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
Chess with different armies rook replacement to c1. This is so colorbound pieces don't change square color. Many pieces in the following armies are combination of standard chess pieces and 4 fairy pieces: "ferz", "alfil", "wazir" and "dabbaba" (see their movement diagrams above). The game can be played with standard chess pieces and the following move diagrams use standard pieces as well (except queens). In this army, rooks, knights, bishops, and queen are replaced by the following pieces: As mentioned, when using this army and castling queenside, the king moves "three" squares (from e1 to b1) and the bede moves from a1 to c1.