4PC Move to Variants Info
ITTALIC TEXT ARE MY NOTES
" " REPRESENTS QUOTATIONS TAKEN FROM MY SOURCES
Exhibit A Part I
https://chess.com/4pc-test has been shut down.
(Never really been used but still)
Exhibit A Part II
https://www.chess.com/variants-test IS NOW OPEN
(Basically the new beta/testing server, I've never really played Variants so I don't know much, what I do know is that bots will be added soon and an official announcement will be made at a later date)
Exhibit B
"Hey, everyone!
Thank you all for your interest in playing and watching the World 4 Player Chess Championships! I am pleased to announce the dates for the Teams Championship with a chess.com sponsored prize pool of $1000 (see prize money disclaimer)! Please understand that due to the merge to chess.com/variants, there may need to be some adjustments."
"Qualifiers: September 4, 5, 11, 12 at (0, 12, 16, and 20 UTC)"
(So the move to Variants will happen around September)
Exhibit C
Taken from: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/hyperbullet-on-variants-server-question-for-admins
"The only ratings that will be copied are standard 4pc rapid blitz and bullet. the other ratings are variant ratings (or combined like hyper), and will be lost. in variants, each variant will have it's own rating, not combined. (and in variants each rating is further divided into rapid/blitz/bullet/hyper)"
(tldr (this is probably longer, but simpler to read): Only Standard FFA/Solo/Teams Rapid/Blitz/Bullet are copied to the Variants server during the move, hyperbullet and every variants rating is deleted. Each separate variant will have its own rating for each time control. For example, Collateral Worlds will have a Collateral Worlds Rapid Rating, Blitz Rating, Bullet Rating, AND Hyperbullet Rating (since Hyper is being split apart)).
(Hyperbullet and Variants are being split because on 4PC in Hyper you can play standard ffa, solo, teams, and the many variants all under one rating, and there are many variants all put under 4 ratings (gamemode teams or ffa/solo, and then separated by time control blitz or bullet), Antichess might also be split?)
Exhibit D
Also taken from: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/hyperbullet-on-variants-server-question-for-admins
"So they can create a war for throne rating and use it for both war for throne 1&2. Or they could create a WOF rating and use it for the WOF tourneys.
Each rating is broken down into the 4 time controls (and also into teams), so when an admin creates a new rating type, this can lead up to 8 ratings/leaderboards. "Standard 4PC" is also just another rating type like any other. and the 8 ratings will be each time control, for ffa and teams."
(Thank goodness WFT will be merged into one rating 
)
Exhibit E
Taken from: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/help-us-code-volunteers-welcome
"Full support of all 4PC features is nearly done, and we hope to get it ready to take over 4PC within a month or two."
"Variants was launched early in a minimal version to allow 2player variants (atomic, horde, etc)"
"With variants 90% done (to accommodate 4PC)"
(Official confirmation by the coder @spacebar)
Exhibit F
Also taken from:
"I have permission from chess.com to let people contribute"
"Currently we have only 1 volunteer, @GDII, who is an absolute genius at CSS, but also anything javascript. Just wish he had more time
@omatamix, author of PhoenixZero, a self-learning 4PC neural network engine, has said he will help.You will need to sign an NDA (non-disclosure), eg. the code belongs to chess.com"
(Self-explanatory, spacebar is letting non-staff members contribute to coding Variants.)
Exhibit G
Taken from Private Messages with @spacebar
ChessMasterGS: the solo tab disappeared from variants :/
spacebar: we want to merge it yes
ChessMasterGS: is it highest rating or average rating that will be used?
spacebar: highest
spacebar: we have 3 1 -1 -3 for low rated, and 3 0 0 -3 for high rated, they made models to have it change into 4 -1 -1 -1 as ratings go up
(FFA AND SOLO ARE COMBINING! Lower rated games use a modified version of FFA, while higher levels slowly go into a modified version of Solo, if this is the model they will be using and they don't change it, most likely it will be your FFA rating that is carried over (given how FFA ratings tend to be higher))
IMPORTANT THINGS TO NOTE/MYTHS
- Solo and FFA are GETTING MERGED, SEE EXHIBIT G
- Variants server will most likely have the same admins (although some like hest are actually CGAs there in addition to being admins), and have more or less the same players. The rules might get tighter though, because Variants is becoming a bigger part of chess.com
- Like the original test server, Variants-Test is also filled with bots (Futers/Comfuters, Randos/Randoms, Ranters)
That's it for now since I don't have any other information
bye
