World Tafl Federation Hnefatafl Championship tournament 2018.

Looking for a new North West of England Tafl Champion!

Come along and learn how to play Tafl (Viking Chess) and possibly become our North West Champion.
Following our recent involvement at the Atkinson Museum (Southport) and their Viking Exhibition we will be returning this time to encourage more people to play Hnefatafl.
Hopefully finding a worthy North West Champion.
We will be there from 10 am till 3 pm on Saturday 21st July and August 18th
Fornebei Herfolk
In September 2018:
Formby Formby
Tafl against humans.

Тавлеи против людей.
(Button in top panel.)
Rasmus Holbroe vikings
Artist: Copyright © Rasmus Holbroe (Jan. 2016).
Tafl against the computer.

Search! Who is Nicolas Cartier, who wrote this paper?
LE TABLUT DE LINNAEUS / Nicolas Cartier (November 2011).
Steve Lonsdale ("Xerxes") visited Erik the Red's settlement in Brattahlid, Greenland, last year and writes about it here:
Brattahlid
The January 2018 issue of Tabletop Gaming Magazine has an article on hnefatafal, including input from David Lonsdale ("Animals") and Damian Walker ("Cyningstan"), and mention of this website. The magazine is available in PDF form from here (article starts on page 48):
Tabletop Gaming Magazine
(Xerxes)
Small forum.


  08-16/08:11 OdinHimself:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  08-15/10:34 Hagbard:  Thanks for telling

  08-15/09:17 animals:  @Hagbard: I will not be entering the World Championship tournament this year, but hope to have more time in the future

  08-11/02:15 Patterson:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  08-10/16:38 juman:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  08-10/16:07 AreVidar:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  08-10/14:48 Adam:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  08-10/13:32 Hagbard:  If a player on the "Missing names" list *cannot* take part in the World Championship tourn., please mention it here, it helps the planning.

  08-01/16:26 goseji:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-30/19:37 Hagbard:  quite ;)

  07-30/08:52 OdinHimself:  @Hagbard: I thought we are vikings here? The strongest of us all gets the lion's pie. He takes everything - the crown, the land, the prize, the power and the glory, the most beautiful women and ale in the kingdom etc. Everyone else take what they can get. Isn't it how it was since the beginning of time? :)

  07-29/21:40 Hagbard:  There's not been much support for the prize distributing idea.
It looks like the distributing should be the straighforward:
winner #1: board 11x11
winner #2: board 9x9
winner #3: figure king or berserk

By now 18 players registered for the World Championship tourn. Last year 34 players registered, and the three rounds scheme this year can easily handle all known tafl players in the world! As the motto of sport goes: the most important thing is not to win, but to take part.

  07-27/16:44 Hagbard:  New in gallery: Photos from Kerteminde, Denmark.

  07-25/23:13 Hagbard:  casshern won the Welsh Tawlbwrdd tourn.

  07-25/17:54 casshern:  I also think the winner of the WTC should be given a prize, if there is one offered, regardless of whether they have won a prize previously. Thats just the way it is in competition. To the victor goes the spoils. It is up to everyone else to improve their play to challenge the champion.

  07-24/19:49 Hagbard:  The large forum is opened 3 days for new registerings!

  07-22/08:58 Hagbard:  It's just a suggestion - it's really up to the players to decide. By now there seems to be one vote for and two against.

  07-22/06:36 Fairland:  @Hagbard. I understand your desire to evenly distribute boards to all members, especially if we have an "unbeatable" in competition, but I am not sure it is fair for the winner to walk away without his prize. maybe we could work toward an alternative solution?

  07-21/18:15 ErzyaKS:  Deregisters from the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-21/08:09 Marcin:  Marcin registers for the Eastern European tournament starting 15.09.2018

  07-21/07:55 Marcin:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-20/20:28 Hagbard:  Steiger and Thanir won the Old Hnefatafl 13x13 tourn.

  07-18/01:17 Hagbard:  http://www.fetlar.org/hnefatafl

  07-16/14:17 Hagbard:  More photos in the gallery from the Kholodnyi Yar Festival in Ukraine!

  07-15/18:29 Brench:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-15/18:28 Brench:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-15/10:35 Hagbard:  Ded Fomich and casshern won the Saami Tablut tourn.

  07-14/12:40 edmond-dantes:  so much stupidity I had never heard of before

  07-13/07:44 Steiger:  If he, of course, will participate in the current championship.

  07-13/07:43 Steiger:  I think that Plantagenet will not support this idea :)

  07-12/21:06 Hagbard:  Я предлагаю, что если на пример Валхалла победитель #1 уже выиграл приз в прошлом году, то призы этого года идут победителям #2, #3 и #4.

  07-12/20:41 edmond-dantes:  I did not understand the last one written

  07-10/22:36 Hagbard:  Photos of three championship prizes are added to the tournament page.
How many fine, handmade boards can even the best player use at the same time?
I propose that if a Valhöll winner already earlier won this prize, then the prize goes to the next highest winner. If fx. winner #1 already won a handmade board last year, then this year's prizes go to winners #2, #3 and #4.

  07-10/22:28 Hagbard:  New in gallery: Vogneslav Zmijovich sent photos from the Kholodnyi Yar Festival, Ukraine

  07-10/14:48 Steiger:  Great news!!!

  07-10/14:17 Hagbard:  Dmitry Pashkov from the Geek Wars club in Moscow has offered three prizes for the Championship tournament September 15th !

  07-10/00:09 Hagbard:  yes

  07-09/18:30 mccluskeyp:  I am sad to report that the recent Scottish Ard Ri 7x7 cross throneless tournament proved once again that this variant is solved.  With best play, White always wins.  Thanks to everyone who participated.  @Hagbard, can we put a Tawlbwrdd tournament in the queue?

  07-08/11:24 ErzyaKS:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-08/09:42 Hagbard:  Mccluskeyp won the Ard Ri tourn.

  07-08/02:24 Fairland:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-04/18:24 Trygve:  Yeah, Henderson got a good grip on that chain for a minute! Phew!

  07-04/13:12 Ded Fomich:  A waistcoat of Mr. Gareth Southgate brings good luck and breaks a chain of England’s failures in penalty shootouts.

  07-03/23:48 Bogd Khan:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-03/23:18 Hagbard:  Where is the stadion where England played this match, on the Falkland islands? The South Americans, 15 minutes of football and street fight for the rest. At the English penalty, a bunch of Columbians kicked a big hole in the grass on the spot where the ball must be, to spoil it for the English.

  07-03/20:00 Hagbard:  Sweden passed the test.

  07-03/09:59 Hagbard:  @OdinHimself: NB, in a couple of days two no-timing games against casshern have been inactive for a month - which means that they'll time out even when they're no-timing games.

  07-03/08:36 casshern:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-03/00:02 jrton80:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-02/22:31 Ded Fomich:  The Belgian team is very strong. But Japan was great too in this match. Kawashima is a ninja & Spiderman in one person. And the difference in anthropometry of players was very visible, very interesting exotic football from Japan!

  07-02/22:22 Trygve:  Belgium did just as much as they had to. On the road to Moskow!

  07-02/22:03 Hagbard:  Belgium won 83 seconds before end of game!

  07-02/20:09 AreVidar:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-02/12:59 mjølner:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-02/08:32 Hagbard:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-02/05:49 sqAree:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-02/02:03 mccluskeyp:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-02/01:00 Waegn:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-02/00:21 epm180:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-02/00:01 Ded Fomich:  Hell, yes! My heart was fair bursting out of chest twice this day: one time because of Akinfeev and one time because of Schmeichel. I still can’t fall asleep. Schmeichel Sr. can be proud of his son!

  07-01/23:50 Hagbard:  Matches of drama! Schmeichel and Akinfeev were good men to have in the teams.

  07-01/23:36 Hagbard:  The large forum is opened three days for new registerings.

  07-01/23:25 Ded Fomich:  Thanks a million! It’s madness, a day of goalkeepers! God bless Akinfeev! Schmeichel was a hell of a goalkeeper, the best player of the whole match, that’s a bitter fact that fortune left his team. That’s a drama of this day!

  07-01/22:57 Hagbard:  Congratulations to Russia!

  07-01/22:19 Kratzer:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-01/18:07 Trygve:  Trygve registers for the Skandinavian/Nordic tournament starting 15.09.2018

  07-01/17:11 xerxes:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-01/17:06 Steiger:  Steiger registers for the Eastern European tournament starting 15.09.2018

  07-01/15:32 Trygve:  Well done,  Aage!

  07-01/15:32 Ded Fomich:  Ded Fomich registers for the Eastern European tournament starting 15.09.2018.

  07-01/15:27 Ded Fomich:  @Hagbard Thanks a lot, it works.

  07-01/15:17 Hagbard:  @Trygve: Fetlar is ocher yellow. Old Hnefatafl is now ocher brown, symbolizing it's old

  07-01/14:37 Hagbard:  @Ded Fomich: it should be 1000 characters now.

  07-01/14:26 Trygve:  Or may be just a lighter version of that ocher from Fetlar.

  07-01/14:20 Trygve:  What about light ocher blue as table colour for Old? (keeping the pieces in the same colours as before)

  07-01/14:10 Hagbard:  It's not quite simple in the structure to have at the same time three buttons for tournaments World/Scand./East.
Therefore it would be easier technically, if you'd write here in the chat forum something like:
"xxx registers for the Scand. tourn."

  07-01/14:05 Hagbard:  An idea for a colour for Old Hnefatafl? The Fetlar is ocher; any neighbouring colour?

  07-01/12:58 Trygve:  Is it possible to change the colours in the Old games? Both me and others experience that we mix the edge rules by the corners when we're playing too much Fetlar and Old simultaneously.

  07-01/12:29 Trygve:  Is there a separate button for the Nordic aka Scandinavian tournament, Aage?

  07-01/12:17 Harry64:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-01/11:16 Ded Fomich:  @Hagbard Could you please increase the message size in the game chat? If I use Latin letters, it’s quite big. But if I use Cyrillic alphabet, the message ends after ≈171 characters and the rest is lost.

  07-01/10:53 Trygve:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-01/09:20 Steiger:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-01/08:18 test1:  Deregisters from the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-01/08:17 test1:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2018.

  07-01/08:11 Hagbard:  - which means that they'll time out even when they're no-timing games.

  07-01/06:42 OdinHimself:  @Hagbard: Thank you. :)

  06-30/22:34 Hagbard:  @OdinHimself: NB, in 5 days two no-timing games against casshern have been inactive for a month.

  06-30/11:41 Ded Fomich:  @Fairland I saw the forum information that you studied Old Norse, where did you studied it and what is your opinion about Dr. Crawford’s YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/-g7MWQRuNjk)?

  06-30/11:35 Ded Fomich:  @Fairland The current World Cup competition turns many things upside down, champions lose their games, outsiders celebrate their victories. The Mexican team will have a very serious game with Brazil, I wish success to Mexico, their team is full of surprises. The Mexican fans threw a “Día de los Muertos” party in Moscow yesterday. Actually it’s a November festival but our guests decided to show us their cultural traditions in July, it was very fun!

  06-30/11:33 Hagbard:  Likewise Scandinavia would be Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland. The five Nordic swans.

  06-30/11:30 Hagbard:  Yes, I suggest the Baltics, Poland, Chechia, Slovakia, Hungary, all the Jugoslavias, Romania, Bulgaria and etc. eastwards. This is the area of the old river ways.

  06-30/10:48 Ded Fomich:  If the list includes Saami Tablut, I always vote for it, it has the highest priority for me. The Eastern tournament is a tournament for players from the Eastern Europe?

  06-30/10:43 Ded Fomich:  @Hagbard Thank you for the information, that’s interesting. Beer mugs throwing is a really bad behavior, no objections. Other things are the systematic hools behaviour, the main point is that there was not physical assault. There are roligans and there are uroligans, it’s dialectic, a conflict of opposites =).

  06-30/09:13 Steiger:  Saami Tablut 9x9!

  06-30/08:49 Hagbard:  Plan:
Tomorrow registering for World Championship 2018 starts; Copenhagen Hnefatafl 11x11.
At the same time there could be registering for a Scandinavian tournament. There's a wish for a strong king variant, it could be Old Hnefatafl 11x11.
And there could be registering for an Eastern tournament. By which variant? I would suggest Saami Tablut 9x9 or Welsh Tawlbwrdd 11x11.
All three tournament starting Sep. 15th.

  06-29/13:16 Hagbard:  The banner trouble was the Danish flag with the text "Store Patter" ( = big tits) and T-shirts with the same text. The words are simply the team's war cry after a victory and have been for years.

  06-28/23:26 Hagbard:  Bad behaviour in the Samara stadion, I'm afraid. They showed some banner, which was ridiculous to punish. Worse, some threw some beer mugs. And some did not pay proper respect to the adversary national hymn. Very bad; they're now called uroligans (= not calm).
Penalty 20000 Swiss Franc.

  06-28/21:42 Ded Fomich:  Very interesting, what kind of behaviour was that? I can’t find any convincing information about that. By our standards, if there was no brawl, then everything is OK. As far as I see on the video after that match Danish and Australian fans peacefully celebrated together. I heard only about fights between Croatian and Argentinian fans and saw the videos of that, it’s not tolerable.

  06-28/19:13 Hagbard:  Thank you, interesting to hear about the background for Moscow 1985.
Not worth mentioning the Danish roligan-fans (rolig = calm) this time. The Danish Football Union received a giant cash penalty because of their behaviour in Samara.
Congratulations to Sweden!

  06-28/18:19 Fairland:  Mexico did not do so well yesterday. . . Really hoping they redeem themselves with Brazil!!! Congratulations to all teams that made it to the playoffs. And I honestly give my condolences to the German fans. That was a surprise to all of us.

  06-27/09:37 Ded Fomich:  Sigurdsson redeemed himself by the penalty, wounded and dripping with blood berserker Bjarnason fought like a lion. Thanks to the Iceland team and to their fans for the emotions, the whole Russia is crazy about these Vikings. Good luck to them in the future, they always can count on the support not only of 320 thousands Icelanders, but also on the support of 146 millions Russians. Skál! 🍻

  06-27/09:32 Ded Fomich:  What a tense match was yesterday, the Icelanders fought until the end, the team’s spirit and the spirit of their fans were fantastic. But the Croatian team is very strong even using the reserve team. The Denmark team will play with them in their next match, good luck!

  06-27/09:07 Ded Fomich:  In the eighties the opposition of the government to football fans and their subculture in Russian stadiums was very strong, especially after the tragedy at Luzhniki stadium 20.10.1982 during the match “Spartak” (Moscow) — “Haarlem” (The Netherlands), when 66 people lost their lives. After that the police (militia) repressions reached a peak, fan shirts, scarfs and other attributes might provide an opportunity to getting kicked out of the arena, chanting and other displaying of emotions were allowed only after goals and so on.

  06-27/08:57 Ded Fomich:  The Danish roligans are the best example of sportsmanlike behavior and well-mannered supporting in football. A standard at the Bureau of Weights and Measures, honestly.

  06-27/08:54 Ded Fomich:  I saw how the Danish crowd celebrated several days ago in Copenhagen, that’s so impressive: https://www.sports.ru/embed/video/1064225734/

  06-27/08:52 Ded Fomich:  Definitely the match Denmark — France was not the pearl of the champonship. But the Danish fans were awesome that day (and all other days too), as the real Vikings they arrived to the game by longship down the Moscow River: https://youtu.be/UEowKXqzNpw

  06-27/00:06 Hagbard:  The first match was in Copenhagen. The second qualification match Denmark/Russia 1985 was in Moscow, and many Danes went to Moscow to support their team. The Danes were not allowed to sit together but were scattered around in the stadion. Whenever a Dane got up to cheer for his team, a policeman positioned nearby stepped forward and laid his fist big as a bear's paw on his shoulder and pressed him back in his seat!
Very different today!

  06-26/20:22 Hagbard:  Congrats to Russia, too! There was a time, when Denmark met Russia in the World Cup qualification rounds, it was June 5th 1985.
The whole Denmark watched the match Denmark-France today, and apparently they used the square ball today!

  06-26/18:43 Ded Fomich:  We like to say that we are the country of a square ball, but we always hope for the best =)

  06-26/18:42 Ded Fomich:  Russia goes there too despite the debacle in the game against Uruguay. Last time the Russian team went to playoffs in 1986. Actulally it was the USSR team, so one can say that the Russian team goes to playoffs for the first time.

  06-26/18:35 Ded Fomich:  Yes, the Panama team is a wild thing, they showed a barbaric gameplay, prehistorian guys. Denmark goes to playoffs, congrats!

  06-25/21:05 Hagbard:  The Panama fight yesterday was entertaining. Not a game, just a fight.

  06-25/09:29 Hagbard:  Outline for the World Championship Tournament 2018:
http://aagenielsen.dk/wtfturnering2018.php

  06-24/00:12 Hagbard:  Old Hnefatafl, as Trygve said - the king can be captured on the edge by surrounding including edge and corners. But the common men are captured as usual.

  06-23/17:04 Trygve:  It should of course be: ..but a pawn will stand.

  06-23/17:03 Trygve:  Yeah, that's a good question, and a bit of a paradox actually. You can capture the King on the edge with three blacks, but not a pawn will stand. Old doesn't have the Shieldwall rule either, so I agree it's a subject worth to discuss.

  06-23/15:57 mccluskeyp:  To clarify my previous message, I am not asking for advice in this game against jrton80.  If my question violates asking for advice then please say nothing and I will ask it again when the game is over.

  06-23/15:52 mccluskeyp:  I am currently playing an Old Hnefatafl 13x13 game against jrton80.  @Hagbard (or @ anyone else), why can't Black capture the White piece on j1 by playing g2-j2?  Doesn't Old Hnefatafl have edge capture?  I played this move and the computer does not show it as a capture.  Thanks for any insight or clarification you can all provide.

  06-22/22:31 Hagbard:  New in gallery: Vogneslav Zmijovich sent photos from the Mariupol Festival in Ukraine.

  06-22/19:10 Hagbard:  On smaller/larger tournaments, the smaller tournaments are probably suitable for the summer, where the gaming activity usually is less. Though the activity this summer has been the highest ever. In September a grand tournament could be coming, the world champ., which 29 players attended last year.

Too bad with Iceland. This Musa is fantastic!

  06-22/13:59 Ded Fomich:  I got interested in this version of football about four or five years ago. “Football is not a contact sport, it's a collision sport—dancing is a contact sport”. I like it. Your question is in time, this Saturday I’m going to visit a game (“Spartans” from Moscow vs “North Legion” from Saint Petersburg). Mostly I like these games, they are a nice drama show.

  06-22/13:56 Ded Fomich:  We have a league here, several divisions, some players from the USA in our teams (American students). I also heard from a player of «Wild Pandas» from Vladivostok that they had for some time a trainer from the USA. Some of our teams play sometimes with European teams. I know two women teams. The level of games is very very far from NFL, but our American footballers are determined guys, so maybe in the future we’ll get a more encouraging picture. At the moment it’s an amateur sport here and doesn’t have massive popularity.

  06-22/13:48 Ded Fomich:  We have about twenty more or less equiped teams from Moscow to Vladivistok, but the problem is that American football is still not an Olympic sport, so our government doesn’t provide support for the growth of American football in Russia and it’s very hard to find any support from private investors. People, who are involved in this game here, are crazy enthusiasts, they do almost everything at their own expense—buy equipment from the USA, rent workout space and places for games, even make markings on the field because we have not a single special stadium for American football in the whole country.

  06-22/13:43 Ded Fomich:  @mccluskeyp In Russia we call your version “American football”. As far as I know, in the USA it’s called just “football”, and the “association football” is called “soccer” (“assoc.” = “soccer”). At least I don’t find this kind of sport strange. But the first time you watch it, it's hard to understand what it's about, there are a lot of specific rules and the dynamics looks unusual.

  06-22/11:43 Trygve:  ᚨᛚᚢ ᚨᛚᚢ ᛚᚨᚢᚲᚨᚱ! Alu Alu Laukar!

  06-21/23:44 Hagbard:  Trygve won the Magpie tourn.

  06-21/21:55 mccluskeyp:  To all of you who are not from the USA, do you perceive our preference for our version of football as strange?

  06-21/19:22 OdinHimself:  I always support Germany in first place. Always, since I was a child. Then come all teams from Scandinavia - Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Greenland and The Faroe Islands. After them I support Holland and England. With all my apologies to everyone here, but the following teams I don't like - Italy, France, Brazil, Argentina, Spain. I also support the teams from the Balkans. Russia and most of the other national football teams take place in the group called "I don't care what they do", but I can't have all as my favorites, right? :) One more time I say sorry to the players from the countries which national teams I don't like, it's nothing personal at all. You are all my brothers here. Now I'm reading the last, 4th book of "Arn: Tempelriddaren" and I see our comunity as the brotherhood of the Templar knights. Skal!

  06-21/19:18 xerxes:  Many people don't like to have a lot of concurrent games, and to play in long tournaments; orthers prefer a smaller number; perhaps one approach would be to always have a 'large' tournament running, plus a few smaller ones at the same time for those that prefer them.

  06-21/19:16 xerxes:  I'm away just now so not playing much, but I would like to add my support to Aage and the way he runs this site.  There are a lot of different approaches and ways of playing tournaments - probably nearly as many as there are regular players on the site !  In my experience Aage responds to ideas and suggestions, and many of us forget that he is doing this voluntarily in his own time.  For what it is worth he has my full support.

  06-21/18:07 Hagbard:  Russia did well, too.
@Fairland: thank you for the link, interesting article! I put a few photos from the site in the gallery.

  06-21/12:33 Ded Fomich:  https://youtu.be/Jfh4P9wDy7c
”Kalinka” from Iceland is also very nice. Skál! 🍻

  06-21/12:31 Ded Fomich:  And the Vikings from Iceland were able to make a valiant stand against Argentina with Messi. Many of them had previosly absolutely other not football professions, they don’t have exorbitant wages and star players, that’s an amazing team, they are very popular among my countrymen.

  06-21/12:28 Ded Fomich:  The Mexican team managed to break the German football machine. Everything was green here in Moscow that day. Actually these days Moscow looks like one big non-stop international festival.

  06-21/02:31 Fairland:  And then Mexico made an earthquake.

  06-20/08:39 Hagbard:  Already when the Mexican team and audience sang their anthem at the top of their voices, it promised a good show!

  06-20/02:54 Fairland:  As for the World Cup. I know my compatriots are not there, but I go for Mexico anyway...

  06-20/02:27 Fairland:  Research-based "Viking- Age color palette" article. http://sciencenordic.com/how-decorate-viking

  06-18/21:56 Hagbard:  Congratulations, England!

  06-18/13:55 Hagbard:  Thank you again. I don't know about the sensitive thing. The word reminds me of the Danish speaker's comment to the Netherlands/Brazil World Cup game yesterday, when a Dutch player gave a Brazilian a big push in the back with both hands and then a second later headed the ball into goal and got away with it: "This is not jazz ballet, it is football".
The sum of thoughts most often give effective results.
The small tourn. now follow the line of Casshern's idea:
When a tourn. is full (4 players), another is spawned ready for the next 4 players, and so on.
Planned in 4 days: Ard Ri. And in 11 days: Saami.

  06-18/12:14 Ded Fomich:  Aage feels the pulse of the community, he is sensitive to the players’ opinions and manages the site for the benefit of the majority of the players for years, my mouth wouldn't let me call this arduous work “bad”, quite the contrary. Regarding tournaments, I have no specific preferences in the tournaments’ format, the main thing for me is to play a fair pair of games. There was one big group of all players in HH tournament 13×13 and I was playing 20 games simultaneosly (22 games if you count with two cancelled finished games with Bogd Khan), it was unexpectedly very fun. But it’s also a big pleasure to play in several small groups with a final round after that, it’s another kind of suspense, fun and intrigue. A fair pair of games is a necessary and sufficient condition personally for me and nothing else matters. It would be also very nice if we play Saami Tablut tournament in the nearest future.

  06-18/05:37 Hagbard:  Ard Ri can be next.

  06-18/02:11 mccluskeyp:  @Hagbard, I think you are doing a great job too.  Regarding re-running the past tournaments, Scottish Ard Ri 7x7 cross throneless needs more experimentation to determine if it is truly solved or not.  At this point it appears White will always win with best play, but my hope springs eternal!

  06-17/23:30 Hagbard:  Thanks for the good words.
@Casshern: That's a good idea!
Perhaps Sea battle tafl 13x13, Scottish Ard Ri, Fetlar or Sea battle 9x9 should be repeated?

  06-17/10:58 Trygve:  I agree with «animals», Hagbart's doing a great job as I can see!

  06-17/10:10 animals:  Most of us appreciate the hard work you're putting in Hagbard, and I personally think the site is well run.

  06-17/09:38 edmond-dantes:  with the bad management of this site you will drive out and the few players left to play here. WARNING

  06-17/05:06 casshern:  I think the 4 player limit has been good. Personally, I don’t mind playing large tournaments with many players. But larger tournaments tend to take more time to finish. Resulting in few tournaments throught the year. Now there is a new tournament every week. And we have been able to play many different variants in a short amount of time. The one thing I will ask Hagbard is can we have multiple tournaments if more than 4 players are interested. Since, as Jrton80 said, some tournaments full up right away. Leaving who knows how many players locked out. Hagbard, if a tournament fulls up (4 players) within the first 3 days, could you open up another group? And if more than 8 players are interested another group? And so on. Then perhaps the winners of the groups could play a final round? This is essentially what we currently have planned for the WTC this year.

  06-17/00:31 mccluskeyp:  I think you can make a case for both sides there @Hagbard.  @edmond-dantes may not mind playing many simultaneous games.  I personally like the 4 player limit.  If there is no cap on the number of players then I probably will just not join tournaments.

  06-16/14:47 Hagbard:  Other opinions on this? A different limit?

  06-16/12:47 edmond-dantes:  please remove this foolishness from having a limit on the number of players

  06-15/21:27 Hagbard:  It's to limit the size of normal tournaments, so that the player knows he'll have no more than six games. In return a new tournament starts every week.

  06-15/21:03 Trygve:  Why is it «Max 4 pers.»-limit for the tournaments?

  06-15/20:41 Hagbard:  Bogd Khan won the Fetlar tourn.
Casshern shared with Ded fomich the win of the Sea battle 9x9 tourn.
and Casshern won the Simple Tafl 11x11 tourn.

  06-15/11:37 Hagbard:  New proposed scheme for World Championship:
http://aagenielsen.dk/hnefataflforum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&p=1046#p1046
Registering could begin in 14 days and Round 1 start Sep. 15th.

  06-14/01:46 Hagbard:  Indeed. Since there's a wish, it can be the next in two days!

  06-13/23:42 Trygve:  Good idea! I will attend a Magpie comp!

  06-13/23:35 mccluskeyp:  @Hagbard, would it be possible to schedule a Magpie tournament for sometime in the next few months?

  06-13/19:05 Hagbard:  That is, a normal Old Hnefatafl 13x13 tourn. starts in two days.
Which strong king variant we'd want for Sep. 15th is up to suggestions. Just not Copenhagen, which is used for the world champ. tourn.
And which variant the Eastern vikings would want for a tourn. Sep. 15th is totally up to suggestions, again just not Copenhagen.

  06-13/17:32 Trygve:  Sorry, not 37, but 51 generations back!

  06-13/17:30 Trygve:  Scandi-tourn with Old 13x13 sounds perfect! Looking forward to Sept 15! I've never played against Odin Himself, my forefather 37 generations back, he's high ranked, maybe I could give him a hard time with black, but with white he would be a big favourite.

  06-12/22:10 Hagbard:  New in gallery: Steiger sent photos from the Moscow historical festival June 10th

  06-12/20:58 Hagbard:  - And at the same time an Eastern tournament among the 8 Eastern vikings?

  06-12/20:37 Hagbard:  It's difficult to gather all in the summer time, therefore the American tournament was in April.
Perhaps we could have the Scandinavian one at Sep. 15th (same as World tournament round 1)?

  06-12/16:25 OdinHimself:  @Hagbard: Correction! You're 8 Scandinavians. Don't forget I'm a viking at heart. My second name is Olve Eikemo and I'm from Bergen, Norway. So, you can count me in! ;)

  06-11/23:45 Hagbard:  Could be possible, we are 7 Scandinavians.
Planned for next tournament is Old Hnefatafl 13x13, but I suppose that a Scandinavian tournament must be with a longer notice.

  06-11/23:40 Trygve:  What about a Scandinavian tournament in a strong king game?

  06-11/19:01 casshern:  I think circular would be worst for white with the 1-step rule. Honestly, I am opposed to 7x7 variants. Brandubh is the closest to a balanced game we have. I think 7x7 is just too small. I prefer 9x9 and 11x11 boards.

  06-11/16:32 Hagbard:  Maybe Ard Ri-1 friendly-throne circular. Because the friendly-throne balance was -1.86, not too bad, and circular can perhaps help white.
But that is two deviations from standard rules: the one step limit and the friendly throne.

  06-11/15:19 mccluskeyp:  @Hagbard @casshern, what are your thoughts about Ard Ri-1 7x7 with the circular Black layout instead of cross?  Circular layout scored higher for White than the cross during the test tournament, perhaps the circular layout is a way to improve the balance of Ard Ri-1.

  06-09/19:52 jrton80:  thanks

  06-09/08:46 Hagbard:  A bug. The software should've detected that white cannot move. White must resign manually to end the game.

  06-09/04:41 jrton80:  @hagbard I got a berserker game with commentjouer which should be a win for me, but it did not kill

  06-09/02:40 casshern:  No more testing. Thank you Hagbard.

  06-08/21:20 Hagbard:  The Ard Ri-1 7x7 balance is now -2.50
More testing?

  06-08/09:23 Hagbard:  Proposed scheme for World Championship:
The great majority of participants will have only six games, and it is six games against matches.
http://aagenielsen.dk/hnefataflforum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4&p=1043#p1043

  06-07/14:34 Hagbard:  When black is aware that white can go for a draw fort, much can be done to spoil it

  06-07/14:05 Bogd Khan:  About the game with Epm180 in Fetlar tournament: Hagbard i like the rule with the repetition(draw) but in Fetlar games it looks quite easy to make a draw in every single game with white...it is not balanced.

  06-07/12:52 Hagbard:  - The capture-two-blacks requirement was introduced to prevent the building of a center fort in two moves, which was discovered to be theoretically possible.

  06-07/12:49 Hagbard:  Fetlar tournament about the Epm180 / Bogd khan game:
Interesting game. White had to retreat to a center fort but unfortunately before there'd been time to catch two blacks.
Therefore there's not a Draw Button on the screen, and white should lose by repetition.
If two blacks had been captured, this would have been a draw.
Unfortunately the software is not implemented to look for this situation, so white has to give up manually to end the game.

  06-06/12:04 Hagbard:  Revised scheme for the world championship:
http://aagenielsen.dk/hnefataflforum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&p=1039&sid=9ad05078df39cf09b9a00cf0de0c9aa4#p1039

  06-03/08:49 Hagbard:  Well, there's room in the current tourn., and the next is planned about June 9th and to be Simple Tafl 11x11.

  06-02/22:21 jrton80:  But Harbard, you should know, I was Blonde before I lost my hair, I forget things. I can easily space out for a week

  06-02/08:17 Hagbard:  It's easy to know long time before, when a new tournament will start. In the invitations list it says about the current tourn. "Running x days". When it has run 7 days, a new will start. And then the first couple of days there's usually room for more players.

  06-02/02:49 jrton80:  I cannot say I like that, fewer games is good, but that is more on the player, is it not? i.e. you play one side at a time - waiting for one game to be over before starting the next. A habit I find a bit annoying, but I have gotten use to it (and we always like what we are use to) and if that is what you want, all is good - I'm not going to argue - it is how you choose to play your game after all. Not getting into a tournament (which I kind of suck at) just because I do not go to the home page that often? I really do not like that

  06-02/00:10 Hagbard:  It's to make it easier for the tournament players, fewer games in the tournament. In return a new tournament can start each week, next one tomorrow.

  06-01/23:26 jrton80:  @Hagbard why the limit of 4? I really do not check there as often as I should, but really ONLY 4 in a tournament? I's confused

  06-01/18:59 Hagbard:  @mccluskeyp: A wonderful feature. Like you, I have to use board and pieces to try out moves for important games. Sometimes in tournaments there are more difficult games running at the same time, and sometimes the tournament board is larger than 11x11.
Not quite simple to implement, though. I could take a try at it after summer.

  06-01/16:48 Hagbard:  Proposition for world tournament rules 2018. Sign in from July 1st, start Sep. 15th:
http://aagenielsen.dk/hnefataflforum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&p=1028#p1027

  06-01/10:06 Hagbard:  Ard Ri-1 7x7 is on the list.
In the test tournament 76 Casshern won all games both as white and black, which of course is a good sign about the balance.
However, it could be the "Crust-effect". In the first years of testing a lot of variants from 2010 forward, Crust was the stable opponent for the testing. And strangely, nearly any variant came out balanced. The reason was that whatever the rules, Crust would win all games whether white or black. When other players tried the same rules, the result was much different...
So we could likewise have a "Casshern-effect" with the Ard Ri-1...

  06-01/00:36 Hagbard:  Yes, I can open it from tomorrow. But the measured balance so far is -2.18

  05-31/22:31 casshern:  @Hagbard: I think mccluskeyp is referring to something like the Ard Ri 1-step that we tested. Tournament 76 I think. Would you be able to add that one to the list as well?

  05-31/14:25 Hagbard:  Interesting. Magpie 7x7 is back on the list.

  05-31/14:11 mccluskeyp:  Casshern proved to me over the course of yesterday afternoon that the Scottish Ardi Ri 7x7 cross throneless variant is solved.  With best play, White always wins.  Can we bring back the one step variant to see if that fixes things?

  05-31/11:34 Hagbard:  I wonder if Kalabalik comes to Tønsberg the next three days:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcnVTKkDd-8

  05-30/14:16 mccluskeyp:  Thank you for the information Agmundr.  That website doesn’t have the ability to play the variant I’m interested in.  It appears to support only 9x9 Tablut and 11x11 Hnefatafl.

  05-30/11:55 Agmundr:  @mccluskeyp, here is a site where you can test out your future moves. You can also play against the computer. 🍻 http://www.lutanho.net/play/hnefatafl.html

  05-30/08:03 Hagbard:  Planned next tournament: Sea battle tafl 9x9 (Imperial Contest)

  05-30/06:49 Hagbard:  If you happen to some day get a photo of a tafl board there, or other photos of the activities, I'd like them for the gallery.

  05-30/06:14 Fairland:  By there, I mean the Muskogee Castle. .

  05-30/01:00 Fairland:  Yes! I saw your comment about tønsberg. I live just an hour and twenty minutes from there. It is largely post viking age, but I have seen the occasional tafl board for sale.

  05-29/21:08 Hagbard:  I for one didn't hear about the Muskogee festival before. It's in Oklahoma and has a homepage:
https://www.okcastle.com/renaissance.html

Regarding the mccluskeyp suggestion, I'll wait for others to comment first -

  05-29/15:55 mccluskeyp:  Has there been any discussion in the past about the possibility of adding a feature to the site that would allow players to test out future moves in their games?  For example, let's say I'm 10 moves into a game and I'm trying to decide whether to move a particular piece.  If there were a way to move that piece in the game interface and then move my opponent's pieces to see how the board would look (and so on and so on, X moves into the future and not just a single move into the future) I would find that useful in deciding how to play.  The method I use now is to set up the board position using a board and pieces I have at home and then test out different variations.  Appreciate your thoughts and comments, mccluskeyp.

  05-28/21:37 Fairland:  Hagbard, have you heard of the Castle of Muskogee and the Rennaissance faire they have there?

  05-27/09:54 Hagbard:  Tønsberg Middelaldersfestival, Norway, June 1st-3rd!

  05-24/08:54 Hagbard:  Casshern won the Sea Battle 13 tournament, all points.
And we have a new expert in Scottish Ard Ri: mccluskeyp

  05-23/19:10 Hagbard:  New in gallery: photos from Zmijovich, Ukraine.

  05-23/00:31 Hagbard:  Planned next tournament: there's a wish for Fetlar.

  05-21/18:41 mccluskeyp:  Nevermind, I figured it out.

  05-21/16:32 mccluskeyp:  Question about the Long forum.  Is there any way for me to upload an image stored on my computer desktop?  I see that the insert image tool allows me to insert a link to an image, but I can't figure out if it's possible to upload an image from my computer as opposed to linking to an image on the internet.  Or perhaps just a way to link to a particular game in the archives, since that is what I'm trying to show in this case.

  05-20/14:40 Hagbard:  Though you probably have the essentials of board games from a long chess career - as I suspect that all the top players here have...
The measures against draw here are general for any variant other than Fetlar:
- Total surrounding of white is a black victory (except Berserk where pieces can jump).
- Repeated side stepping is a loss (the side stepping is easily recognized by human players, and also by the computer)
- Repeated white moving in the constraint of a draw fort or similar position is a white loss.
(Actually practically all repetition is a white loss.)

  05-20/13:22 Ded Fomich:  But I’m not one of them, as you may have guessed =)

  05-20/13:19 Ded Fomich:  By the way, in comparison with chess, where the absolute majority of the games are played to a draw, one can say that Copenhagen Tafl has no draws, their number can be neglected. For example, Harry Kasparov wrote in his book that at the level of grandmasters white wins in 29% of cases, black wins in 18% of cases, draws comprise 53% of cases. But huge amount of people enjoy chess in spite of draws. According to the most conservative estimates, 200–300 millions of people play chess, according to FIDE estimates, 600–650 millions.

  05-20/13:13 Ded Fomich:  @Hagbard I assume the same thing, that’s one of the reasons why I don’t play variants with the corner exits. Also I had doubts regarding Sea Battle Tafl because of my misunderstanding of the repetitions rule, but you have just eleminated them. I remember that I followed a game from the WTF Championship 2016, Crust played with Herjan, 167 moves (!) and it ended in a draw, I was very disappointed. But that’s just my personal opinion (Steiger always calls me a «cornerphobe»), international practice shows that corner tafl variants are the most popular variants, a lot of players really enjoy them, and Copenhagen Tafl is an unrivalled leader among all the variants. And I have no doubts that that all the variants have to be represented and saved—Fetlar, Old Hnefatafl and so on. The players should be able to choose and play those variants which rules they really like. All those variants are, after all, parts of the modern history of the game.

  05-20/09:43 Hagbard:  The American Championship tournament is finished after 13 days, and IM Mario Aluizo won with max. points.

  05-20/09:03 Hagbard:  One could wonder if the draw perhaps is a foreign element in the tafl game. The details of the Fetlar game were decided on by the Fetlar Hnefatafl Panel. In consultation with Tim Millar, who knows the Panel personally and went to the island Fetlar for the World Championship twice and won, it was decided to keep the Fetlar rules as they are anyway.

  05-19/22:51 Hagbard:  Draw is a speciality of the Fetlar game (draw forts and draw by repetition). For all other variants I assume that it is only possible for king-win-in-corner games (Copenhagen, Old Hnefatafl and Berserk) and only in the case where both parties are prevented from winning because of too few pieces.

  05-19/21:07 Ded Fomich:  The possibility of a draw in such exciting game as Sea Battle would have broken my heart, I’m implacably opposed to draws. Actually there is nothing more depressing than a draw!

  05-19/21:04 Ded Fomich:  @Hagbard Oh, I see. I thought that the position should be repeated for three times immediately and only in this case it can be recognised as a threefold repetition. Now I see that this is just about any three positions not necessarily in a row. So, the king is lost. Nice to hear that, thanks!

  05-19/20:44 Hagbard:  It is however tedious if you have to wait 49 moves for this obvious thing to happen.
In the software of this site the rule is interpreted such that a repetition like this is detected only after 6 moves:
The king side steps back and forth - 2 moves
The king again side steps back and forth, possibly using two other squares, but still it really is the same side step on the same line. 2 moves.
The king side steps again back and forth on the same line, again possibly using two new squares but still the same line and the same situation. 2 moves.
The king lost!

  05-19/20:44 Hagbard:  Interesting case! But also here there are a limited number of pieces involved in the repetitive patterns and a limited number of squares, so inevitably sooner or later a board position will occur three times. In this case the king can be on one of 4 squares, and the 2 black opponents can be in 2 of 4 squares. That is 4 x 6 = 24 possible board positions, one of which will be repeated for the third time after 49 moves at the latest. So if the king goes on like this, he'll lose in the end.

  05-19/20:15 Ded Fomich:  Today I played with Steiger in chess club «White Rook». We paid special attention to See Battle Tablut 9×9 (not Imperial Contest—we came to the conclution that the king’s move limitation is not required). We played many games and in one of them we faced with an interesting problem, it relates to the perpetual repetitions rule. Here is the position in our game: https://bit.ly/2rSuDME

The matter is that the king (cargo ship—the aggressive player) and the attackers’ ships can make moves indefinitely without repeating of the board position for three times, for example the simplest variations with only one attacker:

h6-h7	i6-i7
h7-h6	i7-i6

h6-h8	i6-i8
h8-h6	i8-i6

h6-h7	i6-i7
h7-h6	i7-i6

h6-h8	i6-i8
h8-h6	i8-i6
h6-h8	i6-i8
h8-h6	i8-i6

h6-h7	i6-i7
h7-h6	i7-i6
h6-h7	i6-i7
h7-h6	i7-i6

And so on ad infinitum, there are several possible combinations. Two attackers can be involved in moving, but it doesn’t matter—one or two—the result will be the same: both sides will move endlessly without threefold repetition. How this situation should be judged if nobody wants to surrender in keeping with the Vikings’ spirit? Is there any rule in Sea Battle Tafl for such situation?
Full contents of the small forum.
International tafl master Lucho Panchev ("OdinHimself"), Bulgaria, tells about Hnefatafl in the scientific TV magazine Epohata na Vodoleya, Bulgarian TV September 2017.
Darius Trimegiste tells about Hnefatafl on Lofoten, Norway, August 2017.
SC Odin club, Bulgaria; Hnefatafl promo, November 2017.
Lucho Panchev's book about Hnefatafl in Bulgarian, January 2018.
Lucho Panchev's book about Hnefatafl in Bulgarian, March 2018.
A review of hnefatafl made by Dmitriy Pashkov for the Russian YouTube channel "THE STATION" Feb. 2018.
Logo: Adam Bartley.
World Tafl Federation on facebook.

Notice the collection of photos on the Facebook site! Large photo series of handmade tafl sets!
World Tafl Federation Hnefatafl Championship tournament 2017.

10 years anniversary since the first Hnefatafl World Championship on Fetlar 2008!
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.
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).
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 and Thore Nissen for their contribution to this site. And not least the more than 400 players the world over who played here more than 15000 real tafl games humans against humans and thus created a vast, practical experience with this intriguing, historical board game.
Updated 15.8.2018