Four Fronts

Last updated
Four Fronts
Cuatro Frentes
Designers Gabriel Baldi Lemonnier
Years active2012 - present
Genres Board game, abstract strategy game
Languages Spanish, english
Players2, 3 or 4
Setup time1 minute
Playing timeCasual games usually last 4 to 40 minutes.
ChanceNone
Skills tactics, strategy

Four Fronts (Cuatro Frentes in Spanish) is a board game created by the Uruguayan professor[ ambiguous ] Gabriel Baldi Lemonnier. [1]

Contents

History

It was created in 2012 by Lemonnier, who invented and patented it as «Ajedrez Uruguayo» (Uruguayan Chess). [2]

It is a variant of chess, for two, three or four opponents who play in pairs or individually, although when playing in pairs, partners cannot speak. It involves moving the pieces through the checkered gameboard of black or white, with the intention of capturing. To the standard board of eight by eight frames, four sections were added to the respective formations. [3]

The pieces are 12 per player: the king, the queen, the bishop, the knight, rook and the pawn, incorporating as a novelty the prince, a piece that combines the movements of the bishop and the rook. [4] The pieces are colored white, black, yellow and red.

Related Research Articles

Chess strategy is the aspect of chess play concerned with evaluation of chess positions and setting goals and long-term plans for future play. While evaluating a position strategically, a player must take into account such factors as the relative value of the pieces on the board, pawn structure, king safety, position of pieces, and control of key squares and groups of squares. Chess strategy is distinguished from chess tactics, which is the aspect of play concerned with the move-by-move setting up of threats and defenses. Some authors distinguish static strategic imbalances, which tend to persist for many moves, from dynamic imbalances, which are temporary. This distinction affects the immediacy with which a sought-after plan should take effect. Until players reach the skill level of "master", chess tactics tend to ultimately decide the outcomes of games more often than strategy. Many chess coaches thus emphasize the study of tactics as the most efficient way to improve one's results in serious chess play.

Capablanca chess is a chess variant invented in the 1920s by World Chess Champion José Raúl Capablanca. It incorporates two new pieces and is played on a 10×8 board. Capablanca believed that chess would be played out in a few decades. This threat of "draw death" for chess was his main motivation for creating a more complex version of the game.

A fairy chess piece, variant chess piece, unorthodox chess piece, or heterodox chess piece is a chess piece not used in conventional chess but incorporated into certain chess variants and some chess problems. Compared to conventional pieces, fairy pieces vary mostly in the way they move, but they may also follow special rules for capturing, promotions, etc. Because of the distributed and uncoordinated nature of unorthodox chess development, the same piece can have different names, and different pieces can have the same name in various contexts. Most are symbolised as inverted or rotated icons of the standard pieces in diagrams, and the meanings of these "wildcards" must be defined in each context separately. Pieces invented for use in chess variants rather than problems sometimes instead have special icons designed for them, but with some exceptions, many of these are not used beyond the individual games for which they were invented.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chess set</span> Board and pieces for playing the game of chess

A chess set consists of a chessboard and white and black chess pieces for playing chess. There are sixteen pieces of each color: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. Extra pieces may be provided for use in promotion, most commonly one extra queen per color. Chess boxes, chess clocks, and chess tables are common pieces of chess equipment used alongside chess sets. Chess sets are made in a wide variety of styles, sometimes for ornamental rather than practical purposes. For tournament play, the Staunton chess set is preferred and, in some cases, required.

Shō shōgi is a 16th-century form of shogi, and the immediate predecessor of the modern game. It was played on a 9×9 board with the same setup as in modern shogi, except that an extra piece stood in front of the king: a 'drunk elephant' that promoted into a prince, which is effectively a second king. While 9×9 may not seem 'small', it was smaller than the other shogi variants prevalent at the time, which were the 12×12 chu shogi and 15×15 dai shogi. According to the Sho Shōgi Zushiki, the drunk elephant was eliminated by the Emperor Go-Nara, and it is assumed that the drop rule was introduced at about the same time, giving rise to shogi as we know it today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hexagonal chess</span> Set of chess variants played on a board with hexagonal cells

Hexagonal chess is a group of chess variants played on boards composed of hexagon cells. The best known is Gliński's variant, played on a symmetric 91-cell hexagonal board.

Chess with different armies is a chess variant invented by Ralph Betza in 1979. Two sides use different sets of fairy pieces. There are several armies of equal strength to choose from, including the standard FIDE army. In all armies, kings and pawns are the same as in FIDE chess, but the four other pieces are different.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minichess</span> Family of chess variants played on a smaller board

Minichess is a family of chess variants played with regular chess pieces and standard rules, but on a smaller board. The motivation for these variants is to make the game simpler and shorter than standard chess. The first chess-like game implemented on a computer was the 6×6 chess variant Los Alamos chess. The low memory capacity of early computers meant that a reduced board size and a smaller number of pieces were required for the game to be implementable on a computer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eduardo Iturrizaga</span> Venezuelan-Spanish chess grandmaster

Eduardo Patricio Iturrizaga Bonelli is a Venezuelan-born Spanish chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2008, making him the first Venezuelan to achieve this. He competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2007, 2009, 2013, and 2015. He is a four-time Venezuelan champion and has represented his country at eight Chess Olympiads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triangular chess (game)</span> Chess variant

Triangular chess is a chess variant for two players invented by George R. Dekle Sr. in 1986. The game is played on a hexagon-shaped gameboard comprising 96 triangular cells. Each player commands a full set of chess pieces in addition to three extra pawns and a unicorn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Masonic chess</span> Chess variant

Masonic chess is a chess variant invented by George R. Dekle Sr. in 1983. The game is played on a modified chessboard whereby even-numbered ranks are indented to the right—resembling masonry brickwork. The moves of the pieces are adapted to the new geometry; in other respects the game is the same as chess.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Masonic shogi</span>

Masonic shogi is a shogi variant invented by George R. Dekle Sr. in 1987. The game is played on a modified shogi board whereby alternating ranks are indented to the right—resembling masonry brickwork. The moves of pieces are adapted to the new geometry; in other respects the game is the same as shogi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chesquerque</span> Variant of chess

Chesquerque is a chess variant invented by George R. Dekle Sr. in 1986. The game is played on a board composed of four Alquerque boards combined into a square. Like Alquerque, pieces are positioned on points of intersection and make their moves along marked lines ; as such, the board comprises a 9×9 grid with 81 positions (points) that pieces can move to.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tri-chess</span> Chess variant for three players

Tri-chess is the name of a chess variant for three players invented by George R. Dekle Sr. in 1986. The game is played on a board comprising 150 triangular cells. The standard chess pieces are present, minus the queens, and plus the chancellor and cardinal compound fairy pieces per side.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cross chess</span> Chess variant

Cross chess is a chess variant invented by George R. Dekle Sr. in 1982. The game is played on a board comprising 61 cross-shaped cells, with players each having an extra rook, knight, and pawn in addition to the standard number of chess pieces. Pieces move in the context of a gameboard with hexagonal cells, but Cross chess has its own definition of ranks and diagonals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quatrochess</span> Chess variant

Quatrochess is a chess variant for four players invented by George R. Dekle Sr. in 1986. It is played on a square 14×14 board that excludes the four central squares. Each player controls a standard set of sixteen chess pieces, and additionally nine fairy pieces. The game can be played in partnership or all-versus-all.

Tutti-frutti chess is a chess variant invented by Ralph Betza and Philip Cohen in 1978. It has been played regularly in tournaments and correspondence games, such as those of the Italian Association of Chess Variants.

Danitza Fernanda Vázquez Maccarini is a chess player from Puerto Rico. After winning the Central American and Caribbean U20 Girls Championship in El Salvador in 2013, she was awarded by FIDE the title Woman International Master (WIM), becoming the youngest one in the world at the time. In 2015, at 15, she became the youngest ever to win the chess championship of Puerto Rico; Vázquez finished first scoring 8/9 points, a full point ahead of the runner-up, International Master Alejandro Montalvo. She won the bronze medal in the Girls U18 division of the World Youth Chess Championships in 2017. In November of the same year, Vázquez won the Women's Zonal 2.3 Championship on tie-break from Maritza Arribas Robaina and Yerisbel Miranda Llanes. As a result, Vázquez qualified to play in the Women's World Chess Championship.

Spherical chess is any of several chess variants played on boards composed of fields arranged on the surface of a sphere.

References

  1. Luis Roux (20 July 2013). "Se necesitan cuatro para jugar ajedrez" [It takes four to play chess]. El Observador (in Spanish). Uruguay. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  2. "Four fronts: ajedrez a lo grande" [Four fronts: chess at large]. Metro (in Spanish). 25 June 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
    - "Invento uruguayo: ajedrez para cuatro" [Uruguayan invention: chess for four]. Canal 10 (in Spanish). Uruguay. 15 June 2013. Archived from the original on 20 July 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  3. "Uruguayo inventa variante de ajedrez para cuatro jugadores" [Uruguayan invents chess variant for four players]. Prensa Latina (in Spanish). 14 July 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  4. "Uruguayo patentó ajedrez con principes" [Uruguayan patented chess with princes]. El País (in Spanish). Uruguay. 14 July 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2013.[ permanent dead link ]