The goal of the administrators of four-player chess is to provide an enjoyable experience for all players. We have young players, older players, and players from all over the world who speak all sorts of languages. Thus while we wish to allow everyone their freedom of speech in chat, this is a private organization and not a public forum. The following rules of decorum should thus be always followed during chat in four player chess, particularly when playing, and particularly in rated games:
Offensive Chat
Keeping in mind that we have players that speak all sort of languages, and who are young and old; please keep your language clear and decent. Foul language should be avoided, including idioms that might be perceived as foul language. Using *** or spaces between letters to avoid spelling out a word/phrase is a good indication that you should not be using that word/phrase in chat.
It is forbidden to castigate another player based on their status as a new player (or old player, for that matter), the country they come from, the language they speak, etc.
Highly Offensive Chat
It is forbidden to use four player chess chat for sexual activity: including both sexual solicitation and sexual harassment.
It is forbidden to use or hint at racial or religious slurs in chat.
It is forbidden to ‘dox’ other players: ie reveal or discuss their private/personal information: such as where they live, who their spouse is, what their political affiliation is, etc.
Teaming Chat
It is forbidden to request or accept a request to team in four player FFA or solo chess. This applies for a given move or for the whole game. It also includes suicide talk, such as, “I’m so mad at red I’m just going to go whole hog against him for the rest of the game.” (It isn’t forbidden to be mad at red, or to go against him. It is only forbidden from announcing that in chat, and thus giving the other players the advantage of knowing your moves will be against red.)
It is forbidden to suggest a move in FFA; even if it is not a matter of teaming. This includes pointing things out, such as ‘Hey, Red’s queen is just hanging there’. Why don’t you resign?’ Or ‘claim victory’ are allowed but not encouraged.
It is allowed to say ‘It’s your turn!” Or “Hurry up and move!”. Moves may be fully discussed after they are no longer relevant, particularly after the game.
Spamming Chat
To ‘spam’ chat means to post multiple meaningless chat messages. It is very annoying and distracting to other players. If someone is doing it, mute them. Please only report them if they are following you from game to game and doing it repetitively.
Reporting Chat
The first step when a player is being annoying should be to mute them.
The first step when a player is chatting illegally should be to the /stop-chat command immediately. Do not let illegal chat continue.
Do not threaten to report another player. If you believe that they have chatted illegally you should report them, but you should not use the threat of a report. If you merely wish to warn them about illegal chat, in an effort to inform and get them to stop, then you should merely say, “That kind of chat is illegal, please stop.” Instead of saying ‘that kind of chat’ it might helpful to be more specific: “suggesting teaming is illegal”, “suggesting moves is illegal”.
It is forbidden to use your relationship with an administrator to threaten another player or to discourage them from reporting you.
Please don’t use the reason ‘other’ when reporting chat. Chat violations fall under ‘illegal’ or ‘offensive’.
Turnabout may be fair play, but it doesn't work here. If someone else is swearing at you, or otherwise being offensive, don't be offensive back. And especially don't then report it! Cause I will chat ban both of you!
Last updated: May 19, 2023
Game Rules
Pieces move the same way as in regular chess and castling is also the same. The game may be played with or without en-passant captures.
Teams
Free-For-All (FFA)
Rules of Conduct
Breaking any of the aforementioned rules may result in a temporary or permanent chat- or play-ban or even a club-ban, depending on the case.
Reporting Violations
How to report?
The preferred way to report a player is by using the Report option from the player's info pop-up window. This can be done during a game, after a game has finished or later from the Archive by clicking the player's name and subsequently clicking the Report icon, "(!)" (see image below).
When reporting a player from within a game, the following dialog window will be shown:
Check the box(es) of the player(s) involved in the rule violation and select the appropriate report reason. (Note: do NOT send separate reports for each player.) Optionally, use the message field to give further details related to the case. When choosing "Other" as reason, please make sure to specify a reason in the message field.
It is also possible to report a player from outside a game, in which case the dialog window will look as follows:
Please, only do this if the report is not related to a specific game. Otherwise, report a player from within the game (either live or from the Archive) or at least mention the game number(s), such that admins can review the game(s).
(Alternatively, reports can be sent the old way, using the Report Abuse option from the Help menu. In that case, please, do not forget to mention the game number(s) in your report.)
When (not) to report?
Most reports that come in actually turn out to be unjustified and are rejected after review. Unjustified reports not only give admins more work, but it also means that it takes more time before justified reports are handled and acted upon. Therefore, please make sure your report is justified before you send it. If you are found sending too many unjustified reports, you may even get a report timeout, meaning you cannot send reports for some time.
So, which cases are report-worthy and which are not?
In the cases marked with (*), please check multiple games first in the Archive to confirm your suspicion before you send a report. In these cases admins will NOT take action against players based on just a single game.
How to use the Archive?
The Archive can be found in the menu on the right, next to the Leaderboard (see image below). In the Archive you can look up all previously played games of all players.
The Archive can be a very useful aid to check if a player is breaking rules on a regular basis or if it was just a one-time violation. You can refine your search by applying filters, using the Advanced search option, which can be accessed by clicking the icon on the right (see images below).
You can specify a second player to list the games that two players played together. A quick look at their shared game history may reveal whether they frequently play together and collude or not. If your suspicion is confirmed, you can send your report, including any game numbers of other games to support your case.
To quickly go through multiple archived games, you can use the Previous/Next arrows in the bottom right corner (see image below). This way you can easily find out if, for example, a player frequently uses abusive language, spams or abandons, aborts or prematurely resigns games.
The number of aborted games is also shown when hovering the mouse over the number of games in a player's info pop-up window.
Any help is appreciated!
Keep in mind that 4-Player Chess is moderated by volunteers who dedicate some of their spare time to keeping the games free from cheaters and unwanted behaviour. Any help is always welcome, but we ask that you please only send reports of which you are certain they are justified and do not report every single minor offence. That way we can focus on the serious violations and keep 4-Player Chess enjoyable for everyone!