Lesson 15: 4-Player Chess

This is a chess variant known as BastardO: its great for four players on the same board. Set up is like so:

This is great. Pieces all move the same as normal. There are some slight rule additions:

• All 4 players take in in turn to move and all are against all (unless players agree to make alliances - although these are not RULES so much as negotiations and can easily be betrayed - hence the name of the game) and If you kill an enemy king then they are out, and you take control of their army! Winner is the last in the game. 
• You do NOT have to declare CHECK - but of course another player may wish to! hehe - this is where the cursing begins
• The top two teams move down the board and the bottom two teams move up the board. 
• En passant is as before - except any pawn may do this (not simply the one facing the enemy pawn) and as before it would go into the square the killed pawn would have moved into had it moved one square instead of two (on its first go - refer back to the rule of en passant if you have forgotten how )
• Pawn promotions still apply - although the only piece it can be promoted to is a SPECIAL piece that moves like a queen and a knight combined (the only useful piece in such a game).
• Castling is not allowed in this variant
• A person may choose NOT to move on their turn

There is a variant to this variant called GRAN BASTARDO - in which the initial setup is random. Each player takes it in turn to lay down each piece anywhere on the board they wish. The only exception is that pawns can not be on a square that gets them immediately promoted, and you may not place a piece where it checks a king during setup.