The game features a special board typically made of a standard 8×8 square, with 3 rows of 8 cells each extending from each side, and requires two sets of differently colored pieces.

Historically, the Four-Handed Chess Club, which was founded by George Hope Lloyd-Verney in 1884 in London, is the most well regarded iteration.

"[1] The Taḥqīq mā li-l-hind min maqūlah maqbūlah fī al-ʿaql aw mardhūlah (c. 1030) of al-Biruni, an encyclopedia of Indian culture, contains a description of chaturaji, a four-player chess-like game played with dice, which al-Biruni claims was unknown among the Arabs of his time.

[2][3] While chaturaji never spread outside of India, possibly due to Islamic laws against gambling, a (likely coincidentally) similar game known as Four Seasons Chess was played in 13th-century Spain which was notable enough to be included in Libro de los Juegos.

[6] Four-handed Chess, as it was called, grew in popularity throughout the 19th century, with variations of the game appearing in Germany, Britain and the United States, among others.

[1] Many different pamphlets sprang up with minor rule changes, such as where the king and queen were, or how to deal with pawns that ran into each other.

However, this theory was refuted in the latter half of the century by Antonius van der Linde [de] and Albrecht Weber, and is now rejected by all serious chess historians.

[7] George Hope Lloyd-Verney, a pivotal figure in the game's history, was first introduced to it by Horatia Nelson.

[1] On September 20, 1881, a leading article in The Times referred to the game as "failed", which prompted Verney, who was a seasoned player by then, to send a letter in response that same day.

[8] In the letter he made a point that he would continue to make during his frequent advocacy of the game, that being that four-player chess is quite distinct from standard chess due to the latter being more scientific in nature and the former being more casual due to its heightened complexity, and that both games were enjoyed for completely different reasons despite their common heritage.

This letter was inserted in the September 22nd 1881 issue of the Times, and as a result Verney received many personal queries about the game.

[8] In response, Verney published a book that year called Four-handed Chess detailing the rules of the game, which perpetuated its popularity in the Anglosphere.

This new table survived many police searches without suspicion, keeping documents safe for Lenin, his family and his allies right up until the February Revolution.

[13] The website was successful enough to attract the attention of Erik Allebest, the co-founder and CEO of Chess.com, who wanted to port the game to his site.

[14] During the summer of 2017, Flickinger, who was brought on board by Allebest, worked alongside various other developers to bring the game to Chess.com.

During development, Jay Severson, the other co-founder and CTO of Chess.com, came up with the idea of winning via a points system rather than via being the last player left.

A board made of a standard 8×8 square with an additional 3 rows of 8 cells extending from each side is what is typically used for Four-player chess.

The goal is to have the most points at the end of the game:[20] Pawns promote to queens on the eighth rank, which is at the middle of the board.

[7] Some historical variations allow the pawns to move in different directions,[9] and some current rules remove checkmate, and instead require that the kings be captured.

It is wise to play openings, such as (for the first player) moving the king's pawn up one, which shields against double-attacks, checks, and develop strong pieces.