[New Variant] Tetrad Chess

I have recently been researching different chess variants and I thought I'd try and make my own. Chess variants come in all shapes and sizes, from variants with different board sizes, different piece placement, different rules, new pieces, new board shapes, etc. I noticed that 4 player chess, at least the commonly played variant of it (the one on this website) is a bit clunky. It has a unique board, pawns promote in the middle of the board, and you need 2 sets of chess pieces to play it correctly if you wanted to play it over the board. I thought I'd try and make a simplified version of 4 player chess that one could play on a standard board, and with only 1 set of pieces.

I drew inspiration from 3 separate areas: mini chess, 4 player chess, and Chaturaji. Mini chess uses boards smaller than 8x8. Some examples are 4x4 and 5x5. These compressed variants usually eliminate doubled pieces. You have 1 rook instead of 2, 1 knight, etc. I liked this element, and I incorporated it since it would allow my variant to function with 1 set of pieces.

Next, I like the rotational turn system of 4 player chess, so I adopted it for my variant. I also like that the pieces move the same as in standard chess, so that is how the pieces work in my variant. I believe that this enhances the accessibility of the game, since everyone who knows how to play chess will know how this game will work. The simplified nature of my variant will hopefully help people to feel less overwhelmed, like many do when playing full-army 4 player chess.

Lastly, there is the challenge of figuring out how to use a standard board. For this, I drew inspiration from the ancient Indian game of Chaturaji. Chaturaji is loosely related to chess, but it has completely different rules and pieces, and it is actually dice-based. However, the board layout would be perfect for a compressed variant of chess.

The variant of Chaturaji on this website is actually dissimilar from the real game, and it is rather similar to my variant but with a few crucial differences. Firstly, the back rank piece structure in the current chess.com iteration of Chaturaji is poor. There is no king security, and the king is almost always in check within the first couple moves. This is due to the starting position being taken from the actual Chaturaji, which let you move specific pieces based on a dice roll and is not optimized for modern play. Additionally, the point system, the taking of kings/lack of checks, and "dead" pieces are confusing, especially to new players or even experienced players new to variants which use these systems.

As a solution to these problems, in my variant pieces move and behave exactly as they do in standard chess, with the only difference being that pawns are unable to promote to queens. This means that you can only eliminate players by checkmating them, pawns promote on the 8th rank, you can castle if you choose to, etc. When you eliminate a player and there are at least two "living" players remaining, that player's pieces remain on the board, though they cannot move and they can be taken. While they will not take pieces on their own, they can be used by other players to block or support their own pieces for checkmates.

My resulting variant can be played either free for all or in teams of two. Attached to this message is a picture of what the board setup would look like, with the player occupying the A1 square going first, and subsequent turns following a clockwise rotation. Combining all of these elements, I present to you Tetrad Chess.

That sounds interesting!

Also, when you said that a dead player’s pieces could support yours for checkmate, do you mean like their pieces protect yours so they can’t be captured by the king?

Yes, exactly! These pieces won't move, so they can't capture, but the king cannot move into their line of sight, so you could theoretically use one to support your attack.

Wouldn’t it work better if the king was on the outside at first not one the inside? In the current version of Tetrad, castling exposes your king and undeveloped your rook. It would make more sense if those pieces were swapped, as castling would actually be useful.

Not necessarily. In Chaturaji, the king is on the outside and the rook is on the inside. This is a problem, since the king is almost always in check within the first 1 or 2 moves. This starting setup actually provides better king security, but the player may still castle if they choose to. While you are correct that it would usually be ill advised, it has situational utility. I feel that my current board layout is better for long term play and strategic depth.

why is poor king safety a problem of chaturaji

no one cares

its actually a nice annoyance to figure out how to fix it

and the king 3 thing is PERFECT as it allows a king to be traded with a rook and the king (probably lone) can get a snipe win

its the charm

instead no, we need to have 4pc but with all the fun out of it (bishop strength: gone, unique board: gone, queen madness: gone, center promotion: gone (center promotion is actually nice as it makes promotion a more immediate threat))

0/10 for having the worst of two fantastic variants

this is like combining chess and xiangqi but having neither cannons nor queens

You act as if this variant replaces or somehow overwrites normal 4 player chess. Like I stated above, the goal was to make a simpler version of 4 player chess that was more accessible to people but still had good strategic depth. While you might find king protection in Chaturaji to be fun, many find it annoying and it can be boring and tedious to be forced to play the same opening every game. By giving the king security from the start (as is generally the case in standard chess), more dynamic openings can be played. Not everyone is looking for the hectic gameplay, a specialized board, or weird point system of current 4 player chess. This is simply an alternative.

Also, I find it rude that you said "nobody cares" in regards to this variant. This is the variant forum. What are you doing here if you don't care?