Ignacio Unstoppable In 4 Player Chess Championship

Luis Ignacio was crowned the winner of the 2025 Chess.com 4 Player Chess Championship and will receive the $1,800 first prize after winning three out of four games in the Grand Final ahead of Hamlet Antonyan, Aswin Devendran, and Jose Bolea. 

Earlier on Friday, Ignacio convincingly won the first Semifinal, while one point separated Devendran and Antonyan in the second. The qualifier winners who were knocked out in the Semifinals won a minimum of $200 out of the $5,000 prize fund.

Grand Final Results

Standings/Prizes

Qualifiers - No Diplomacy

816 players participated in eight qualifying arenas hoping to secure a spot in Friday's final. To do so, they would have to win as many free-for-all 4 Player Chess matches as possible in two hours.

The first qualifier, which bristled with 171 players, was the largest, and this was won by none other than the eventual champion Ignacio. He also happens to hold the highest 4 Player blitz chess rating on Chess.com.

The fifth qualifier was the tightest affair with Bolea edging out Gonzalo Rojo on tiebreaks, however Bolea still managed to win 10/14 of his matches during the arena.

Qualifier Results

4 Player Chess is more complicated than most variants, owing to its enlarged board (160 squares) and the added dynamics that a four-player game brings. Although 4 Player Chess can be played many different ways, Chess.com recently announced that "chaos" was the theme of the championship, meaning that a free-for-all format was selected instead of teams.

Unlike in standard chess, the winner of a free-for-all 4 Player Chess game is determined by the player with the highest number of points at the end of the game rather than the deliverer of checkmate. Once the participants are given a color, either red, blue, yellow, or green, play commences in a clockwise order. Points are then earned for the following feats:

• By checkmating an opponent (+20);
• By stalemating oneself (+20);
• By stalemating an opponent (+10 for each player still in the game);
• By checking more than one king simultaneously with a queen (+1 for two kings, +5 for three);
• By checking more than one king simultaneously with a piece other than a queen (+5 for two kings, +20 for three);
• By capturing active pieces (+1 for a pawn or promoted queen, +3 for a knight, +5 for a bishop, +5 for a rook, and +9 for a queen).

The match ends when all players are eliminated by checkmate, resignation, flagfall, or standard drawing methods occur. Players can also claim a win when they are up by a "score" (20 points) when there are only two players left in the game. For a more detailed overview of the rules, click here.

Semifinals - Ignacio, Devendran Top Field

The Semifinals saw the eight qualifiers split into groups of four and play a 90-minute arena with the top two in each pool progressing to the grand final.

Ignacio got off to a flying start in the first pool, winning the first two games and surging to six points. In the first game, the Argentinian found himself on the brink of defeat, facing a material and point deficit, but his opponents were so focused on each other that he was allowed to promote.

The subsequent clean-up job was simple and when Bolea and Joshua Probert's flags fell, Ignacio's score sat at 101, 51 points ahead of his nearest competitor. Bolea, Probert, and Patrick Nystrom each won a match over the next hour but Ignacio continued accruing points in all three games, securing his spot in the Grand Final.

A third win for Ignacio, which included a devious plan to promote a second pawn, ensured Bolea's qualification as well. With a healthy point lead in hand, Ignacio took advantage of Probert's inactive pieces (since he had been checkmated) and created a breakaway pawn on the 12th rank.

The second semifinal was a three-horse race between Antonyan, Devendran, and Nalbandyan, the latter of whom was the only titled player able to qualify for Finals day, and he kicked off proceedings with a win.

Heading into the final game of the arena, one point separated the top three players. When Nalbandyan missed checkmate on move 22, it became evident that Antonyan and Devendran would be the players to progress.

Grand Final - Ignacio Dominates

To determine the champion, an alternate format was adopted in the Grand Final, with the players required to score seven points and win a decisive game. Only four games were needed for this to be achieved.

Antonyan announced himself as an early frontrunner after a masterstroke in the first match. Seeing that Ignacio was on the verge of checkmating Devendran, Antonyan sacrificed a rook to distract Ignacio and buy Devendran time. The strategy would pay off—Antonyan later checkmated Devendran himself and took the full 20 points.

Antonyan and Ignacio still had to duke it out to confirm the three points however the former used his material advantage soundly. From this moment on, Ignacio was simply unstoppable and the Argentinian went on to win three matches in a row. In a surprising twist, when Ignacio was asked in his post-match interview which player he feared most he responded "Cha_ChaRealSmooth (Nalbandyan) and Aaarara111_back."

May will see another variant championship unfold in the Chess.com Community Championship series and a poll on X (formerly Twitter) has already indicated which variant will likely be featured in the next edition.

Which variant would you like to play in the May @chesscom Community Championship? 🏆👀

Rules for each of them in the thread below!

— Chess.com Community (@GreenPawns) April 16, 2025

The Chess.com 4 Player Chess Championship is part of the 2025 Chess.com Community Championships, and the event was open to all members of the Chess.com Community Club. The winners of eight arena Qualifiers played in a 90-minute countdown Semifinal, with the top two players from each group progressing to the Grand Final. The event featured a $5,000 prize fund.

Previous coverage:

• • Liam Hereford Crowned Atomic Chess Champion After Explosive Performance
  • Rogov Clutches 3-Check Championship In Grand Final Reset
  • 3-Check Community Championship Knockout Will Have No GMs
  • Naroditsky Comes Clutch In Final Rush, Qualifies With 7 Others
  • It's Tactics Time! The Chess.com Puzzles Championship Starts On January 16
  • Chess.com Community Championships 2025 Cycle Kicks Off January And Features 12 Events