Forchess

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Forchess

Players	4
Age range	any
Setup time	2 minutes
Playing time	30-90 minutes
Random chance	None
Skills required	Chess strategy

Forchess is a four-person chess variant developed by the American T. K. Rogers. It uses one standard chess board and two sets of standard pieces.

1 History and motivation
2 Overview of the game
3 Cutthroat Forchess
4 External links

[edit] History and motivation

Forchess was developed in Texas around the year 1975 by T. K. Rogers. He wanted to create a pure strategy game with the social dynamic of card games like Bridge. Strategy games are known to train the mind, and Rogers felt that a socially popular one could benefit 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 for analyzing both chess and Forchess games. He called it influence indicator.

The first Forchess club (called the Forchess Knights) was founded in Greenville, South Carolina in 1992 by the inventor's two teenage sons. Advertised by word of mouth, it eventually had regular members from about half a dozen local high schools. Weekly meetings continued until 1999, when dwindling membership forced the club to fold.

In 1996, Rogers posted a free instruction set on the then newly-founded Intuitor website. He simultaneously began distributing thousands of free instruction brochures to schools and colleges.

An online Forchess community formed in 2001.

[edit] Overview of the game

*Initial Forchess Board Layout*
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8	K	C	N	P	P	B	C	K	8
7	C	Q	B	P	P	N	Q	C	7
6	B	N		P	P		B	N	6
5	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	5
4	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	P	4
3	N	B		P	P		N	B	3
2	C	Q	N	P	P	B	Q	C	2
1	K	C	B	P	P	N	C	K	1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

The game is played by four people in teams of two. At the outset, each player controls an entire quadrant of the board with a full set of chess pieces (minus one pawn). Partners occupy quadrants diagonally across from each other. The diagram at right shows the initial layout of the Forchess board (K=King, Q=Queen, C=Castle, B=Bishop, N=Knight, and P=Pawn). Note that only 4 squares are initially unoccupied.

All of the pieces move and capture in the same manner as conventional chess, except the pawn, which moves diagonally and captures laterally. There are no checkmates and no stalemates: kings are captured like all other pieces. When a player loses his king, his remaining pieces subsequently become the captor's. The game ends when one team has lost both kings or chooses to concede.

Partners typically coordinate their moves as part of a single strategy. Thus, communication of that strategy becomes a requirement of the game. Clandestine forms of communication such as code words, furtive gestures, and secret notes are not allowed. All strategizing between partners must be done openly in front of their opponents. This rule lends Forchess much of its social character.

[edit] Cutthroat Forchess

Forchess even has a variant called Cutthroat, in which there are no partners and everyone is out for himself. Successful strategy in Cutthroat Forchess can differ greatly from "regular" Forchess, as fluid alliances may spark a game of psychological manipulation. In this respect, Cutthroat shares strategy elements with the board game Risk.