Forchess
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Forchess is a four-person variant of chess developed by the American T. K. Rogers that uses a standard board and two sets of standard pieces.
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History and Motivation
Forchess was developed in Texas around the year 1975 by T. K. Rogers. He wanted to create a pure strategy game that would be as social as card games like Bridge. Strategy games are known to train the mind, and Rogers felt that a socially popular one could be beneficial to society.
Rogers wanted the game to use only standard pieces and a standard board so that everything necessary to play would be readily available. He also did not want to severely limit the number of pieces each player had.
In 1992, Rogers published the instruction set as a 64-page booklet Forchess: The Ultimate Social Game, designed to fit in a shirt pocket. The booklet contained more than just the instructions; it also contained strategies for playing the game and a new technique invented by Rogers himself for analyzing Chess and Forchess games, called influence indicator.
In 1996 Rogers posted a free instruction set on the then newly-founded Intuitor website, as well as began distributing thousands of free brochures.
Overview of the Game
The game is played by four people in teams of two. Each player controls an entire quadrant of the board with a full set of chess pieces (minus one pawn) at the outset, and their partner controls the quadrant diagonally across from them.
All of the pieces move and capture in the same manner, except the pawn, which moves diagonally and captures laterally. There are no checkmates and no stalemates, kings are captured like other pieces, and that player's remaining pieces subsequently become the capturer's. The game ends when both of the opposing kings have been captured, or the opposing team concedes.
Cutthroat Forchess
Forchess even has a variant called Cutthroat in which there are no partners and everyone is out for themself.
External Link
- Forchess (http://www.intuitor.com/forchess/)