Four-dimensional chess, or 4-D chess, was a Time Lord variant of the Earthly game of chess which was "very popular" on Gallifrey. (GAME: "Skill Explanations" [+]Part of The Iytean Menace, Loading...{"namedpart":"Skill Explanations","1":"The Iytean Menace (game)"}) It was particularly popular prior to the outbreak of the Great Cosmic War. (PROSE: Love & War [+]Loading...["Love & War (short story)"])
Rollo was a skilled 4-D chess player, (GAME: "Player Characters" [+]Part of The Iytean Menace, Loading...{"namedpart":"Player Characters","1":"The Iytean Menace (game)"}) and The Entity considered four dimensional chess to be an "elegantly simple" game. (PROSE: Games [+]Loading...{"page":"22","1":"Games (short story)"}) Media depicting Lesser Time Elementals playing 4-D chess included J. A. Keith's The Iytean Menace from [1985]] and W. Gray's Games (in-universe) from 1992. (PROSE: Love & War [+]Loading...["Love & War (short story)"])
Nature
The game shared the basic rules of Earth chess, (GAME: "Skill Explanations" [+]Part of The Iytean Menace, Loading...{"namedpart":"Skill Explanations","1":"The Iytean Menace (game)"}) including the use of chess pieces such as Kings, (PROSE: Games [+]Loading...{"page":"22","1":"Games (short story)"}) but could be played on "multiple levels" (GAME: "Skill Explanations" [+]Part of The Iytean Menace, Loading...{"namedpart":"Skill Explanations","1":"The Iytean Menace (game)"}) or on an ever-increasingly fast translucent sphere whose board pattern changed over the course of the game, which resulted in the "structure of the conflict" being rearranged every time. (PROSE: Games [+]Loading...{"page":"22","1":"Games (short story)"}) The pieces were capable of time travel, (GAME: "Skill Explanations" [+]Part of The Iytean Menace, Loading...{"namedpart":"Skill Explanations","1":"The Iytean Menace (game)"}, PROSE: Games [+]Loading...{"page":"22","1":"Games (short story)"}) being able to dematerialise from the board and materialise elsewhere on later turns of the games, (GAME: "Skill Explanations" [+]Part of The Iytean Menace, Loading...{"namedpart":"Skill Explanations","1":"The Iytean Menace (game)"}) as well as moves occurring in the future being twist back on themselves to affect moves made in the present. The pieces also increased in number over the course of a game. (PROSE: Games [+]Loading...{"page":"22","1":"Games (short story)"})
Known challenges
The Mandarin and the Entity once played a match in the non-world where the Entity was banished. The game was played until the Mandarin began to lose, so he strategically manoeuvred the game to result in a stalemate. (PROSE: Games [+]Loading...{"page":"22","1":"Games (short story)"})