Four Spatial Dimensions

3D Chess can be thought of as a row of 2D chess boards, each contributing a layer to the cube. Going to the next chess board in the row is equivalent to going up or down.

4D Chess can be thought of as a grid of 2D chess boards. Going between boards is still like going up or down, but now there's two different 'UPs' and two different 'DOWNs'.

Behind the scenes this works as coordinates. Where a 3D space is represented by (x, y, z) i.e. (2, 3, 4), a 4D space just has an additional coordinate: (x, y, z, t) or (2, 3, 4, 3).

Included Boards

A standard chess layout does not make for a great game of 4D chess.

Classic and Consolidated are both similar to standard chess. They are good for understanding the 4D-ness of the game, but they aren't that fun to play.

Spread was designed for 4D Chess. The starting pieces are spread out across the whole board, and it features some pieces unique to 3D and 4D chess.

A Note On Pawns

Pawns can only move forward. But when looking at a chess board that someone else has set up, you can't tell for sure which way is forward for a particular pawn.

The pawns in this game have a number and a sign on them that represents which direction is forward for them. The number is the dimension, and the sign determines whether forward is an increase or decrease in the coordinate for that dimension.

Custom Boards

Use the '+ NEW TEMPLATE' button to create your own starting board. You can save these boards to your computer and upload them for use in future games.