Play the Viking board game Hnefatafl online | Viking Chess | Tablut | Nefatavl

Play Hnefatafl Online. The Viking board game.
World Championship Tournament started September 15th 2020.
See the tournament page.
National Tournaments started July 1st 2020.
See the tournament page.
Play tafl against humans.
Тавлеи против людей.
Rasmus Holbroe vikings
Artist: Copyright © Rasmus Holbroe (Jan. 2016).

Tafl against the computer.
Coming tournaments:
Saami Daabloe 11x9, starting Dec. 13th 2020.
Simple Tyr 15x15, starting Dec. 20th 2020.
Sea battle tafl 13x13 (Nielsen), starting Dec. 27th 2020.
Simple Tyr 11x11, starting Jan. 3rd 2021.
Saami Cuhkka 5x5, starting Jan. 10th 2021.
Next: Sea battle-204577 11x11.
Go to the Play Tafl Against Humans page to join; the invitation is open for 7 days.
Small forum.
Code of Conduct. You should not post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful or threatening material. Doing so may lead to you being immediately banned for a period of time.
(On the second, large structured forum registering is normally disabled to keep spam robots out. Please give a tip-off if you need it opened for registering of a new user.)

  01-15/23:56 Hagbard:  No, it is a bug. I was not aware of that.

  01-15/23:41 Jrton80:  @Hagbard in the Saami Cuhkka 5x5, Are we supposed to be able to jump corner to corner capturing the one guy in the middle? Note my games against Bogd khan and Borjk. I did look at the rules but the Wiki seems more for Saami Daabloe 11x9

  01-15/19:19 Hagbard:  The Sea battle tafl 13x13 (Nielsen) tournament finished with #1 Chaolaibhne and Holidayinnes, #3 Xerxes

  01-13/12:56 Hagbard:  After 7 days. That is very early morning in 4 days.

  01-13/12:39 mihkkal:  When does registration end for the Cuhkka tournament?

  01-12/18:03 Steiger:  I am

  01-12/15:21 Hagbard:  who is the photographer then?

  01-12/15:02 Steiger:  made by Dmitry Pashkov (Ethnic Board Games), not me)

  01-12/15:00 Hagbard:  The Saami Daabloe 11x9 tournament finished with #1 Jrton80 and Mihkkal, #3 Xerxes

  01-12/09:20 Hagbard:  New in gallery: Berserk game made by Steiger.

  01-08/19:18 Hagbard:  The most active players 2020:
cacreal 911 games
Jrton80 841 games
holidayinnes 787 games
Masterluke 728 games
L716 520 games
ChaolAibhne 418 games
xerxes 398 games
Haio 372 games
mmagari 331 games
frenir 313 games
p59xy 307 games
Ded Fomich 301 games

  01-08/18:44 Hagbard:  It is caught by the software after 100 moves, but that happened only one time in a real game.
Please remember for the Final: "If it is not possible to end the game, it is a draw."

Your example is an interesting case, and I believe you could be right that there could exist cases difficult for the umpire.

  01-08/17:18 Draganov:  @Hagbard: Probably, the best way to solve this issue would be to ask for umpire's decision and the umpire to declare the game as a draw if there is not a way to finish the game without a terrific mistake from one of the sides. However, it would open the door for some difficult to judge situation. For example, in one of my games against Frenir, I won on move 190. I had a plan and tried to put some pressure on my opponent and at the end I won the game. The position 20-30 moves earlier was playable in my opinion but Frenir thought it is a draw and did not see any plan for winning for me. I am afraid that the umpire will not be able to decide properly on every position. Probably the umpire should propose playing for 20-30 additional moves and see the position again and then he will better understanding on the position and if the position is as drawish as before, the umpire will declare the game as a draw.

  01-08/00:53 Greg:  Deregisters from the World Championship Tournament 2020.

  01-07/19:01 Draganov:  So, how this rule is forced? What will happen if one of the players refuses to accept the draw in a draw position.

  01-07/16:54 Hagbard:  It is now rule 10: "If it is not possible to end the game, it is a draw."
It's now a judgment, this game will lead nowhere.
50 or 100 moves on the internet take an eternity. Even over the board irl it would be an eternity ...
It would be a problem, if the opponent refuses to accept the draw. But to have to do 100 moves to force a draw would be rather depressing.
That is just my opinion.

  01-07/15:57 Draganov:  @Hagbard: Do we have in Tafl something like 'Fifty-move rule' in chess? It means that the game is declared as a draw if both players did 50 moves without capturing a piece. In Tafl 50 moves should be expanded to 100 moves per a player or something like that. It will prevent the players from endlessly moving in a position when few pieces are left and one of the players refuses to accept the draw offer. What do you think about this rule proposal?

  01-07/12:39 Hagbard:  The Simple Tyr 15x15 tournament finished with #1 Chaolaibhne, #2 Jrton80, #3 Draganov

  01-05/20:05 Hagbard:  Sorry there'll be a week of automatic silence for a few players so as not to disturb the concentration of the players in the Final. (- probably me too... ;) )

  01-05/15:58 Hagbard:  There was this king who got in a quarrel with his brother in law over a game and had him killed the same day, and I believe there are also other cases reported.

  01-05/14:48 Hagbard:  There are rumours, sometimes when you lost a game, you'd kill your opponent, I suppose that's not in the rules...

  01-05/12:53 Hagbard:  Only philosophy in this uncivilized game is to win the battle. But doing it following the rules of the battle, there could be a philosophy there...

  01-05/12:38 Hagbard:  - oh I see you ask for hnefatafl. In my view it is a model of the Iron Age battle field.

  01-05/12:27 Hagbard:  It's about how you should live a good life, about good and bad personal character traits. You meet a black snake, representing some bad trait, and are beaten backwards, in worst case almost back to start. Or you meet a red snake, representing some good trait, and are lifted way ahead in the race.

  01-05/10:00 Hagbard:  The old game is education in Hindu life philosophy and the life journey from birth to Nirvana. Nowadays it's become simply an abstract game with dice.
The scientist tells that very often ancient games originally had a deep meaning, but if they're used still today, like fx. Nine Men's Morris, they're now simply abstract games -

  01-04/06:17 the-zenith-:  Deregisters from the World Championship Tournament 2020.

  01-03/16:38 Hagbard:  Well spotted! The scientist explains that the modern game has extremely old roots and that the original ancient game has deep religious meaning.

  01-03/16:35 Steiger:  Looks like Leela (Snakes and ladders): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_and_ladders

  01-03/15:44 OdinHimself:  @Hagbard: What's this about? Board games? I can't understand it without translation.

  01-03/14:54 Hagbard:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHayykqorh8

  01-02/18:44 Draganov:  How can I loggin to this site: 
http://beta.playtaflonline.com/
I regestered but when I tried to login, I received this message:
"You must verify your email before logging in."
However, I have never received a verification email.

  01-01/21:47 Hagbard:  Lead in Valhöll: Casshern 3 pt.

  01-01/09:47 OdinHimself:  Happy New Year everyone! Let the the Norse gods be with us and help us to bring our beloved game even to the most distant places of the world! Victoryyyyy!!!

  01-01/09:29 MasterLuke:  Happy New Year! Especially to my opponents who kick my ass every time! My goal this year is to reach the 1400-points ranking :D:D:D

  12-30/20:29 Hagbard:  Certainly. They're postponed now, not to disturb the Copenhagen Final.

  12-30/20:10 Draganov:  @Hagbard: Are we going to have Old Hnefatafl and Fetlar tournaments in 2021?

  12-30/14:24 Draganov:  @Alex Hnefatafl: the variant could be implemented after the finish of the World Copenhagen Tournament. It would be probably in the middle of January.

  12-27/22:34 MasterLuke:  @Draganov: See section 8 'Additional rules': like most other Tafl variants, repetition should not be allowed.

  12-27/21:27 Draganov:  @MasterLuke: What about the repetition rule? Are there a way for black winning the game by forcing whites to repeat their moves?

  12-27/21:19 MasterLuke:  Or you can agree on a draw, of course...

  12-27/21:18 MasterLuke:  @Draganov: If I may interfere here: as I set up the Tyr-rules, I deliberately left out the surrounding rule. In the normal Tyr-game, this is obvious. But in Simple Tyr, you should actually try to kill the king. It's the harsh nature of the Tyr game; it's all in the spirit of keeping the game as simple as possible without extra rules.  Thus there's no other way for black to win than killing the king. There's no other way for white to win then reach a border with his king. Therefore building forts doesn't count either. So I guess you guys should play on and provoke a mistake of your opponent to end the game.

  12-27/21:03 Hagbard:  The Tyr games do not have the surrounding rule, just as the Berserk game does not. Because the Berserk game has jumping pieces, which can jump over the surrounding.
But now that you mention it, the Simple Tyr should have the surrounding rule, since Simple Tyr does not have jumping pieces.

  12-27/20:52 Draganov:  @Hagbard: In my Tyr game against Jrton80, he surrounded me but the game continued. I thought it should be declared as a win for him or there is no surrounding rule in this variant?

  12-27/16:05 Hagbard:  @Alex Hnefatafl. Let's have a look after the world tourn. It's risky to change the software during the tourn.

  12-27/11:24 mihkkal:  God jul / Buorit juovllat!

  12-27/08:24 Hagbard:  First game completed: Cacreal / Casshern

  12-25/15:11 Agmundr:  God jul!

  12-25/08:10 Hagbard:  The day is 1 minute longer -

  12-23/08:34 Hagbard:  The day is 18 seconds longer.

  12-22/14:42 Hagbard:  The day is 5 seconds longer!!

  12-22/06:39 Hagbard:  The Historical Hnefatafl 7x7 (Irish Brandubh 2) tournament finished with #1 Auskor and Hnefihunter, #3 Holidayinnes

  12-21/15:32 Hagbard:  https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/nyheder/offentligt-phd-forsvar-om-rekonstruktion-af-osebergskibet-1

  12-21/14:13 Hagbard:  Already ok, the tournament starts when player two arrives.

  12-21/11:24 Draganov:  @Hagbard: I would like to join Simple Tyr tournament but I could not. Can you add me?

  12-21/09:56 Hagbard:  Shortest day!!

  12-13/08:25 Hagbard:  The Sea battle tafl 13x13 tournament finished with #1 Chaolaibhne, #2 Holidayinnes and Xerxes

  12-11/17:47 OdinHimself:  @Hagbard: Lol, no, Odin is no more, so no knowledge for them! lol Good luck!

  12-11/17:13 Hagbard:  First move: Bogd khan

  12-11/17:00 Hagbard:  May Odin give you knowledge on your path

  12-09/19:54 ChaolAibhne:  @Death: I've also sometimes wanted to be able to invite only players with a higher rating than me. I could invite several players by name, but then I might end up with more simultaneous games than I wanted. But in your case you presumably just invite Casshern? 🙂

  12-09/17:59 Hagbard:  It should not be a problem, please try again

  12-09/12:29 mihkkal:  The Trondheim Hnefatafl set is now in the semi finals of the NIDARK competition.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/642174312787130/permalink/1374644836206737/

  12-09/10:23 Hagbard:  That would be Simple Tyr 15x15 after Saami Daabloe 11x9

  12-09/09:47 paul7:  @Hagbard: it worked now! Thanks!

  12-09/09:40 Draganov:  @Hagbard: When we are going to have Simple Tyr tournaments again? I tried this variant and seems really interesting and well-balanced.

  12-09/00:14 Hagbard:  - which you have, please try again.

  12-09/00:03 Hagbard:  @paul7. You can join the tournament when you've finished a game.

  12-08/23:43 Abbas Agraphicus:  @Paul7: I'm not sure about the rating thing, honestly. But it should still be open. Maybe Hagbard can help you.

  12-08/23:14 paul7:  @Draganov: sounds reasonable, but I believe at least one person joined it after I first asked here in forum.

  12-08/23:07 Draganov:  @paul7: I think the reason that you could not join the Brandubh tournament is because it had been already started. I am not sure if you can join it in the middle of the tournament.

  12-08/22:56 paul7:  Perhaps one has to have a rating to join a tournament? Everybody listed in active tournaments are also listed on a rating page, and I am not there yet.

  12-08/22:06 paul7:  @Abbas Agraphicus: Yeah, that's what I do. I enter my login, my password, tick a checkbox next to a tournament and click 'Join the game!'. Then I'm just being redirected to 'My current games' page though. I even tried several web browsers, no luck.

  12-08/21:36 Abbas Agraphicus:  @Paul7: Hi, you have to click the "Join" button after you select the tournament

  12-08/21:01 paul7:  Hi there! How do I join a tournament? I see an ongoing brandubh 2 tournament in a game list but if I enter my username/password and select the tournament checkbox nothing seems to happen. I am able to start my own game though. Sorry I'm probably missing something entirely obvious...

  12-08/08:34 Hagbard:  All games in Round 2 finished.
Jötunheimr: Garun19 and Odinhimself both got 7 points. But Garun19 won both games against Odinhimself.
Garun19 qualified for Round 3.

Speaking as umpire:
Bogd khan, Cacreal, Draganov and Garun19 together with Casshern qualified for Round 3.
Round 3 starts Dec. 11th at 18 o'clock Danish time.

  12-07/23:05 Hagbard:  The Saami Sáhkku 3x15 (Kåfjord) tournament finished with #1 L716, #2 Draganov, Cacreal and Mihkkal

  12-04/16:40 Hagbard:  Separate Saami Sáhkku ratings at the bottom of the page here:
http://aagenielsen.dk/separate_ratings.php

@Abbas Agraphicus. The separate ratings are calculated slightly differently.

  12-04/12:13 Abbas Agraphicus:  @Hagbard: sorry for all the questions I make, but I wondered, why in the separate rankings I got some points in variants which I have been playing only "not rated"? Example: in Tawlbwrdd I only played friendlies but it seems I gained some elos.

  12-04/11:29 Draganov:  Wow the Saami Sáhkku tournament is really competitive. Many players have the same amount of points. It is nice that we can play this game here. 
Is there somewhere to see our separate Saami Sáhkku rating?

  12-04/08:28 mihkkal:  VOTE HNEFATAFL!

THE "Nidark" group on FB organizes a vote to determine the coolest archaelogical artifact from Trondheim.

Now you can vote for the remains of a Medieval tafl set! Go to https://m.facebook.com/groups/642174312787130/permalink/1370520973285790/

You vote for tafl by using the "surprised" emoji on the post :-)

  12-04/00:03 Hagbard:  It's not quite enough to block all corners. The king must be caught or forced to repeat.

  12-03/21:22 ChaolAibhne:  @Hagbard. In Old Hnefatafl is it considered a win for black if they block all four corners? If so then the game engine doesn't appear to detect it in my game against Draganov. Or must I actually capture the king?

  12-03/09:37 Hagbard:  @xerxes. Thank you!!
The Julekalender is rebroadcasted now.

  12-03/09:26 xerxes:  @Hagbard.  Am enjoying the Advent Calendar.  Couldn't work out which one of them was you yesterday Aage ;)

  11-30/17:00 Hagbard:  Yes an error, thank you!

  11-30/09:19 MasterLuke:  @Hagbard: Would you please change the text '(Game pieces: Marian Luck, "themightyglider")' below the Historical Hnefatafl 7x7 (Scottish Ard Ri throneless) game to (Game pieces: 'Luk Martens, "Masterluke")'  because I designed these pieces, not Marian. Thanks in advance.

  11-30/01:30 Seeb:  Deregisters from the World Championship Tournament 2020.

  11-29/08:25 Hagbard:  Qualified for Round 3: Draganov 8 pt.
Second lead in Jötunheimr: Odinhimself and Garun19 6 pt.

  11-26/15:56 Abbas Agraphicus:  @Hagbard: Oh, I see

  11-26/15:36 Hagbard:  If the question is that some are not in the general list here:
http://aagenielsen.dk/tafl_humans.php
then it is, that the players missing from the list have been silent in some cases for years.

  11-26/15:26 Abbas Agraphicus:  @Hagbard: I was curious, why are there players that are very very high in he separate rankings (like 1800+) and don't appear in the general one?

  11-26/11:14 Hagbard:  The next could be
Saami Sáhkku 3x15 (Kåfjord)
Historical Hnefatafl 7x7 (Irish Brandubh 2)

  11-26/11:10 Draganov:  @Hagbard: Where I can find the schedule for the planned tournaments and see which one is going to be next? I would like to start playing other tafl variants except Copenhagen and would like to prepare myself in advance.

  11-26/11:00 Hagbard:  It's cyclic. The oldest tournament is started again. Then there've been the test tournaments of new variants, they're completed now.
At the moment no strong king tournaments, so as not to disturb the World Championship, which is a strong king tournament.

  11-26/10:44 Draganov:  @Hagbard: I have another question. Who decides when and what tafl variant to be the next tournament? I see that there is a section with coming tournaments but don't know where the players discussed about their start. Is there a process of deciding about the coming tournaments and some sort of discussions?

  11-26/02:41 Seeb:  Deregisters from the World Championship Tournament 2020.

  11-26/00:20 Abbas Agraphicus:  @Hagbard: that is real Tafl lore! 😁

  11-25/20:35 Draganov:  @Hagbard: Thank you for the link to the archive and the information about first Fetlar Championship.

  11-25/20:21 Hagbard:  The Simple Tafl 11x11 tournament finished with #1 Ded fomich, #2 Chaolaibhne, #3 Agmundr

  11-25/16:46 Hagbard:  - A small anecdote from Fetlar:
It is but a small island, and the tafl guests had to bring their own tents and live on a camping site.
The night before the tournament was strong wind, and Millar reported that all night sounded as if a swarm of pidgins flew around in the tent. - But as we know, Millar won the tournament anyway -

  11-25/15:51 Hagbard:  To my knowledge there's not an internet archive from the island Fetlar.
However there is a video from their first World Championship 2008 with notation:
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/456106/game-record-final-world-quickplay-hnefatafl-champi
Tim Millar ("crust") was involved in the Fetlar events and won twice up there.
Millar is the tradition bearer of the Fetlar game here, and especially the Fetlar games of "crust" against "Adam" stored in the archive here show how the game is played.
To search all way back in time, please use:
http://aagenielsen.dk/visallespil_soeg_nath.php

  11-25/13:58 Draganov:  @Hagbard: I have a question about the game archive. Is it possible to find somewhere on the Internet an archive for the games that were played on the Fetlar Hnefatafl Panel. Did they keep records of these games or they are lost for ever. As a Historian, it would be interesting for me to see how the game is developing over the years.

  11-25/02:35 p59xy:  Deregisters from the World Championship Tournament 2020.

  11-23/12:19 Hagbard:  Qualified for Round 3: Bogd Khan 8 pt.

  11-22/21:45 Hagbard:  Thank you! Replaced

  11-22/21:39 Abbas Agraphicus:  @Hagbard: Aage, I sent you another pdf with the pictures, can you please replace the other one? At first I didn't understand I should do the layout myself, sorry for the inconvenience!

  11-22/20:52 Hagbard:  @Abbas Agraphicus: Thank you! The rules are added

  11-22/19:21 Hagbard:  First to qualify for Round 3: Cacreal 8 pt.
Second lead in Fólkvangr: Bogd khan 7 pt.

  11-22/19:19 Hagbard:  The Tyr-3 13x13 tournament finished with #1 Jrton80, #2 Ded fomich, #3 Masterluke

  11-22/18:04 Abbas Agraphicus:  @Hagbard: I sent you the pdf by email. Let me know if everything's ok. Bye!

  11-22/14:40 Hagbard:  You could just write, that the defenders (white) lose repetitions (ten years of archive show that they always do)
pdf is a good format.
Email address is at bottom of this page.

  11-22/10:45 Abbas Agraphicus:  Cause in italian it sounds very odd to me, and I think that if I didn't know the rule already, I wouldn't understand it.
Maybe something like "if both players repeat the same move three times in a row, the player who started the repetition loses the game".

  11-22/09:26 Abbas Agraphicus:  @Hagbard: I have done the translation. Where do I send it and which file format do you prefer?
I sticked to the original as much as possible, to have an even interpretation in all languages.
But I have a question: isn't the last part of rule 8 a bit difficult to understand? I mean the part that goes "...the player who had the choice...".
Couldn't it be like "the player who started the repetition (scheme / pattern / ...) loses the game"?
I was just curious.

  11-21/22:43 Adam:  @dragonov apology accepted. And my apologies to you for not staying ahead of the buffer. As it happens all my remaining games times out today as I find it difficult to make time for moves on the weekends. A frustrating reality of correspondence games. But of course, a strict time limit is needed or we would never get a result! My apologies to my other opponents also.

  11-21/19:21 Hagbard:  @Abbas Agraphicus: Thank you! The Brandubh 2 is probably the more used because of the balance.
We already have fx. English and French:
http://aagenielsen.dk/brandubh2_rules_en.pdf
http://aagenielsen.dk/brandubh2_rules_fr.pdf

  11-21/13:31 mihkkal:  Ok! Thanks for the clarification

  11-21/13:21 Hagbard:  No draw fort in Historical Hnefatafl. Instead such a fort will end in loss by repetition.
The only variant with the draw fort is Fetlar Hnefatafl, because they decided to have it in Fetlar (the Fetlar Hnefatafl Panel).

  11-21/12:55 mihkkal:  Just wondering if  win by draw fort is coded into Tawlbwrdd. I thought I had made a draw fort in @mmagari's game against me but the game keeps going.

  11-21/10:54 Abbas Agraphicus:  @Hagbard: being myself italian and mostly interested in brandubh, I'd be happy to provide an italian translation of the rules. Maybe that could help other players to understand the game. Let me know if it can be useful. Bye.

  11-20/20:02 Draganov:  @Hagbard: Thank you for the explanation and your judgement. So, I will resign. However, it is really an interesting position :)

  11-20/18:58 Hagbard:  Very peculiar situation indeed. True, it is possible for white to repeat and impossible for black to stop it or destroy the white formation.
However, this formation is not among those formally considered an exit fort. Therefore white will be considered to repeat and to lose by repetition.
When you continue the game, the computer will detect the repetition.
So as umpire:
White is enclosed and will lose by repetition after a number of moves.

  11-20/18:09 Draganov:  @Hagbard: I would like to ask for the decision of the umpire on my game against Garun19. The position that we reached is very strange and I cannot avoid move repetition. However, if the black (Garun19) plays something to break my position I will win by an exit fort. Please, look at the position and decide if it would be a draw or I need to lose because of move repetition.

  11-20/15:18 Draganov:  @Adam: I would like to apologize to you. I was left with the wrong impression that you left the game to timeout intentionally. I really wanted to finish the game because it was an interesting battle from its beginning and I didn't want to finish it duo to timing out. Moreover, as a new player, it was an honor to play with a former wolrd champion like you, and I wanted to play the game till the end. Probably the way the game finished, frustrated me and now I want to apologize for my reaction. I agree that losing the game is enough punishment but I still think that including the amount of finished games into the additional criteria in case of tied players is not so bad idea. Probably it could be mentioned as the last criteria and we will probably never use it in a tournament.

  11-20/14:48 Adam:  @Draganov: The other answers here really say all that needs to be said. But I would like to clarify a point as an accusation has been levelled at me. You say “Instead of resigning, he just left the game to timed out, which is not good for the game and tournament” I have never intentionally ‘just left’ a game to time out. You are quite right, the position was hopeless. However, as my opponents will attest and probably lament, I tend to fight to the bitter end. Intentionally walking out of a game is anathema to me, and the timing system frustrates me. I have made particular efforts this year to stay ahead of the buffer, by playing several times a day when I can, apparently to no avail. Secondly, it does nothing bad for the game. People who find themselves unable to play, lose. It’s by all means a pain when a game times out on someone who is clearly going to win. Punishment enough as has been said. But I for one have no problem hitting the resign button. I often leave a message as I like to congratulate opponents or comment on a game’s uniqueness. If there are players who intentionally timeout when they are going to lose, I for one am not bothered. It’s a bit like getting a nice surprise in the post.

  11-16/07:17 OdinHimself:  I suggest players who timed-out to be decapitated. Honestly, I don't think anything about the time-out option needs a change. It doesn't matter how you won and we can't judge anyone for timing out. As xerxes pointed, the reasons for timing out can be various, we all have our personal issues and other things to do, so let's don't turn the tournaments in battles of life and death. Anyway, as far as we play online from our homes and not face to face on live, nothing will be as it should be. I felt the tafl spirit most highly when I played live and faster against Steiger and Ded Fomich in Russia. This is the only way to feel the game and enjoy it on maximum level.

  11-14/19:56 xerxes:  I agree that can be annoying when an opponet times-out.  However, there are lots of potential reasons for a time-out, eg illness, internet/PC problems, work issues.  In such cases the player who times-out loses the match, which seems enough of a penalty, especially if they might have won it.  The winner wins the match, which is enough of a reward, especially if they might have lost it had it continued.

  11-14/17:13 sqAree:  It's quite easy to time out in online tournaments and with such time controls. Over a real board irl, I would agree with you, but here we have to do at least one move every day which can be quite challenging. I already timed out some clearly won positions in previous World Championships or other games.

  11-14/10:53 Draganov:  I think we need a rule against players who timed-out often. In my group Luizz timed out several times. He was not sportive to the level of the second round competition. Adam also timed out a game against me in which his position was completely lost. Instead of resigning, he just left the game to timed out, which is not good for the game and tournament. It is not beautiful when half of my victories came after timing out. My suggestion is to include the amount of finished games as an additional criteria when players are tied. It could be the third criteria after direct game comparison and Sonneborn-Berger score. To be sportive and sportsmanship should be more valuable than the criteria for game length victory.

  11-14/07:30 Hagbard:  The Simple Tyr 11x11 tournament finished with #1 Ded fomich, #2 Jrton80, #3 Masterluke

  11-14/00:25 Hagbard:  First to finish all games in Round 2 (Copenhagen): Cacreal

  11-13/19:42 Hagbard:  The Sea battle tafl 15x15 tournament finished with #1 Chaolaibhne, #2 Bender

  11-13/19:17 Hagbard:  https://www.instagram.com/steigerdis/?hl=ru
http://aagenielsen.dk/taflshop_steiger.php

  11-13/19:08 Steiger:  @OdinHimself, \m/.

  11-13/18:36 Steiger:  @Abbas Agraphicus, only instagram and facebook.

  11-13/18:28 Abbas Agraphicus:  @Steiger: Do you have a personal web space or something, where you show your works? They look good.

  11-13/17:21 OdinHimself:  And again, slap on the back for Steiger, and warm greetings for the puzzle! :)

  11-13/10:21 Hagbard:  New in gallery: the Steiger tafl games of Casshern and Mmagari.

  11-12/19:42 Steiger:  I'm proud, danke! Glück auf!

  11-12/19:40 Hagbard:  New in gallery: Fomichëv sent photos of three Steiger tafl games of his.

  11-12/15:33 Hagbard:  New in gallery: jigsaw in Roskilde museumshop.

  11-10/16:22 Steiger:  @MasterLuke, thank you!

  11-10/09:46 abbas agraphicus:  @Hagbard: alright, thx!

  11-10/06:34 Hagbard:  @Abbas Agraphicus: 1500

  11-09/23:43 MasterLuke:  @Steiger: That new game in the gallery is absolutely awesome!

  11-09/22:53 Abbas Agraphicus:  Guys, a stupid question: how many elos do you start with when you sign up here?

  11-09/10:51 Steiger:  @OdinHimself, благодарю, дружище!

  11-09/10:11 OdinHimself:  @Steiger: You did it again brother! Great tafl set and description! Respect! :)

  11-08/22:49 Hagbard:  All games in Sáivu (Tablut Final) finished.

  11-08/19:33 Hagbard:  New in gallery: tafl game created by Aleksander Steiger Dis.

  11-07/10:50 Hagbard:  Lead in Jötunheimr: Draganov 3 pt.

  11-05/17:06 Adam:  @Abbas Agraphicus: I think that's a very good suggestion. The averages would certainly be meaningful given the large number of games in the archive.

  11-04/00:55 Hagbard:  The Sea battle tafl 11x11 tournament finished with #1 Casshern, #2 Masterluke, #3 Bender

  11-03/08:14 Hagbard:  Looks like Casshern won the Tablut World tournament, 10 pt. !

  11-01/18:42 Hagbard:  First to finish Round 2 (Tablut): Steiger

  10-30/15:00 Draganov:  Thanks! I sent a registration request and wait for approval.

  10-30/10:46 Hagbard:  Opened

  10-30/10:08 Draganov:  I cannot register to the site forum. Can you open the registration process in order to create my account?

  10-29/23:57 Abbas Agraphicus:  @Adam: maybe I'm taking this too far but, could the game-lenght ratio be significant to the purpose? Meaning: how much longer must be a game to let black win on average? For example in Copen. Hnefatafl it is 1.7, so maybe black could have 2x clock-time than white.
Don't know...just thinking out loud

  10-28/19:18 Adam:  @Abbas Agraphicus - i agree - i was thinking it might be able to give us a ballpark figure with the large amount of games played. But probably the information isnt there for past games in any case. I was thinking also just about the amount of time it takes from seeing the board to clicking the send button.

  10-27/16:44 Draganov:  Is there a way to implement time control for testing purposes on this site and play online in real time? Or we can play somewhere else with a time control in order to find the time control that will work well. I am ready to play as a tester of different time controls.

  10-27/16:42 Draganov:  I think that the only way to see what time control will work for Hnefatafl is by practice. We need probably a couple of hundreds games in order to see which time control will be the most balanced. In my opinion black having twice more time would be good. The statistics show that when even players played against each other, the player playing with the black pieces has an advantage. So, in my opinion the black time should not be twice bigger than the white's.

  10-27/10:28 Abbas Agraphicus:  @Draganov @Adam: this is very very interesting, but let me do the devil's advocate: don't you think that a statistic about thinking-time would be inaccurate if based on internet games? I mean, how can one know if the moves were slow cause of a tactic problem or cause the user was busy and couldn't move frequently? Or maybe a very large number of games would anyway give back a reliable data?

  10-26/21:01 Adam:  @Draganov - I wondered about an asymmetry clock too. I couldn't land on a logic for how much more time to give black though. With a gong system black could have longer to think per move. But is it four times as easy to slip up as black? Twice as easy? I wonder if a timer could measure how long players take, at least on average, to move as black and as white on this site? It would give a rough indication of any imbalance in thinking time between black and white, which could be a good starting point for testing the idea.

  10-26/15:20 Hagbard:  Lead in Fólkvangr: Cacreal 3 pt.

  10-25/06:37 Hagbard:  The Simple Tyr 13x13 tournament finished with #1 Ded fomich, #2 Masterluke, #3 Jrton80

  10-24/18:30 Draganov:  Time addition would be good too because it is not good when the game is over due to time-out. Adding 15 second per move will resolve this problem.

  10-24/18:29 Draganov:  Tafl game is asymmetry, so probably it would be a good idea to use asymmetry clock. The black could have 50% more time than the white. In case of a blitz game it would be like 15 minutes for black and 10 minutes for the white.

  10-23/15:00 Hagbard:  First Copenhagen game finished: Fastov / Cacreal

  10-22/19:28 MasterLuke:  @mihkkal: You know, I think you could be right about the order of the moves... It's worth trying. But as it is, I find it difficult to convince people to play tafl in real life, let alone three... Some genius should make it work online to try out :)

  10-22/17:42 unhandyandy:  Oops, thanks

  10-22/17:39 Hagbard:  It's on page two, More Variants. Both Brandubh 1 and 2.

  10-22/17:32 unhandyandy:  Why is Brandubh no longer available?!

  10-22/13:05 Abbas Agraphicus:  @Adam: right, I see

  10-22/12:00 mihkkal:  @MasterLuke Old topic by now but someone reminded me of 3 player Tablut and so: Yes
Attacker 1 - Attacker 2 - Defender has a certain logic to it I think but I guess it does make the game much more difficult for Defender. The Attackers have a disadvantage from being split between two players that don't communicate but still it may be too much for the Defender if two Attackers get to move between every time one Defender moves? That's the reason maybe Attacker 1 - Defender - Attacker 2 - Defender etc would work better for a balanced game... maybe. I don't know.

  10-22/11:45 Adam:  @Abbas Agraphicus: Lightning Hnefatafl is great fun, though I have a suspician that any tournament using any time limit system would end up with an aweful lot of white wins. White has four targets to attack (plus exit forts) and one to defend, while black has one target to attack and four (plus exit forts) to defend. So its a good deal easier for black to slip up catasrophically under time pressure.

  10-21/11:13 Abbas Agraphicus:  @Adam: Yes, of course a ticking clock will always be an additional pressure on black. But in a context of official live tournaments, where a time limit of some sort is unavoidable, it could be a fair compromise.
Obviously that should be somehow tested to understand what is the right average time needed to do a move.

  10-21/10:31 Adam:  @Abbas Agraphicus: That is an excellent suggestion. In fact, I beleive I am right in saying that the first ever Hnefatafl World championship, held in Fetlar, used a gong to tell everyone time was up for their move, if I remember rightly! I suspect black will still be at a disadvantage with time pressure. But it neatly solves the problem of time running out for black.

  10-21/10:25 Adam:  @Hagbard: It sounds ike a job for this community then! I suppose some digging for original sources is in order, if our experience with tafl rules is anything to go by. Damian Walker has a nice page on the two games. Its graeat as the diagram there looks like a hnefatafl rule image.

  10-21/09:52 Abbas Agraphicus:  @Adam: Looks like half an hour of time is a big limitation when it comes to matches where black is conducting and needs to adjust the formation to encircle the opponent or something like that.
What about just putting a limited amount of time for the players to do each move?

  10-21/07:23 Hagbard:  Lead in Sáivu: Casshern 3 pt.

  10-20/12:45 Hagbard:  (True, I used elements of described Ludus Latrunculorum rules for the Berserk Hnefatafl and made the game work. But Latrunculi rules used for Latrunculi, as they are described, do not look like something, which would work well.)

  10-20/12:38 Hagbard:  @Adam: I had the same thought, now that a series of games other than tafl had been implemented, Saami & Hex. It seemed natural to expand with the closely related ancestor of tafl, and I searched the web for information on Ludus Latrunculorum and found many various rules sets, all of them looking very bad in my opinion. None of the rules looked well functioning to me. Petteia I haven't looked into.

  10-20/12:19 Adam:  @Draganov: Yes, the clock really stirred things up! Years ago I toyed with the idea of making a tafl clock with two hour glasses fixed togther in a frame at 90 degrees to each other, just to prove that in theory, the vikings could have used one! But joking aside, while the chess clock was great fun, it does run into a problem with the game's asymmetry. It might work better with historical hnefatafl, but even then the difference in goals still skews the effect of time pressure. Its an interesting problem, I'd like to hear if anyone else has had a go at tafl with a chess clock.

  10-20/12:13 Adam:  @Hagbard: an interesting question came up on the WTF fb page: "Is there ludus latrunculorum, petteia championship - seems like those games are highly flawed and they always result in draw or stalemate" - Cyningstan talks about these games, and I know Beserk Hnefatafl owes a lot to Ludus. As other ancient games are now being looked at here, might it be an idea to put these ancient games through the grinder and see what comes out?

  10-19/12:01 Draganov:  Anyway, it was a great day for the Hnefatafl game.

  10-19/12:01 Draganov:  I hope that the Hnefatafl game will become more and more popular. It would be a good idea if chess clock is included but with time addition. For example adding 15 seconds after the move is done. Actually Adam had winning position in the first game with the black pieces but timed out. If there were time addition he should probably won.

  10-19/11:56 Draganov:  Here is the match between Adam and Johan-Sebastian Christiansen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt8MBAWfBPk

  10-18/19:33 ChaolAibhne:  Thanks, @Hagbard. That seems to me to be fairest to the other contestants.

  10-18/15:54 Hagbard:  done

  10-18/14:48 ChaolAibhne:  @Hagbard. Partway through the Sea Battle tournament I found myself unavailable and a few of my games timed out. Rather than rejoin now and possibly skew the results, would it be possible just to cancel my current games and treat it as if I hadn't taken part?
Full contents of the small forum.
Train your brain like a viking. Science Days in Norway Sep. 27th 2020. (Click on the image!)
Dmitry Pashkov from Ethnic Board Games tells about tafl games, ludus latrunculorum, daldøs a.o., broadcasted by oper.ru Dec. 11th 2020.
Hnefatafl is also known by the names Nefatavl, The King's Table, The Viking Game, Viking Chess, Tablut or simply Tafl.
History of this site.
Art on this site.
Comments on Hnefatafl.
The origin of the Viking board game Hnefatafl and the Berserk rules.
Links to more information on the Viking board game Hnefatafl.
Tafl Shops.
Viking word of wisdom: The Hávamál.
(Havámál på dansk).
World Tafl Federation Championship 2019 started Sep. 15th 2019.
See the tournament page.
Здесь можно играть в тавлеи и против компьютера, и против людей. Можно использовать кириллицу.
Many thanks to Adam Bartley ("Adam"), Tim Millar ("crust"), Gregory Binns ("Torc"), John C. Ashton, Nicolas Cartier, Jonas Lööf ("conanlibrarian"), Olli Salmi, Damian Walker ("cyningstan"), Sten Helmfrid, Rene Gralla, Olga Mudrichenko, Gary and Christa (Germany), Ludovic Antoine, Nikolas Lloyd, Jeffrey Westcoat ("Sigurd"), Rasmus Holbroe, Thore Nissen, Lucho Panchev ("OdinHimself"), Alexander Steiger Dis ("Steiger"), Dmitry Pashkov, Delray Curtis ("jrton80"), David Zolli ("branan"), Luk Martens ("Masterluke"), Marian Luck ("themightyglider") and Mikkel Berg-Nordlie ("mihkkal"). for their contribution to this site. And not least the more than 400 players the world over who played here 28000 real tafl games humans against humans and thus created a vast, practical experience with this intriguing, historical board game.
Updated 10.1.2021