Four-handed chess
Encyclopedia
Four-handed chess is a chess variant
, which is typically played with four people. It is played on a special board, which is made of standard 8x8 board with an additional 3 rows of 8 cells extending from each side. Four sets of different colored pieces are needed to play this game. Four way chess follows the same basic rules as regular two way chess. There are many different rule variations of this game. Most variants, however, share the same board and similar piece setup.
s are checkmate
d. If only one can be checkmated, the game is a draw.
Chess variant
A chess variant is a game related to, derived from or inspired by chess. The difference from chess might include one or more of the following:...
, which is typically played with four people. It is played on a special board, which is made of standard 8x8 board with an additional 3 rows of 8 cells extending from each side. Four sets of different colored pieces are needed to play this game. Four way chess follows the same basic rules as regular two way chess. There are many different rule variations of this game. Most variants, however, share the same board and similar piece setup.
Team
The most common form of play is two vs. two in which allied pieces cannot eliminate each other, but help the others in defense and offense. The allied players sit across from each other and help checkmate the people to the left and right of them. The game is over when both opposing kingKing (chess)
In chess, the king is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that its escape is not possible . If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be...
s are checkmate
Checkmate
Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...
d. If only one can be checkmated, the game is a draw.
Singles
Singles is substantially harder than team play. In this method, each player can attack any of the other three players and vice versa. Once a player is checkmated, the checkmated player can either remove their pieces from the board, or the person that checkmated can use the remaining pieces during his/her turn. Play continues until only one player is left.Game rules
- Players can only move their chess pieces on their turn.
- If a player is placed in check, that player must wait until their designated turn before that player can respond to the threat.
- Pawns move forward only, unless attacking in a diagonal forward manner.
- In the event a pawn reaches the King's row to the left, right or directly across, that pawn shall receive all the privileges of a pawn reaching King's row during a traditional chess game (i.e. bringing backPromotion (chess)Promotion is a chess rule describing the transformation of a pawn that reaches its eighth rank into the player's choice of a queen, knight, rook, or bishop of the same color . The new piece replaces the pawn on the same square and is part of the move. Promotion is not limited to pieces that have...
a queen (most commonly), a rook, a bishop, or a knight).
External links
- Four-player Chess at BoardGameGeekBoardGameGeekBoardGameGeek is a website that was founded in January 2000 by Scott Alden and Derk Solko as a resource for the board gaming hobby. The database holds reviews, articles, and session reports for over 45,000 different games, expansions, and designers. BoardGameGeek includes German-style board games,...
- Four Handed Chess I, II and III from chessvariants.org
- Four-handed Chess by Capt. George Hope Verney
- Free online version (Chesapeake Four-handed Chess)