Four Chess (Chess Variation)

Game components and basic setup

In the chess variant Versciaco , also four chess or four persons chess called four players are playing on an oversized board, consisting of 8 × 8 fields, on each side of the board , three rows are appended, so that the board in the form of a Plus has. The attraction of this variant lies in team play, although a non-team variant is also playable, in which each player plays against all others until all opponents are checkmated. In the team variant, two players each play in a team (white and beige against black and brown). The aim is to checkmate both kings of the opposing team.

Play and control options

Diagram of the basic line-up in Four Chess

It is pulled clockwise. The pieces move according to the rules of normal chess . If a player cannot move because of mate or stalemate , it is the next player's turn. If a party has only one opponent in mate and the other opponent in stalemate, the game ends in a draw.

The remaining pieces of the mated player will be:

taken off the board
added to the checkmate player's army
frozen and thus no longer cover, cannot be captured, do not give a check and can move again after the checkmate has been canceled.

Special rules for farmers

Pawns convert on the opponent's last row.
Pawns convert on the last row of the ally.
Pawns can skip allied pawns.

Mate time

Two times are possible here:

Immediately mate

If I mate the player to my right, his pieces are instantly frozen. So I raise z. B. also immediately possible chess that he would have otherwise given my partner or other players.

Matt when it's his turn again

In that case, his pieces still work until it's his turn again. If I mate the player to my right, his pieces still give check or cover his partner's pieces. The other players can also capture pieces from him, since the checkmate only takes effect when it is his turn and only then does his pieces freeze. Such moves are called vultures or corpses.

Repealed mate

If a player comes out of checkmate, he must respond to check bids first. If such a player z. B. could capture a strong piece of the left opponent, but is in check by a piece of the right opponent, he must first react to the check, even if his partner could remove this check before the right player's turn. If a player comes off mate during play, e.g. B. when his partner helps, his characters have the status "thawed". These can then only be beaten after the defrosted player has drawn again for the first time. Otherwise it would be too easy to cannibalize the mated player round by round, as he always has to react to the chess first and cannot save his attacked pieces.

Beat king?

It can happen that a player can capture a king without the attacked player being in check before his last move. If z. For example, if the north player moves a piece, thereby releasing a chess from a piece from the south player to the west player, then it is the south player's turn before the west player has to react to the chess. Capturing the opposing king then only makes sense in the variant in which the pieces of the player who has been mated in principle are removed from the board or added to their own army. In the variant in which the pieces freeze, capturing the king is prohibited. Such times can be used well to win a piece.

Team variant

The most interesting is the variant in which the pieces of the mated player are frozen, as he has the chance to re-enter the game if the mate is canceled. In this variant you cannot increase the number of chess bids that affect your partner by moving your own pieces. However, it is possible to swap one chess for another by z. B. the south player moves his rook, thereby releasing a deduction chess on his partner, but only if he removes another chess on his partner (e.g. from an opposing queen) by this move. This means that the number of chess bids his partner is exposed to remains constant.

Hit the partner's pieces?

There is also the variant of the game in which you can capture pieces from your partner. This allows z. For example, clear pawns standing in the way from the field without the partner having to sacrifice a move.

Four-person chess of the London Four-Handed Chess Club

In the last century there was the Four-Handed Chess Club in London , in which a variant of the four- chess described in 1858 was maintained.

In this variant, the two team players white and blue or black and red sit opposite each other, and the game is played clockwise. The respective team partners are not allowed to consult and cannot beat each other. A pawn may only transform if he manages to get to the opponent's back row, otherwise he runs back when he reaches the last row. Pieces of a mated position are frozen and are inviolable as long as he is in a mated position. However, the player who canceled the checkmate can capture a piece in the same move. The aim of the game is to mate both opposing kings.

strategy

In comparison to normal chess, runners are to be rated much more strongly due to the larger playing field and should not be exchanged for knights. The development of pieces is even more important than in normal chess. Without developed characters, you cannot help your partner. A tower in the middle of the board affects two opponents at the same time.

The “attack to the right” is often promising when it is your turn. Your own partner should then also attack the same player, so that he has to react to two threats at the same time. This is often not possible and leads to loss of figures.

An opponent can easily be mated with two queens, so that you can then pounce on the remaining opponent together with four towers and four runners. He is then inferior anyway, since his opponents always have one move more than him.

Special features of the implementation as a chess program

Players and characters

The four required colors can easily be replaced by cardinal points in the program and the correct colors can then be assigned in the GUI.

board

160 fields are legal. In addition to the pieces on the board and the pieces captured by each player, the following things must be saved:

which player is to move
the potential en passer field of every player
Castling opportunities for every player
the status of each player (mate, stalemate, thawed, ok)

characters

A piece has a color, a type and pawns also have a move direction. So you need 2 bits for the color and 4 bits for the figure type.

Train options

In the case of runners and women, it must also be checked whether they cross a prohibited field (the 3 × 3 blocks at the corners of the original 14 × 14 square). Such moves are not allowed.