Chaturaji's relationships between you and others players when you play

On 22/08, I reached 2213 points, after 131 games (https://www.chess.com/variants/chaturaji/game/29079793/144/3 )

In this article, I will not tell you about the basic principles of Chaturaji. This article is for people who have already mastered the basics (~+2000 elos) and want to improve their overall game, however, it can also be interesting for beginners.
So, now, like you saw it in the title, I'll speak about Chaturaji's relationships between players.
To start, what are Chaturaji's relationships between players?
What I call "Chaturaji's relationships between players" is the position of other players relative to you regardless of your color.
When you play Chaturaji, each corner is occupied by a player and you play in the bottom left part.
Well, in fact, when I play Chaturaji, I clearly differentiate my enemies and give them each a name: "The attacked" (top left), "The opposite" (top right) and "The attacker" (bottom right).
So if you are red, your "Attacked" is blue, your "Opposite" is yellow and your "Attacker" is green.
It's only partly thanks to that that I progressed so quickly but it's a subject both interesting and original, that's why I decided to write an article on it, thank you to anyone who takes the time to read it and I hope you find it useful. 

Your relationship with your attacked is a bit like that of an executioner with his victim and you are the executioner, your relationship with your opposite is a bit like that of two neighbors who rarely meet and exchange few words ( rather pieces here) and finally your relationship with your attacker is the same as with your attacked but this time you are the victim.
This "rule" isn't true everytimes but it's a general "rule", you'll can see it by checking the colors of your pieces at the end of a game. (you wont have a lot of your opposite pieces in a balanced game)
Here's some examples of games I played where this rule is true:


entire game: https://www.chess.com/variants/chaturaji/game/29037396/26/1(I played bad)

In this picture, you can see that blue taked the yellow king, yellow were attacking the green bishop with his knight, green is attacking my king and I attack the bishop of the blue player.
Sometimes Chaturaji can become a 2X 1V1 game mode because if red attacks blue, blue defends against red, so yellow is not attacked, so it attacks green, so green defends against yellow and therefore the red is not attacked, and so on.


entire game: https://www.chess.com/variants/chaturaji/game/29057330/74/3(I played well)

In this picture, you can see that the alone who have pieces from his opposite is the yellow. (me) 


entire game: https://www.chess.com/variants/chaturaji/game/29062221/167/1(I played better than you, lol)  

In this one, you can see that each player have the bishop of his opposite + the green haves the blue pawn and that's all, bishops are the only pieces easily tradable against your opposite.

So you see that you have two main opponents, your attacked and your attacker, but BEWARE, this doesn't mean that you should not look out your opposite ! 
You're probably wondering why it's important to know all this, well, it's quite simple actually, if you know how Chaturaji games are in general, you can anticipate what might happen and so potentially be one step ahead of the other players. It's a bit like in real life, it's by learning to know the laws that govern the world that humanity has been able to benefit from it.
It's because the player on your right is attacking you that (until the final) your king is safer on the left, it's also because he's attacking you that it's almost always good to trade your bishop against that of your opposite, it's again because he's attacking you that it's better to avoid moving his king's pawn more than one square at the start of the game and to finish, it is because you are attacking your attacked that it's the same for him.
Oh and, one last unimportant thing: it's because of the basic configuration of the pawns (and the position of the king) that it is like this, the order in which one plays is of no specific importance on this subject.

An important thing to know with this rule is that there's one case where it's different: when a player resigns or loses his king.
When this happens, the eliminated player's opposite is temporarily an easier target to attack, due to them being in the heart of the still active pieces. Then, since the attacker of the eliminated player no longer has an attacked, he will be able to promote his pawns more easily and from that moment, the player who fears the most being attacked is the attacked of the player eliminated since it is easier for the attacker of the eliminated player to attack the attacked of the latter rather than his opposite. In other words: the person really advantaged by the elimination of a player is his attacker, which is why taking the king of his attacked is almost always a good thing.
Some examples of this type of games:


entire game: https://www.chess.com/variants/chaturaji/game/29036413/35/4(I forced a bit)

In this game, you can see that red is eliminated and yellow, its opposite, will lose its last piece on the next move.


entire game: https://www.chess.com/variants/chaturaji/game/29054062/25/3(I played pretty well) 

In this one, you can see that red is eliminated, that green is attacking the bishop of red's opposite (me) and that blue is checking me. Moreover, you can also see that just before, blue knight was attacking my poor bishop.

In conclusion, if you don't know what to play, raise your left pawns, exchange your bishop with your opposite, strengthen your defense, bring your king to your left pawns, whatever your opening, these are good things to do, keep in mind that Chaturaji's relationships rule holds until the final.
Whatever you do, against good players, your attacker will attack you, so don't waste your moves, otherwise you might get stuck, also don't try to attack your attacker (unless he's in trouble) because by trying to play like that... I lost 100 elos, lol.

Respect Chaturaji's relationships rule will help you to win.

Try to take the king of your attacked, because it will give you a big advantage if you succeed, however, be careful of your attacker, otherwise you will end up like me in this game where I tried to save my opposite for don't be in bad position (in vain because I finally was checkmated): https://www.chess.com/variants/chaturaji/game/29040844/35/2

Thanks for reading and I hope it helps you in your games.
If you have any questions about this subject or if you want help to analyse a game to become better, don't hesitate and ask me !

Signed : CGM [Chaturaji Grand Master] Botbeg (lol) 

Very good article!

I used to have a special relationship with oatey but now I don't think we have it any longer

What makes you say that Alucious?   I am still here, when there are people to play against.

Last few months I've mostly been playing Fog of War again as there are a lot more players playing so it's easier to get a game... and because it's 2 player if you come up against a 1500 then it doesn't affect you in the same way a 1500 can do in 4 player... much less unpredictable.

If there was more people playing Raji then I would happily play again more often.

Also I can never understand why people only play 1/5 games. 3 minutes is under-rated. Considering 1/5 games last about the same amount of time anyway. Same can be said for 1/7.... it's hardly much more time than 1/5 yet nobody plays it

By the way, nice article. The principles are the same in regular 4PC I think - your opposite (the player making a move 2 moves after you, is the same in Raji - more like someone that is useful to you and you to them, and even though it's FFA, if you attack the player who is after you, check them say, they have to defend the check, which leaves your opposite to *hopefully* attack the player to your right, which in turn stops them attacking you)

The best thing though is if you can attack the player to your right, then you give the other 2 players a tempo to also attack before the player gets a chance to defend, by that point maybe they've lost 2 pieces (and usually more - as they can only defend against one attack at a time), so quite quickly they can be brought down. Leaving you with nothing attacking you and the player to your left is then wedged between two active players.

oatey we used to be special friends and I was always so happy if you won the game (even if I was in the same game) but lately I just don't feel the same happyness from you.  I have to accept that things just are not the same as they were.