Update · Aeon Chess · October 3, 2026
Aeon Chess now has a real four-player mode. It is called Xadrez 4: the classic 8×8 with 3 extra squares on each side — 3 + 8 + 3 = 14 — forming a 160-square cross board where four armies play at once. The four 3×3 corners are cut out, which is why a piece moving in a straight line meets empty space instead of a square.
Turn order is Bottom → Left → Top → Right, clockwise for the player sitting at the bottom seat.
Two formats, two rule sets
| Xadrez 4 Free (offline) | Xadrez 4 Team (online) | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | outscore everyone else | checkmate an opponent |
| Partner | none — free for all | 2v2: adjacent seats, 1+2 against 3+4 (partners cannot capture each other) |
| Promotion | 8th rank, queen only | 11th rank, with underpromotion |
| Match ends when | three players are eliminated | one team loses |
How the mode plays
- Its own castling, en passant and promotion, with a different promotion rank per format.
- Free scoring, following the established four-player variant standard: checkmate on someone +20, double check +1, triple check +5, captures worth 1 (pawn) / 3 (knight and bishop) / 5 (rook) / 9 (queen), capturing a king 20 — and stalemating yourself (no legal move, not in check) pays you +20.
- A promoted queen is worth 1 point when captured.
- An eliminated player leaves with their king, but every other piece stays on the board and remains capturable. The dead player's material becomes spoils for whoever survived — that is what makes staying alive matter in Free.