Great article, thanks for writing it! I agree with all of your points.
Four Player Chess Strategic Elements
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I just started building my pawns on Queen side a wall upward to continue for promos and lol notice the opponents following suit.
Ive already won either 3 or 4 doing it this way.
agree with most of your points.i dont think that you should avoid to exchange knight with bishop.
Oct 12, 2017
0
#5
The bishop is almost double the value of a knight, taking a bishop from either of the sideplayers, frees up a colour complex for your pieces. Therefore grabbing the right bishop is a big advantage most of the time.
Oct 12, 2017
0
#6
Well said. Most of these suggestions can be found on this forum (in Martin0's topics and comments), but you also added some new points. By the way, Martin0 used "the player at your right" instead of "the player that moves three after you" which is shorter and easier to remember 
Don't focus on one player
More topic to cover:
- Castling. Should you castle at all? If yes, to the left or right? Early? Later? Does it depend on what other players do?
- Should you rush to get the 2nd queen from the very first moves? Does it depend on the colour of your pieces? Does it depend on what other players do?
- Should you consider the ratings of your opponents? What to wait from lower rated players?
- Should you capture a king (+20 currently) with your queen (9 points) if another player will capture your queen after that?
- Should you resign before your king is checkmated? If yes, when and why?
- Three players are left in the game. Which player should you help? The one having more points? The one having stronger army? Any other criterion?
I can not answer most of these questions, by the way. And today I have 1820+ rating and the 2nd place in the Top 10 (at least it was the 2nd place an hour ago). The most difficult question (for me) is "Who should I attack if there are 2 players left. Or maybe I should passively wait?" Sometimes there is no choice (especially if the army is weak), but most of the times you should make your choice and have a plan "B" in case the 3rd player considers you as an enemy, not as a temporary ally.
P.S.
I agree that it is a good idea to trade your knight for a bishop.
Bab,
Some great questions. But until we have some answers I don't see how I can put them in the paper
As for trading a knight for a bishop:
My view is that while it may make sense tactically in a given situation (as, indeed, almost any trade can do, eh?) it is not as a general rule, strategically good: because you are losing a knight, your one opponent is losing a bishop, but your other two opponents aren't losing anything.
The easiest way to see this would be at the very end of the game. Let's say everyone had one pawn, one knight, and one bishop. If you trade your knight for red's bishop, you now have just a bishop, he has just a knight... but the other two players have BOTH.
I think many of the advice's here are good and many are similar to mine. I try not to cover topics that depend too much on the situation. When it comes to castling for example, I would say you can not use a general rule where your king is safe. However if you are choosing between castling left or right, then castling right is often (not always) safer than castling left because of the positioning of players (and assuming there's no major difference between your opponents). This is not to say that castling right is always correct or it being necessary to castle at all.
I will try to cover a topic when it comes to elimination of players and which players gain from it and such in the near future. One thing I will say is that it can sometimes be very beneficial for you to let someone else get the checkmate. It depends on things like players abilities to promote pawns (easier with the player gone?), material of all players, your king safety from an attack by the eliminated player and points from all players. Letting another player get 20 points is not always a big deal (Even if it in many cases, really is a big deal).
I really find that given we had 1 additional minute it would be much more fair to many just beginning this and as well due it's so very new because your time so very easily get's removed in many different scenarios like not realizing your turn to move and placing so much focus all areas though perhaps the slightest distraction as you're playing and you missed where the last player moves his piece and what he moved. Yes, I know it 'lightly glows' so you are to see where the move was but there again eats the little minute you have.
2 minutes definitely isn't asking too much, and most assuredly sensible.
yeah... sorry a tad off topic lol
Oct 13, 2017
0
#10
its covered in Martins post but I would add trading piece's with people on your side is much more desirable then the person across from you (*at least until your down to 3 players) and on same note taking out one player on the side gives you a much better chance to win vs having the player taken out across from you first.
Oct 13, 2017
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#11
ThePEPSIChallenge wrote:
... like not realizing your turn to move
Use headphones. Seriously. There is a distinctive sound at the start of your move.
Oct 13, 2017
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#12
VAOhlman wrote:
As for trading a knight for a bishop:
...
The easiest way to see this would be at the very end of the game. Let's say everyone had one pawn, one knight, and one bishop. If you trade your knight for red's bishop, you now have just a bishop, he has just a knight... but the other two players have BOTH.
Well, the endgame is a special case. Like in classic chess. You should look at the situation. The pawns become very important. So it may be beneficial to trade your bishop (5 points) for a pawn (1) to prevent its "queening". I did it multiple times. The same with knights and rooks.
You should look at the particular situation to decide if the trade is profitable for you. Mind the points and places. If you need only a few points (to be the 3rd instead of the 4th) then even trading your bishop for a knight can be beneficial. Again, this is during the endgame.
Oct 13, 2017
0
#13
This is one of the safest ways to castle:
Green can not use his pawns to break the yellow castle. And yellow can break the green castle only by breaking his own one.
P.S. I used this applet: http://zoldsakk.hu/en/game.php?try=9fside to set up this position.
@BabYagun yellow is ultra safe, but green is not. Yellow can play Nk2 and attack greens's pawn, and green has no good way to protect it. So green's last move (short castling) was a mistake.
Oct 13, 2017
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#15
Overall I agree. Green king can go to m4 in case yellow attacks right now. The last green move was a mistake, because I was going to show the pawn structure, not the safe order of the moves. And, first of all, from the yellow's point of view.
The rough draft of the idea is: If your king's castle is near your neighbor's castle, it is more safe. Especially if that neighbor is at your right side. And if you block his pawns like this picture shows you get even better position.
However, all the castles have some holes. For example, green can move his knight to m2 and then wait for some critical moment and move the knight to k3 with a check. So, if the knight goes to m2 it is good to move the yellow king to k1 or k2 as a prophylaxis.
Green would be safer if he had pushed his bishop's pawn before developing the knight. The green pawn on k6 would block the black diagonal towards his king, making m4 a safe square for the king, and could be easily protected. Additionally his king could get lateral protection by his queen, if yellow managed to become dangerous. Now green king's only defenders for the rest of the game will be the bishop and the knight, that can do so much to protect him.
I'm exploring a possible addition to the list above, based on previous comments:
- In four player chess, castling is a tactical, not a strategic decision.
Oct 13, 2017
0
#18
I think you are cutting this one short. Both castles are safe, green can protect, and long term yellow has slightly more space. It all depends on the rest of the board, which side to prefer. Green was able to block the path towards yellow, which can be worth it. This configuration is not forced though, since both players must cooperate to make this happen.
I've just started at four player chess, but having watched a few grand masters flounder around and say 'I don't know what I'm doing', I figured that the field was pretty open. I've written up a few four player strategies, and would love to get feedback:
Four player chess Strategic Elements
-Don't trade
Trading weakens you and the opponent you just took, leaving the other two players stronger. Even 'trading up' will weaken you. Example:
You take a bishop for a knight. Great trade, right?? Let's do the math:
Before your trade:
(You) Red: 30 points in pieces
Blue: 30 points in pieces
Green: 30 points in pieces
Yellow: 30 points in pieces
After the trade:
(You) Red: 27 points in pieces
Blue: 25 points in pieces
Green: 30 points in pieces
Yellow: 30 points in pieces
You see? While you gained two points *against Blue*, you lost three points against Green AND Yellow!! You also gained five points toward your final score, but few games are decided by so small a margin.
-Don't leave your pieces en prise
In ordinary chess you can say, "Hey, if he takes me here I can just take him back." Two problems with that in four player chess:
1) It is a trade, thus bad for you and
2) In the meantime, after he 'takes me here', someone else might do something I need to respond to! So I might not be able to, or willing to, 'just take him back'.
- Don't focus on one player
You have this great attack going against red. Two moves from now, he is toast, checkmate...
Except while you were looking that way, Blue snuck in and started attacking you!!
- Gang up
When you see a player being attacked, check to see if you can use the tempo he needs to defend himself in order for you to take a piece. This is particularly true when he is checked, and when you move before him. You might just be able to gobble a piece for free.
It is less dramatic but also true that when a player is busy fighting off an attack by one player they are simply more vulnerable to attacks elsewhere.
-Balance the power
The opposite of 'ganging up': when a player is attacking another player the attacking player might be 'vulnerable' to your attack... he might be willing to sacrifice the bishop you are attacking in order to gain a checkmate, for example.
And, hopefully obviously, you don't want that other player to do well
-Don't forget turn order, the player that moves right after you is much 'stronger' than the player that plays three later
The player that moves right after you can respond right away to your attacks. The player that moves three after you has two other opponents who might do things that they have to respond to.
-Defense, defense, defense
An attack is an attack against one, a good defense protects against all.
-Diagonals are fantastically important
Bishops are arguably more important than rooks, as a well placed bishop attacks two opponents at once, from the safety of the home squares, whereas your rooks have to move out into the board to do the same thing.
-Get in on the mate!
When you see one player start to line another player up for a mate, get your pieces lined up to cover the area where the mate will be takign place. It might very well happen that what is one move away from mate for Red, might be a mate you can do *right now*!
One really important strategy is to cover the 'mating square'. Often an opponent will chose to move there, and get the mate, even with a queen, even if it means giving the queent to you! They get twenty points, after all! So why not you get nine at the same time!
-Don't let others in on your mate!
Don't set up a mating situation that someone else can take advantage of! You get Red's king backed up to one file... and yellow swoops in with his castle and gets the mate! You might even need to back off to prevent a different opponent from mating.
-Knights are best at home.
Knights move really slowly compared to bishops, queens, and rooks. So use them mostly for home defense duties, or to wrap around the corner and go after a castled king.