It is a hassle to carry a chess board and all the pieces wherever you travel, that is, the physical board game is not portable. Traditional chess is played between 2 players so there is no room for more players to play together on the same board. The majority of people are not aware of any alternative version of chess. Even though chess has simple rules and piece movements, many people tend to use the excuse of “Chess is hard to learn”. The quick fix of these problems can be done by several means. Making the game portable and easy to access can create a large response from the audience and make active participation possible. Another course of action to fascinate a crowd is, making a chess game which can be played by more than 2 players at a time on the same board. The participation of many players does not only make it competitive but also interesting . Last but not the least, for making it far-reaching, a user-friendly UI can be created which provides hints and help for users to make the game easier to understand and play, even to beginners. Therefore, we aim at creating a browser based Chess game which one can play at the click of their mouse. On top of that, we will be implementing a chess variant which will have the same rules, regulations and pieces behaviour but which would be played by 4 players. The 4-player chess variant is not played much due to lack of awareness. This idea is actually to overcome the fact that the original game was played between 2 players only, and our approach is mainly to promote playing chess with friends and family, spending time together, thinking intuitively and hence doing something productive and fun at the same time. As for the technical standpoint, this game will be built using HTML,CSS,Javascript and JQuery. And the model which will be used to build Chessable is an Iterative model. Definition - According to D. B. Pritchard, Four-player chess "is generally understood to be a game played with two sets on a standard board with four extensions, one on each side, usually of 8x3 squares (arguably the best arrangement) but sometimes 8x2 or 8x4, on which the pieces are set up in the normal array positions." Chessable will help encourage playing chess among young minds and also increase awareness about chess variations as only few know about it.Which in turn improve cognitive skills, visualisation skills, pattern detection, planning, concentration ability, decision making skills, strategic analysis, creative thinking, focus, patience, resilience and the biggest one so far is problem solving skills. INTRODUCTION This Four-player chess is a variation of original classical chess that involves four players, each controlling their own set of pieces. In this game, players must not only focus on their opponents directly in front of them, but also keep an eye on the actions of their two other opponents, adding a complex layer of strategy and tactics to the game. With four players, the game is more dynamic and fast-paced, requiring players to constantly adapt to changing situations and think several moves ahead. The rules and regulations are exactly the same as the traditional 2-player chess for example, castling, pawn promotion at 8th rank, and piece moves, checkmate and stalemate positions, the pieces all being the same (pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, queens, kings), etc. This game will have a change of chess board layout to adjust to 4 player variation. The main middle 64 squares(8 rows and 8 files) will be the same but each side will have its own additional 3 rows on their side with 2 rows containing their pieces and 1 row blank.
Motivation - We wanted to create a chess variant which had the same rules and regulations with the original pieces and behaviours but which would be played by 4 players as the original had restrictions for only 2 players. And also at a personal standpoint of the group the motivation for this project is to get a practical oriented understanding of HTML, CSS and JavaScript and grasp the concepts and features better.
Problem Statement - The original classical chess is played between 2 players only and there is no room for other players to play together on the same board. As classical chess has been around for many centuries, bringing the 4 player chess mode will attract the attention of different types of people from different generations to try something new without having to learn new rules as this 4 player chess game will be based on the original classical chess.
Purpose/objective and goals - To add more challenges to the existing game. To add new features on top of the original classical chess. To make the game more appealing,interesting and fun to play. To appeal the game to a wider audience. To experiment on the existing game design and layout. To improve cognitive skills, visualisation skills, pattern detection, planning, concentration ability, decision making skills, strategic analysis, creative thinking, focus, patience, resilience and the biggest one so far is problem solving skills.
Literature Survey - According to D. B. Pritchard, Four-player chess "is generally understood to be a game played with two sets on a standard board with four extensions, one on each side, usually of 8x3 squares (arguably the best arrangement) but sometimes 8x2 or 8x4, on which the pieces are set up in the normal array positions. Four-Handed Chess is loosely any variant for four players. More specifically, it is generally understood to be a partnership game played with two sets on a standard board with four extensions, one on each side, usually of 8x3 squares (arguably the best arrangement) but sometimes 8x2 or 8x4, on which the pieces are set up in the normal array positions. The four-handed game dates from the 18th century and enjoyed considerable popularity, particularly in Germany but also in England - The Philidorian reported (1838) ‘The game of chess for four is advancing daily in fashion and favour with the British Public’. The year before it had been described as coming from Germany, ‘the only country where it is practised’. During the half-century 1825-1875, numerous booklets appeared, mostly in the U.K. but also in Europe and America, giving basic rules for four-player chess. Almost all of these, some little more than pamphlets, carried only the name of the publisher. The game was dismissed as ‘a kind of whist’ (Le Palamède). Another theory has the game originating in Russia.
These are some of the relevant books, articles and other sources for literature survey on chess and its variants - "The Art of Attack in Chess" by Vladimir Vukovic: This book focuses on attacking play and is considered one of the best books on the subject. "Silman's Complete Endgame Course" by Jeremy Silman: This book covers all the essential endgame knowledge that every serious chess player should have. "Chess Tactics for Champions" by Susan Polgar: This book is geared towards intermediate to advanced players and covers a wide range of tactical ideas. "The Immortal Game" by David Shenk: This is a book about the famous game between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky, played in 1851. The game is considered one of the greatest of all time and is still studied by chess players today. "The Psychology of Chess" by Fernand Gobet: This book looks at the cognitive aspects of chess and how the mind works when playing the game. "Middlegame Planning" by Peter Romanovsky: This book covers planning and strategy in the middle game and is a classic text in chess literature. "Winning Chess Tactics" by Yasser Seirawan: This book covers a wide range of tactical ideas and is geared towards players of all levels. "Modern Chess Openings" by Nick de Firmian: This book is a comprehensive guide to all the major chess openings and is considered a must-have for serious chess players. "The Queen's Gambit" by Walter Tevis: This is a novel about a young girl who becomes a chess prodigy and goes on to compete at the highest levels of the game. It was recently adapted into a popular Netflix series.
References - https://www.britannica.com/topic/chess http://www.jsbeasley.co.uk/encyc.html Pritchard, D. B. (2007). Beasley, John (ed.). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. John Beasley. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1. Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE). Archived from the original on 1 January 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2023. United States Chess Federation. (2003). U.S. Chess Federation's official rules of chess. Just, Tim., Burg, Daniel B. (5th ed.). New York. ISBN 0-8129-3559-4. OCLC 52859422. Jack Peters (18 May 2001). "Why Grandmasters Rarely Checkmate". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 3 December 2020. “FIDE - Affiliated organisations". Archived from the original on 24 February 2021. Retrieved 26 February 2021. Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992). The Oxford Companion to Chess (2 ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 461–480. ISBN 0-19-280049-3.
Project Scope and Limitations - This game doesn't need any prerequisites as it is based off of the original standard chess game. Anyone with the knowledge of the rules of the original chess game can play this 4 player web based chess game. This game can be won in 2 ways. 1)Checkmating all of your opponents, 2)Winning with the most points in the end. Upon checkmate the player’s pieces will grey out and be removed from the board as the player has no more legal moves on the board hence, eliminating them from the game. Points can be scored by capturing opponent’s pieces with the standard piece values(pawns-1, knights-3, bishops-3, rooks-5, queens-9) and a checkmate will count as 20 points.The Points based system will determine the ranking of the players as they will be ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd. The move order will go clockwise with red starting first then blue and yellow after that and green and so on. For the people who are interested in the standard traditional game of chess, you can choose between 2-player or 4-player chess game. The platform will also appeal to the people who also want to play the classical game of chess. 4 - Player chess has more complexity than its predecessor, players will need to adapt to the new chess board layout and come up with new strategies. This game works on the limitation of the original game in which we can only have maximum 2 players and no more can play the same game, The game will also have the option of teaming in which the players on the opposite side of the board will team up and the game is won by checkmating either player in your opponent’s team. You have to synchronise your piece movements and strategies with your teammate to work on defeating the other team. The limitations of this game will be - capturing greyed pieces would not give points It is possible that chess causes unconstructive patterns of thought by a process analogous to transference. i.e. in chess you are fighting alone against an opponent, so other things can seem like that even if they are not, which can be unhelpful. Of course, there are ways in which this could be considered a pro - perhaps in certain areas like business the fighting aspect of chess could be well-channelled. While the rules of chess are fairly straightforward, the strategy behind winning is highly complex. It takes high-level strategic thinking and years of practice to become good at the game. Knowing the rules of chess and how to play is not enough to win.