New Chess Variant... Actually, More Like A Variant Of A Variant

This would only work well if there is always consensus on the best move in a team.

Suppose I and vickalan are a team and I follow a certain strategy or tactic with "my" set of pieces and vickalan disagrees and makes a move with "my" set of pieces destroying my plans?

I think it would be better if each player has only his own set of pieces, but the two team members are allowed to coordinate with each other.

vickalan, you know my "backyard" strategy and the basic layout is not symmetrical in this regard.

It's about a "backyard" strategy!

The point is (as an example), Q (18,1) is blocked in both diagonals (11, -6) and (24.-5), while Q (4,1) is blocked only at (9, -4) and the diagonal in direction (-3, -6) is free to infinity.

The symmetry between black and white is okay overall, but the team players left and right have no symmetrical position. Of course you can do it this way and maybe it will be interesting if the left and right team partners have a different starting position backwards.

But I think the left set has the advantage: The king is protected from a backyard attack with pawns and the queen has an open diagonal. The right set has an open diagonal for a King Attack and the Queen backward-diagonal is blocked by Pawns,

@McGoohan, that's a very good observation and I'm glad you noticed it. I do agree that all four armies should have symmetrical abilities at the start of the game.

I think one way to solve it is simply switch the king and queen of one army. I showed it here for the Black side (white is still the "old" way). Is this better? I'm willing to make any adjustments, to make sure the starting position has the best symmetry and is the best for interesting play and strategy.

Also, I like Luke_Hands' idea for castling. I'll make a diagram tonight to make sure the rules for castling are clear.

Any other ideas or comments before final board is set up?

What if we made a tourney for 4-player chess?

 Same Color as the Bulldog 4-Player Bulldog

Yes, I'll also flip the king and queen for White's right-side army too. I just didn't do it yet to make it easy to see the difference.

I made the diagram below to show three examples of castling. Let me know if it's ok. Within his own army the king castles short side 3 squares, or long side 4 squares - always to the square where the guard started. If castling to his teammate's army, the king also finishes on the square where a guard started. In all cases, the rook finishes adjacent to the king.

Also, thanks for colorizing the chess pieces. I'll place them in their starting positions and in a few days I think we can start.

I'm on hitthepin's team in 4-player bulldog. How about here Luke_Hands and I are on a team? Our opponent is McGoohan and hitthepin?

Ok! We'll Start When Everyone's Ready!

When we play, I'll also update the diagram when everyone has moved.

I think most of the questions are soon settled and after that we can make a new thread for the game. And I agree with the proposed teams.

One more question: taking your allies pieces are allowed? I am of the opinion that it should be allowed, because it can make sense in certain constellations.

And the two team members are allowed to coordinate with each other via PM?

For me it's just kind of illogical if we have four colors, that you can't take all the other colors. Otherwise it's actually a game of white versus black and the team members take turns making a move on the left and right sides.

Honestly this is the part that is tough to decide. I don't think it matters too much if you can capture your teammate's pieces. Either way works.

But every player should be able to move only his own pieces (like four separate armies, each with their own commander).

The tough part is if communicating by PM is allowed. In bulldog we didn't allow it. It can get interesting because you hope your teammate will find good moves, but if you see a trap you can't warn him - he might just blunder and you can't do anything about it.

I might prefer to play with communication allowed. But this can cause the game to go slower. (that's ok with me). What do you guys think?

Btw, I don't mid if this game goes slowly, and takes half a year to finish. That might make it one of the grandest chess games ever played: An infinite board, four armies, and 152 pieces. This could be one of the most epic games I've ever played - assuming the moves don't suck!😋