Four-player chess for themselves. As with regular chess, four-player chess begins with fortifications and the of pieces, but opportunities for capturing pieces (and gaining points) come about at large as each of the three opponents likewise do attacks and make threats of capture. Therefore picking friends and enemies has a political quality; ultimately the impromptu teammates will have to combat each other as only one can win. The Cox-Forbes theory of the origin of chess, though debunked, asserts that a four-player version was the earliest form of the game. A description of a four-player chess game is found in an Indian text
Tim Harding (chess player) with his thesis on correspondence chess in Britain and Ireland, 1824–1914. He is credited with coining the name Frankenstein–Dracula Variation in his 1975 Vienna Game book. CDs: Tim Harding (chess player) Timothy David (Tim) Harding (born 6 May 1948 in London) is a chess player and author with particular expertise in correspondence chess. He published a correspondence chess magazine "Chess Mail" from 1996 to 2006 and authored "The Kibitzer", a ChessCafe.com column from 1996 until 2015. In 2002, he was awarded the title Senior International Master of Correspondence Chess by the International Correspondence Chess Federation. Harding has lived in Dublin