It's Everybody For Themselves! Get Ready For The Madness Of Chess.com's 4 Player Chess Championship

Are you ready for free-for-all madness over 160 squares? Then mark your calendar and join the upcoming Chess.com 4 Player Chess Championship! This next event of the Chess.com Community Championships takes place from April 14 to April 18 and features a $5,000 prize fund.

4 Player Chess is one of Chess.com's oldest and most popular variants. Four players compete over an extended, cross-shaped board with 160 squares. There are many ways to play 4 Player Chess, but this month, we're focusing on chaos. 

The Chess.com 4 Player Chess Championship will be in the free-for-all format, where players earn points for capturing pieces (including kings!). At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins. 

Not sure what that looks like? Here's a video of GM Vidit Gujrathi, GM Anish Giri, WFM Alexandra Botez, Agadmator, and Samay Raina playing that variant:

The event will have eight qualifiers, each a two-hour arena with a 4+0 time control, spread across four days. There will be two qualifiers per day, starting at different times to give everyone a chance to participate. Players will earn 3 points for winning a game, 1 for finishing a game in second or third place, and 0 for finishing last.

As usual, any member of the Chess.com community can join. You can check the full qualifier schedule and click the Join button to participate.

Now, 160 squares sure is a lot to keep track of, but rest assured that we'll be doing just that! We may require participants to join a video call for fair play monitoring. Players who join the call must set up two cameras from different angles in the room. Non-compliance will result in a player's removal from the event.

The winner of each qualifier will move on to the Semifinals. Players will be divided into two groups of four and contest a 90-minute countdown match, with the top two players from each group qualifying for the Grand Final. In the Grand Final, the first player to reach 7 points and then win a game becomes the winner.

Are you excited for this edition of the Chess.com Community Championships? Let us know what other variants you'd like to play in the comment section below!