Tafl games are a family of ancient Germanic board games played on a checkered board with two teams of uneven strength. Versions were played across much of Northern Europe from at least 400 CE until it was supplanted by chess during the Renaissance. Tafl games are possibly descended from the Roman game ludus latrunculorum.

The term "tafl" comes from the Old Norse word for "table," which was often used to refer to a game board.

Versions

Hnefatafl is the name of a game frequently referred to in the Norse sagas. Vikings considered skill at hnefatafl to be a valuable attribute, and in one story one player kills the other due to a disagreement over the game. However, the rules of this game were never recorded, and only playing pieces and fragmentary boards are extant, so it is not known how the game was really played.

Tawl-bwrdd was played in Wales. Robert ap Ifan documented it in a manuscript dated 1587. It was played on an 11×11 board. The rules are somewhat vague, but it is unquestionable that this is a tafl game.

Alea evangelii, named after the first two words of the manuscript in which it is described, was a version played in Saxon England. It is played on a 19×19 board (actually, a 18×18 grid with pieces on the intersections.) The manuscript gives the rules of the game as a religious allegory, so it is difficult to infer exactly what was meant, but it seems to strongly indicate that this was a tafl game.

Brandub is an Irish game likely part of the tafl family, but little is known about it.

Tablut, from Lapland, is the best documented version. In 1732, Carolus Linnaeus recorded the rules and a drawing of the board in his journal while travelling through the area. It is played on a 9×9 board. Linnaeus referred to the light (defending) pieces as "Swedes" and the dark (attacking) pieces as "Muscovites."

Reconstruction

As mentioned above, no complete, unambiguous descriptions of the rules of a Tafl game exist. However, there is enough information to make a reasonable guess as to how the game might have been played. The following is one possible reconstruction of the rules of Tablut, staying as close to the original source as possible.

Starting position: Attacking pieces in black, defending pieces in white.

• The game is played on a 9×9 board. Initial set-up is as shown in the diagram.
• The object of the game for the defenders is to have the king read any square on the periphery of the board.
• The object of the game for the attackers is to capture the king.
• All pieces have the move of a chess rook; that is, they can move any number of spaces in any orthagonal direction until they encounter an obstruction.
• All pieces, with the exception of the king, are captured by surrounding them on two opposite sides with enemy pieces. A capture can only result from the movement of an enemy piece; a piece moving between two existing enemy pieces is not captured.
• The center square of the board, called the throne, can only be moved onto by the king (however, other pieces can move through it).
• The king is captured by surrounding him on all four sides, or three sides and the throne.

References

• Bell, Robert C. (1979). Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations (Revised ed.). New York: Dover Publications, Inc. ISBN 0-486-23855-5.

External links

• Hnefatafl - King's Table (http://www.hnefatafl.net/indexe.html)
• Hnefatafl - the Strategic Board Game of the Vikings (http://user.tninet.se/~jgd996c/hnefatafl/hnefatafl.html)
• BrainKing's Tablut page (http://brainking.com/game/GameRules?tp=19) - Offers a good explanation of the rules and allows you to play the game by e-mail.