4-Handed Chess

Yo Batgirl. Think it may be the same game. Two teams of 2 players, one with white, one black, playing against one of the opposing team. If you capture one of your opponent's pieces, then your partner gets that piece, and can put it anywhere on the board ( no checks allowed) instead of making a move. First team to get a checkmate on either board wins, or one gets a win on time.  Used to play it at 5 min for all moves as a junior, with two well known names, and one who have been well known if he hadn't come up with the silly idea of earning lots of money instead of wasting his time playing chess!!!  Remember my 'partner' - sadly no longer with us - with tears of laughter rolling down his face as my opponent retreated all his pieces to the back rank so that I couldn't capture anything. Happy times.

Apologies jj2050. was typing as your post appeared on my screen!! Please explain bughouse ( never played it) so I can understand the difference. Cheers!!

Simaginfan.

From the descriptions Bughouse and Exchange Chess sound pretty much the same to me.

It is really fun! My results:

1st: 3

2nd: 5

3rd: 3

4th: 4

Yeah, sound like the same game, but without checks, and we played it at 5 mins a move. Thanks guys!!

The four player chess is fun. Tactics are much heavier than regular chess. Pieces of an expired player remain on the board and become part of the terrain, getting in your way, or creating buffers of protection for you. Two players sometimes gang up on a third player. Queening your pawns becomes a very important part of the game, just like regular chess. Sometimes attacking someone early is a bad idea, because sometimes they will attack back because they are mad at you rather than because it is to their advantage to do so. When you see two players destroying each other, it is sometimes more effective to sit back and do your own thing while they deplete their armies. Things like this means that there is a lot more psychology going on than in regular chess. King safety is more important in four-player chess, because there are three moves before you get to move again. If the person to your left checks you, the others can take your pieces without you being able to take back, because you have to deal with the check. The chat feature becomes a big part of the game, because players will form alliances via chat. The chat if available for all four to see, no private chat. However, any player can shut down chat for that particular game. In short, it's a lot of fun, but cannot supplant regular chess, because since two players can gang up on a third, there is a loss of control that would otherwise always favor the stronger player. At times, it becomes unfair. But so what, it's still enjoyable.