Chaturaji Strategy

Thought I would start a thread on Stategy for Chaturaji, seeing as its one of my favourite chess variants. I'm by no means an expert but I think there's a few principles and tactics worth discussing, and maybe better players would like to weigh-in with their thoughts as well.

In the thread it is probably easiest to refer to positions as either from Red's POV - abcd pawns or King pawn, bishop pawn etc

For those that have never played it, the board is set up as below (with 4 colours), and Ships are used in place of Rooks but have the same function (pawns promote to Ships on the 8th rank). The game is points-based with points awarded as follows:

Pawn = 1

Knight = 3

Bishops/Ships = 5

Kings = 3

Checking 2 players simultaneously = 1

Checking 3 players simultaneously = 5

Openings

Obviously it depends on what position you are in and if not red, then any potential attacks from the player to your right. If they play their King pawn then the Bishop often follows, in which case you need to play either King or Bishop pawn to make an escape path. I prefer Bishop pawn as it keeps the King more protected from Right-side pawns as well.

I've seen a few players open with A or B pawns, get checked from their Right-side bishop and then have nowhere to run and are mated within a few moves.

If my right-side player hasn't opened with King pawn, or I'm playing Red, then my favourite opening is b3 and then Bb2 - it attacks along the diagonal with the Bishop and allows the King to move into the Bishop space.

If you are playing Green (last), Red has opened with d3 and Yellow (to your right) hasn't played their King pawn, then Nf3 I think (?) is reasonable as it pre-empts the Red Bishop going to d2 and you aren't threatened on the next move to be in check from Yellow's bishop.

Trading

My aim is always to try and trade *in pace with the game*. What I mean by that is to avoid the 2 extremes - namely either trading off too quickly, and then having nothing left to defend with and getting mated early, or defending too much and mating the last opposing King with hardly any points but with a Bishop, Knight and Ship still on the board. 

Sometimes you find that through no real fault of your own, you are not able to trade pieces at the rate you might like to, pre-empting 3 other players moves is what makes the game interesting to me compared to regular chess.

With how frequently pawns are able to promote in games, it's worth trying to hold onto at least 2 pawns for the end-game and ideally one major piece to help protect them.

Obviously if you can get a free piece or take a Bishop or Ship in exchange for a Knight or Pawn then that's worth doing.

Quite often you have to do some arithmetic during the game, and maybe it is worth getting mated if you can grab a bishop beforehand or you are going to finish on top points. Same is said for letting your opponent promote if it means you will get 5pts for a Ship instead of 1 for a pawn. 

Who to Attack

I think there's two good strategies here.

1st is checking the player on your left (as long as it is at least helping to develop one of your own pieces). They have to defend the check, which means they cannot make an attacking move of their own, but it also means that the player opposite you can then make an attacking move, assuming they are not already defending a previous check. I find that quite often the advancing pawns from the player to your right are what can cause you trouble in a game, and therefore if I can keep the player to my left disturbed and defending my checks, the player opposite me is free to attack, and quite often they are then using their pawns to advance on the player to my right... Which keeps them occupied and not attacking you.

The other tactic is to attack the player to your right or opposite, as another player has a move before they have chance to defend it.

Always attack someone who is already under attack, as they cannot usually defend both pieces, especially if you can take their Knight when either their Ship or Bishop is under attack, then they are forced to save the better piece

End Game

End games feel a bit more similar to regular chess, except that its points that matter so sometimes you have to allow your opponent chance to promote if it helps you trade and get the points you need. 

Maybe 2nd is all you can hope for, and if there's 3 of you left then its better to try and trade off with the 1st place player even to the point of getting mated as long as you secure the points you need.

I have seen a few interesting 3 King endings where really by chance one King ends up being forced by the other two into a corner and then penultimate move has to be into check by them. 

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Other considerations include the fact that everyone makes mistakes and blunders in a game, and sometimes someone else's blunder costs you - it can be difficult to know what move a player is going to make, and sometimes they don't make the move that would most benefit themselves. So there is a little bit of luck and unpredictability involved. It can be infuriating at times but the luck should even out over enough games  

Anyway that's my rambling about Chaturaji over with, it would be nice to see more players playing this variant.

What tactics do other players use or have noticed during games?

cool

just check everyone

Yes it is 4 players, so you could check the other 3 players - although I have never seen it done. Also, when you click the "?" symbol to open up the info about Chaturaji from the Variants Lobby, the information there is slightly out of date, or referring to maybe a different variant as it mentions the value of Queens when there are none in this version...

Maybe one of the Chess.com admins could have a look at updating it?

Ah - I see it is referring in general to FFA chess(?)

Copied from the info screen:

Free-for-All (FFA)
 
The goal is to finish with the most points of any player.
Points may be earned in the following ways:
Capturing active (colored) pieces: pawns +1, knights +3, bishops +5, rooks +5, queens +9, kings +3,
Checking two players simultaneously: +1
Checking three players simultaneously: +5
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.
The last remaining player will be given +3 for each enemy king left on the board.
Claim Win means a player is so far ahead on points that he will win even if he resigns.
Autoclaim means a player is forced to claim the win (eg resign) immediately to protect the player in 2nd place.
In case of insufficient material, threefold repetition or the 50-move rule, the remaining players will share +3 points.
Points do not directly affect rating changes, only final placement does.
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". 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!

Then you have games like this... where you wonder why players just leave their pieces hanging for a load of moves, and another player just leaves it and doesn't take it... If anyone can work it out I'd love to know...

https://www.chess.com/variants/chaturaji/game/17427468

Thank you for writing an article about this interesting variant!

The only thing I would like to emphasize is that the main point of any opening in chaturaji is king safety. If the player to your right opens their kings pawn then they are threatening to check you with their bishop. This is the first idea that I learned a few months ago. The bishop check, if not properly addressed, can lead to a quick mate. 

From the first move the green player can find themselves in a mating net as they are the last player. If red (the 1st player) and yellow (3rd player) both open the kings pawn green must also open the kings pawn. If green opens the bishops pawn to give the king air then red can deprive green of the space they just made for themselves with Bf4 and yellow will mate green with bishop e7 check and pawn push g6#. 

To fianchetto the bishop can be good first and second moves, if possible, as it gives the king air and attacks the opposite player on the long diagonal. 

My feeling upon discovering this variant was that these deadly mating ideas after just a few moves must be avoided and capitalized upon if others don't avoid them. If you see these ideas happening sometimes you can break them up a bit by threatening the player who is mating or jump on board and grab material before mate is delivered. 

The opening phase of the game mostly consists of running the king away from the many dangers and even an aggressive idea like bishop to kings 2nd + is also defensive as the king can now run to Bishop's initial. 

Finally, after escaping the dangers of the opening, the focus of the game becomes safely pushing and promoting pawns and picking up points via loose pieces, exchanges, double or triple checks, or other tactics such as stealing a protected piece from a king in check or even a king sac late in the endgame. 

You can find chaturaji in the variants server or on the 4pc server under "hyper fiesta."

I hope this has been helpful. Come and try your hand at this wonderful game,

Kyle

P.S. game# 17427468 looks like some teaming strategy but its not against the rules to play these "bad" moves that may take out the highest rated player but hang your pieces if the other player would rather just win on points and take the free piece.

Good input Kyle, I forgot to mention about getting the King safe, definitely no.1 priority in the early part of the game and then developing pieces.

The game I posted I wasn't suggesting it was teaming, more just bizarre moves that don't benefit the individual player

Look at this game:

https://www.chess.com/variants/chaturaji/game/18601096/91/3

Green finishes last place, but on the face of it, doesn't seem to make any blunders or obvious errors. The only poor move I can see is Move 7, with the knight, which looks like it is going nowhere, doesn't threaten anything etc.

I think it was pretty unfortunate for Green in this game though and it highlights some of the chance that can be involved in Raji (or difficulty in analysing  3 other players' moves)

What do you think? 

Interesting play by green in this game

https://www.chess.com/variants/chaturaji/game/23325992/35/1

This game has some very poor rules. I defend near perfectly, everyone else is trading poorly and mid-way through the game I still have my 3 pieces because of two double checks.

I kill one king and get 3 points?? but the rooks are 5? lol whatever.

In position and the 2nd player is killed with a discovered check. I have 2 remaining pieces and 2 pawns heads-up to another player with 1 piece and 3 pawns. Easy win.

Then they "claim" the win but being ahead on points.

1) poor point system

2) somewhat difficult to understand and get used to the setup and point system

3) claiming wins when dominated

4) most games are never finished to the end, no end games or checkmates.

All equals to a trash game, when you finally get good enough to understand the game the funky rules make it near impossible to win against top players going for points or new players.