Four-player chess written c. 1500. The "Tithitattva" of Raghunandana describes such a version, which continued to be played into the 20th century. The first documented example of a modern four-player chess system was written by Captain George Hope Verney in England in 1881. The most common form of play is two vs. two in which allied pieces cannot eliminate each other, but help the others in defense and offense. The allied players sit across from each other and help checkmate the people to the left and right of them. The game is over when both opposing kings are checkmated. If only one
Hexagonal chess occur in practical play. These endgame studies apply to both Gliński's and McCooey's variants: Starchess is a hexagonal variant invented by Hungarian chess teacher László Polgár. The board is a horizontally oriented regular hexagram, consisting of 37 numbered cells. Due to the small board, games typically finish quicker than in standard chess. Each player has five pawns, a king, knight, bishop, rook, and queen. The white pawns start at cells 5, 12, 18, 23, and 29; the black pawns at 9, 15, 20, 26, and 33. At the beginning of the game, the players place their other pieces alternately on