Watch The 4 Player Chess Championship Sunday
This Sunday, two teams will fight for the inaugural championship of Four Player Chess, a new Chess.com variant where each game is contested by four sets of pieces.
- Watch the Four Player Chess championship this Sunday, Feb. 17, live on Twitch.tv/chess at 9 a.m. PST / 12 p.m. EST.
- New to Four Player Chess? Read our guide to the game for rules and strategy, and then jump in to play.
The two finalist teams won their way through a field of 16 in earlier play to reach the finals. The championship will be determined by two sessions of play in a best-of-12 format. The first team to reach 6.5 points will be declared the champions, and the first six games are this Sunday. The final six games will be scheduled after consulting with the finalists.
The top-seeded duo from the 16-team bracket delivered the chalk and reached the finals. GM Dmitry Kononenko (@valger) of Ukraine partners with the Russian chess author Oleg Barantsev (@Oleg_Barantsev) to form a Four Player Chess powerhouse.
These two will battle the third seed of the tournament, a Polish team of GM Tomasz Warakomski (@Wraku89) with FM Wojciech Reza (@rezacz).
In this new variant of multiplayer chess, the finalists have explored and improved opening theory. The two team captains, GM Valger and FM Rezacz, even have Four Player Chess openings named after them:
"The Valger Defense": 1. h3 d6 h12 NL9
"The Icystun-Rezacz Defense": 1. h3 c7 h12 L10
The championship match between these two heavyweight teams will be covered live by three popular Chess.com streamers and commenters. WFM Alexandra Botez will helm the live broadcast and be joined by GM Jon Ludvig Hammer and Wouter "Bikfoot" Bik.
These three chess personalities will comment on all the Four Player Chess championship action while explaining the rules and basic strategies to the audience.
Championship Format:
- During the first 12 games, team A will go first in game 1, second in games 2-3, first in games 4-5, second in games 6-7, and so on until going first in game 12.
- After odd-numbered games, players will rematch each other.
- After even-numbered games, the tournament director will rotate the players' colors (red player becomes yellow, yellow becomes red, etc.).
- A tiebreak (if needed) will be played in games 13-17. Game 17 is a sudden-death game, where a draw goes to the player that moved last before the draw.
More Information:
- Four Player Chess Championship Information / Results (must join club to read):
- Four Player Championship Rules
Watch, Learn and Play:
