Four Player Chess Rules
There are 2 main variations of 4 Player Chess (4PC): Teams and Free-for-All.
Teams
Gameplay begins with the Red player. Clockwise move order: Red, Blue, Yellow, Green.
Your teammate is the player across from you.
You cannot capture your teammate's pieces.
Pawns promote on your 11th rank.
Checkmate only happens when the checkmated player's turn is reached.
The first team to checkmate an enemy player wins!
Stalemate is a Draw.
A player that resigns or times out on their first move will lose some rating, and the game will be aborted.
A disconnected player has 60 seconds to reconnect before being forfeit on time.
Rightclick+drag to draw arrows. Your teammate can see your arrows and you can see theirs!
Click anywhere on the board to clear the arrows. Shift+click to clear only your own arrows.
It is recommended to review the Strategy Tips For Teams.
It is also recommended to join the 4 Player Chess Club.
Good luck!
Free-for-All (FFA)
Watch video
The goal is to finish with the most points of any player.
Points may be earned in the following ways:
Checkmating an opponent: +20 points
• Stalemating yourself +20
• Capturing active (colored) pieces:
Pawns +1, 1-point Queens +1
Knights +3, Bishops +5, Rooks +5, Queens +9,
Kings +20, Spare kings +3
• Checking two players simultaneously:
with a Queen: +1, otherwise +5
• Checking three players simultaneously:
with a Queen: +5, otherwise +20
Pawns will promote on your 8th rank.
Pieces become “dead” (grey) when a player is eliminated. Capturing dead pieces does not award any points.
Gameplay begins with the Red player. Clockwise move order: Red, Blue, Yellow, Green.
The game is finished when three players have been eliminated.
When a player resigns or times out, their army will become “dead” but their King remains "live" and will continue to move at random until checkmated or stalemated. Points for stalemated resigned kings are shared.
The last remaining player will be given +20 (or 40) for each live king (except his own) left on the board.
In case of insufficient material, 3-fold repetition or the 50-move rule, the remaining players receive +10 points each.
Total points do not directly affect rating calculations, only final placement does.
If a resign (or timeout) occurs before all players have made at least 3 moves and no one has points yet, and the player that resigned wasn't in check, the game will be aborted and he or she will lose rating. (For some variants and bullet games: first move only.)
A disconnected player has 60 seconds to reconnect before being forfeit on time.
IMPORTANT: Players must think independently. It is prohibited to suggest moves and/or coordinate attacks using chat (or other means of communication) during FFA 4PC games! Also players may not discuss blunders which can be fixed, but may discuss what already happened and cannot be undone. If you break this rule you will be chat-banned or even play-banned! Examples of prohibited phrases: "Check red", "Let's attack green together", "I won't take your queen", "Mind your rook", "Protect your pawn", "Mate in 2", "Resign!", "Don't resign". You can use these and similar phrases in chat after a game, but not during a game.
IMPORTANT: It is prohibited to ask other players to give you points! For example: "Give me 7 points and I will resign.", "Just 5 points, ple-e-ease!" You can be chat-banned for doing this.
Note: these rules do not apply to Diplomacy Games.
It is recommended to review the Beginner Tips.
It is also recommended to join the 4 Player Chess Club.
Good luck!
Solo
Solo games are Free-for-All games that are rated winner-takes-all (WTA), which means only the winner gains (Solo) rating, and 2nd-4th lose equally.
Variants
Variant games can be Solo, FFA, or Teams games.
The rules for the game are indicated above the board (mouse-over for descriptions).
See the list of variants for details about the various rule variants.