Vanilla chess can be a hard sell at game nights. I'd recommend a variant: Bughouse. This is a lovely (and madcap) game that can be played with four people in teams of two.
It's played as two simultaneous games of chess, with one player on a team playing white on one board and the other player playing black on the other. The twist is that any piece captured by your partner can be placed on your own board instead of a normal move (with a few restrictions).
The games aren't synchronized, and you'll need two chess clocks (one for each board) to keep things cracking along. The clocks are usually set to blitz times (such as five minutes per player), and either player on a team running out of time results in a loss.
It's played as two simultaneous games of chess, with one player on a team playing white on one board and the other player playing black on the other. The twist is that any piece captured by your partner can be placed on your own board instead of a normal move (with a few restrictions).
The games aren't synchronized, and you'll need two chess clocks (one for each board) to keep things cracking along. The clocks are usually set to blitz times (such as five minutes per player), and either player on a team running out of time results in a loss.
Lots of fun, and should be good for a team event.