:00 UTC - Proposed: Saturday, June 27th
Division 4 plays Saturday, June 27 at 21:00 UTC - Proposed: Saturday, June 27th
Please note that the Championship Preliminary Rounds are no longer automatic and will require the players to accept an invite from an administrator before 15 minutes after the hour. Players must rematch within 5 minutes unless a break is requested. Any later than these noted amounts of time may result in a disqualification / no-show. Remember that you agreed to play during the same time of day in which you qualified, and you should plan up to two hours of play during the Prelims if you qualify.
Week 4: Finals - Proposed: June 28 - July 3, TBD
The first to win 4 (four) games will be our first ever World 4 Player Chess Solo Antichess Champion! These finals could be streamed on chesstv and will be scheduled based on negotiation between contestants. The winner may receive a prize, but there is no guarantee. The event will most likely be about 3 hours on average, including breaks.
Replacements/Subs:
Replacements/Subs WILL compete for the Title. For the preliminaries, it will be the next qualifier for the tournament in which the withdrawn player qualified, and then the highest rated player online at the time. For the finals, it will be the next in line for the division that the player represented, then the highest ranking of players in other divisions, then the highest rated player online at the time.
A handbook will be posted soon with the updates in our Championship Rules, but the qualifiers are Arenas and you may latejoin or leave those as you please. Our handbook for previous championships: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Lfsyyr3p3jGfC1CQ6BXqyi26Ovva_xamFIjq-xHN29c/edit
Please provide feedback in this forum. Adjustments to the structure can be made based on community feedback and approval by multiple admins.
Best of luck in the Qualifiers / Championship, and happy losing!
- Luke
e4bc4qh5qf7
Tournament Director
Assistant TD's / referees TBD