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

Play Hnefatafl Online. The Viking board game.

Play tafl against humans.
Тавлеи против людей.
Rasmus Holbroe vikings

Coming tournaments:
Copenhagen Hnefatafl Bell 11x11 starting May 5th.
Historical Hnefatafl 15x15 (Nielsen) starting May 9th.
Sea battle tafl 13x13 starting May 12th.
Historical Hnefatafl 13x13 starting May 12th.
Saami Cuhkka 5x5 starting May 12th.
Berserk Hnefatafl 11x11 starting May 16th.
Sea battle-204577-w starting May 19th.
Historical Hnefatafl 9x9 (Saami Tablut-w) starting May 19th.
Old Hnefatafl 11x11 starting May 22nd.
Next: Sea battle-2526 9x9 and Tyr 11x11.
Go to the Play Tafl Against Humans page to join; the invitation is open for 7 days.

Kievan Rus'.

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.)


  05-23/16:22 Hagbard:  ok

  05-23/08:58 Draganov:  I think we need to think about a situation when a player refused to play against another player. Imagine if such a situation happened in the world championship. I totally understand the choice of MasterLuke since Alex Hnefatafl has bad behaviour but what we can propose as a solution for such incidents? Would it be good if we purposely separate such players who has bad feelings against each other in different pots of the tournament? For example in football Israel and Iran cannot play against each other as well as Israel and Palestine.

  05-23/08:55 Draganov:  @Hagbard, just one small correction. In Welsh Tawlbwrdd 11x11 Alex Hnefatafl was the winner since MasterLuke refused to play him and resigned. When a player resigned by move 2 the games are not counted in the tournament list and that's why Alex Hnefatafl didn't have 2 additional points. With the 2 additional points he would have won the tournament. If the points of MasterLuke are not counted then Alex Hnefatafl will again be the winner since he defeated me twice in that tournament.

  05-23/08:12 Hagbard:  Brandubh 7x7 (Walker): #1 Colophonius, #2 Paul7, #3 Unhandyandy
Tyr 15x15: #1 Draganov, #2 Jilles, #3 Alex hnefatafl
Daldøs 3x12: #1 Holidayinnes, #2 Hagbard, #3 Draganov
Daldøs 3x14: #1 Holidayinnes, #2 Draganov, #3 Rosk and Hagbard
Scottish Ard Ri 7x7: #1 Jilles and Paul7, #3 Rook
Saami Sáhkku 3x15: #1 Rosk, #2 Hagbard, #3 Draganov and Jilles

  05-23/08:11 Hagbard:  Finished tournaments:
Tawlbwrdd Lewis cross 11x11: #1 Draganov, #2 Potapych, #3 Chaolaibhne
Saami Tablut-w 9x9: #1 Chaolaibhne, #2 Draganov, #3 Dimetr
Tawlbwrdd T diamond 11x11: #1 Draganov and Paul7, #3 Holidayinnes
Tyr 13x13: #1 Jilles and Holidayinnes, #3 Draganov
Tawlbwrdd Lewis diamond 11x11: #1 Draganov, #2 Chaolaibhne, #3 Rosk and Jrton80
Copenhagen Hnefatafl Bell 11x11: #1 Draganov, #2 Alex hnefatafl, #3 Rook and Floki
Daldøs 3x16: #1 Rosk, #2 Xerxes, #3 Draganov and Jilles
Historical Hnefatafl 15x15 (Nielsen): #1 Draganov, #2 Holidayinnes, #3 Jrton80
Daldøs 3x12: #1 Draganov and Rosk, #3 Jilles
Historical Hnefatafl 13x13: #1 Draganov, #2 Rook, #3 Jrton80
Sea battle-2526 9x9: #1 Draganov, #2 Paul7, #3 Colophonius
Saami Sáhkku 3x15: #1 Rosk and Holidayinnes, #3 Draganov
Berserk Hnefatafl 11x11: #1 Draganov, #2 Jrton80, #3 Fraech
Sea battle tafl 11x11: #1 Holidayinnes, #2 Chaolaibhne, #3 Draganov
Daldøs 3x14: #1 Rosk, #2 Jilles, Holidayinnes and Xerxes
Old Hnefatafl 11x11: #1 Draganov, #2 Rook, #3 Jrton80
Daldøs 3x16: #1 Xerxes, #2 Holidayinnes and L716
Fetlar Hnefatafl 11x11: #1 Draganov, #2 Holidayinnes, #3 Fraech
Daldøs 3x12: #1 Holidayinnes, #2 Jilles and Xerxes
Tyr 11x11: #1 Draganov, #2 Chaolaibhne, #3 Jrton80
Copenhagen Hnefatafl 11x11: #1 Alex hnefatafl, #2 Draganov, #3 Jilles and Holidayinnes
Saami Sáhkku 3x15: #1 Holidayinnes, #2 Draganov, #3 Chaolaibhne and Rosk
Saami Tablut 9x9: #1 Alex hnefatafl, #2 Draganov, #3 Dimetr and Paul7
Simple Tafl 11x11: #1 Draganov, #2 Alex hnefatafl, #3 Paul7 and Potapych
Daldøs 3x14: #1 Holidayinnes and Hagbard, #3 Rosk and Xerxes
Welsh Tawlbwrdd 11x11: #1 Alex hnefatafl, #2 Draganov, #3 Chaolaibhne
Tawlbwrdd Lewis cross 11x11: #1 Draganov, #2 Chaolaibhne and Alex hnefatafl
Old Hnefatafl 9x9: #1 Draganov, #2 Jrton80, #3 Alex hnefatafl
Tyr 9x9: #1 Draganov, #2 Jilles, #3 Alex hnefatafl
Daldøs 3x16: #1 Draganov, #2 Hagbard, #3 Jilles, Rosk and Xerxes
Brandubh 7x7 (Walker): #1 Colophonius, 

  05-22/13:57 Hagbard:  http://aagenielsen.dk/hnefataflforum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&p=1703#p1703

  05-22/08:12 Hagbard:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzR-7dhXzK4

  05-21/10:25 Draganov:  Registers for the Double-Elimination test tournament.

  05-21/08:21 Hagbard:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ku2uOszn6U

  05-20/22:26 Hagbard:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z45RruFz8SM

  05-20/21:03 rosk:  Registers for the Double-Elimination test tournament.

  05-20/20:52 Hagbard:  Registers for the Double-Elimination test tournament.

  05-17/22:38 Hagbard:  I see your point. In those cases I have after some days created an extra tournament which perhaps could get more interest.

  05-17/22:12 Draganov:  @Hagbard, I have a suggestion regarding the tournaments. Sometimes when a tournament in a specific variant is announced, after one week there is only one registered player. In that situation, the tournament is cancelled. My suggestion is just to keep this tournament open for registration until a second player joined it. Then the tournament will start as a normal tournament and the registration will be open for another week.

  05-05/14:45 Hagbard:  A normal Copenhagen with pieces starting in a Bell setup.

  05-05/11:09 MasterLuke:  What is Copenhagen Hnefatafl Bell?

  05-03/16:19 Draganov:  Tyr 9x9 tournament finished and the balance was found to be very good (+1.15). The whites won 15 games and the blacks 13 respectively. Before the tournament the balance was +2.50. This is a huge improvement of the balance. Moreover, the games were very dynamic and complex. The whites have some nice tricks in the beginning that can win the game quickly but when the opponent is aware of it, it is not an easy task for the whites to win the game. In my opinion, Tyr 9x9 is the best-working variant for 9x9 board. It is much better than Tablut or the Sea Battles that used 9x9 board.

  04-25/23:27 Hagbard:  corrected

  04-25/22:53 Draganov:  @Hagbard, Is there a bug in my Old Hnefatafl 9x9 game against MasterLuke. I blocked his king in the corner and according the rules of Old Hnefatafl the king is captured by 2 vikings next to the corner. However, the game is not over. Can you clarify this?

  04-22/08:02 Hagbard:  Just heard from one of our key players in Ukraine, Vogneslav Zmijovich, he is well and in uniform.

  04-21/20:44 Hagbard:  While we're at it, the Tyr 9x9 tourn. is on too.

  04-21/20:25 Draganov:  Thank you, Hagbard, I registered for the Old Hnefatafl 9x9 tournament. Hope that more and high rated players will join me on this battlefield.

  04-21/19:48 Hagbard:  The Old Hnefatafl 9x9 tourn. is on.

  04-21/17:56 Draganov:  @Hagbard, after we retested Copenhagen Hnefatafl Bell 11x11 the balance was improved from 2.21 to 1.59 and I am sure, that it will be even better if we played it more often. I would like to ask you to organize tournaments in the other unbalanced variants that I mentioned earlier this year. I would appreciate it, if you give us an Old Hnefatafl 9x9 (bal. 2.55) tournament soon. It seems highly in favour of the whites but I don't see a way the whites to be so much in favour. It would be nice, if we could find another working variant for 9x9 board. At that moment we only have two well-balanced 9x9 variants- Saami Tablut and Sea battle-2526 9x9. Let's also test Tyr 9x9 (bal. 2). I played Tyr 9x9 a year ago and indeed, the whites were in favour but it was interesting to play it and I wonder if I can find good strategy for the blacks in it.

  04-21/16:42 Hagbard:  Three tournaments at a time, the circulation is faster than before.

  04-21/15:34 Draganov:  @Hagbard, why we are going to play Tawlbwrdd Lewis cross 11x11 and Historical Hnefatafl 11x11 again? We had tournaments in these variants in the beginning of the year. We also recently had another Fetlar, Old and Copenhagen tournaments.

  04-16/07:43 Steiger:  @Hagbard, These photos are from Dmitry Pashkov and Dimeter. I was not there.

  04-15/12:43 rosk:  Accidentally found an interesting version of the game Daldosa
https://glukkazan.github.io/races/daldosa.htm

  04-14/13:45 Hagbard:  @Steiger, thank you for the photo series from Daldøs tournament March 27th! I discovered them only now, they're in the gallery.
The photos show that you used Daldøs 3*12 boards for the tournament, but also have a Daldøs 3*16 board for show.

  04-04/08:24 Hagbard:  I've put a post in the large forum.

  04-02/17:04 Dimetr:  Hagbard hello! 
You know Robert ap Ifan’s manuscript, about Tawlbwrdd
(Peniarth Manuscript 158).

Linnaeus Diary was published long time ago
But it’s still not possible to see Robert ap Ifan’s manuscript
Maybe you (as the head of World Tafl federation) will write to The National Library of Wales?
 Could they send the scan?
This email, from their website:
enquiry(at)llgc.org.uk

I saw some fragments of Tawlbwrdd, at Alessandro Arzani website https://abbasagraphicus.wordpress.com/
But he wrote, that he cannot reproduce the entire image, because the 
Library of Wales, didn’t give a permission to do it

  03-30/19:15 Hagbard:  Interesting cases. In a tournament the umpire would rule that black won.
In a real-life game perhaps the players would agree to call it a draw.
The computer keeps an eye on the white constellation. When the same white constellation of pieces occurs a third time, it is a loss by repetition.

  03-30/10:01 Draganov:  @Hagbard, in my latest Copenhagen Bell game against Rosk, we found out that the repetition rule is not working fine. Rosk had a big fake exit fort and could make moves inside of it. The repetition rule seems to work only when the same position occured three times in a row. Rosk could alternate moves between his pieces inside the fake fort and the repetiotion rule didn't have impact on him. The similar situation occured in the longest game between Alex and Jilles. Would it be difficult to implement a repetition rule that is applied when the position occured for the third times with no requirement that the moves be consecutive? We need when the position occured for the third times, then the whites lose the game immediately.

  03-18/16:52 Steiger:  @Draganov: From the Saga of Hervor and Heidrek:

Then Gestumblindi said:
 
“What beast is that
that butchers wealth,
is circled outside with iron?
Eight horns it has
but a head never
and much hazard hangs upon it.
King Heidrek
guess my riddle.”
 
“That’s the die in hnettafl, also called the cub. Its horns are its corners.”

  03-17/22:09 xerxes:  @MasterLuke: I have some sympathy with that view, but there are dice games that include a significant amount of skill, eg Backgammon

  03-17/20:15 MasterLuke:  @Draganov and Hagbard: Let's hope not! If by any chance some evidence shows up proving a dice WAS used, this would spoil the game for me. I hate games where winning or losing depends on pure luck...

  03-17/18:33 Hagbard:  To my knowledge not really. Some in the English speaking world have translated "Tawlbwrdd" into "throw board" meaning dice throwing. But to Scandinavians the word "Tawlbwrdd" is immediately recognizable as the Scandinavian word "Tavlbord" = game board.

  03-17/18:14 Draganov:  @Hagbard, are there any historical or archaeological evidance that a dice was used in tafl?

  03-15/19:33 Draganov:  Copenhagen Hnefatafl Bell tournament finished with balance +1.50 which means it is slightly more unbalanced than Fetlar and the standard Copenhagen. However, the players in the tournament didn't have much experience with this variant. So, I think its balance could be even better than the standard Copenhagen. I managed to win with both colors against such strong players as Jilles, Alex Hnefatafl, Cacreal and Potapych. At least, I think it is absolutely playable variant. In my honest opinion, this variant represents the principle of the Copenhagen Hnefatafl in a better way than the standard Copenhagen variant. It is more dynamic and bloody and the game length is shorter. The shieldwall and the exit fort, which are typical Copenhagen weapons for the whites, are easier to implement and used in the Bell variant. Moreover, the blacks really need to learn how to block the corners properly and many typical blockade positions occured. Finally, in my opinion, this variant offers more strategical plans for both colors and the opening repertoire is bigger than the standard Copenhagen.

  03-15/19:23 Draganov:  @MasterLuke, I think Historical Hnefatafl 15x15 will be strongly in favour of the blacks. It would be interesting to play this variant as an unbalanced handicap variant that can be used between players with big rating difference. However, I don't think it would be playable between players in equal strength.

  03-14/20:36 MasterLuke:  I wonder if the Historical Hnefatafl game variant on a 15x15 format would be more balanced if it had a starting position similar to bell diamond 11x11 Whelsh Twlbrrd, instead of the Nielsen set-up. Just wondering...

  03-14/13:19 ChaolAibhne:  Besides feeling better balanced, having white start first in Tablut-W seems more natural. When I briefly outlined the idea of Tafl to various people who don't play and asked them who they would expect would play first, every one said the escapers.

  03-14/13:15 ChaolAibhne:  @Draganov That is gracious of you, thank you

  03-12/19:45 Draganov:  @Hagbard, could you correct the final standings for Historical Hnefatafl 9x9 (Saami Tablut-w) because right now, it shows that I won the tournament but the truth is that Chaolaibhne was the winner since Beyn timed-out early in almost all of his games and his games against Chaolaibhne were not counted.

  03-09/21:41 Hagbard:  It is explained at the bottom of
http://aagenielsen.dk/tafl_balances.php

  03-09/10:40 Draganov:  @Hagbard, what is the formula that you used to measure the game balance?

  03-01/20:31 Dimetr:  The balance of  Tawlbwrdd Lewis cross 11x11 is well.
Maybe white is even a little better, if they played correctly and quickly.
And Throne makes the game more interesting and historical (compared to Simple Tafl)

  03-01/14:38 paul7:  Tawlbwrdd T diamond, on the other hand, seems to favour the defenders heavily. I guess it makes sense as the most of the board sides are already blocked by the defenders with this setup/

  03-01/14:13 Draganov:  Tawlbwrdd Lewis cross 11x11 (bal. -1.18) seems to be very well-balanced. It seems impossible to say who will be the winner when two top players are playing against each other.

  02-28/17:59 Draganov:  I think would not be able to improve the balance of Old Hnefatafl, Tablut or some other variants that I consider terribly unbalanced. This Copenhagen Bell would be proved as balanced even if we don't calculate my games.

  02-28/17:31 Hagbard:  I'm somewhat struck by silence at the time being, but I can't help commenting this one.
There is a phenomenon which I call the Millar effect: No matter which rules we tested, Millar would every time win all his games as white and as black, so any rules would come out appearingly perfectly balanced!

  02-28/17:21 floki:  @all : I disagree, I think the balance is always in favour of Draganov 😜 !

  02-28/15:48 Draganov:  Copenhagen Hnefatafl Bell 11x11 (bal. 1.73) has improved its balance significantly in the last month. One month ago, the balance was 2.21. I think its real balance is even in favour of the blacks. So, it would be interesting to see how its balance will be changed after the tournament.

  02-26/23:05 ChaolAibhne:  To the single participant in Tournament 295 (Tawlbwrdd Lewis diamond): I have too many matches at the moment to join now, but if you stick around I will join you in a two or three days when things are quieter.

  02-24/22:02 Draganov:  @all I strongly encourage you to join the Copenhagen Bell tournament and to test it. I played several games in it and found it out to be very well-balanced. This variant is much more dynamical than the standard Copenhagen and is very interesting for playing. I think it would be impossible to have boring games in it.

Full contents of the small forum.

Train your brain like a viking. Science Days in Norway Sep. 27th 2020. (Click on the image!)

Hnefatafl blog of Alessandro Arzani ("Abbas Agraphicus"), Italy!

Aleksandr Valerievich Tsyganok ("Steiger") created this ultimate guide to Historical Hnefatafl 9x9 (Saami Tablut), posted Feb. 12th 2021, history, rules and strategy!

To Copenhagen Hnefatafl, posted Feb. 25th 2021!

To Brandubh and Ard Ri Hnefatafl, posted April 17th 2021!

To Sea Battle Tafl, posted May 5th 2021!

And to Berserk Hnefatafl, posted May 31st 2021!

Dmitry Pashkov from Ethnic Board Games tells about tafl games, ludus latrunculorum, daldøs a.o., broadcasted by oper.ru Dec. 11th 2020.

In praise of HNEFATAFL. Frontlinetafl 2015 - 2021 (Aleksandr Valerievich Tsyganok, April 18th 2021).
See also Tsyganok's tafl game sets.

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 Championship Tournament started September 15th 2021.
See the tournament page.

Здесь можно играть в тавлеи против людей. Можно использовать кириллицу.

Many thanks to Tim Millar ("crust"), Adam Bartley ("Adam"), John C. Ashton, Nicolas Cartier, Jonas Lööf ("conanlibrarian"), Olli Salmi, Damian Walker ("cyningstan"), Rasmus Holbroe, Thore Nissen, Lucho Panchev ("OdinHimself"), Corey Hart ("Brench"), Alexander Steiger Dis ("Steiger"), Dmitry Pashkov, Delray Curtis ("jrton80"), David Zolli ("branan"), Luk Martens ("Masterluke"), Marian Luck ("themightyglider"), Mikkel Berg-Nordlie ("mihkkal"), Alessandro Arzani ("Abbas Agraphicus") and all players who contributed to this site and to the photo gallery. And not least the more than 500 players the world over who played here 38000 real tafl games humans against humans and created a vast, practical experience with this intriguing, historical board game.

Updated 23.5.2022