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:
Saami Daabloe 11x9 starting Nov. 8th 2021.
Daldøs 3x12 starting Nov. 15th 2021.
Sea battle tafl 15x15 starting Nov. 22nd 2021.
Simple Tyr 15x15 starting Nov. 26th 2021.
Sea battle tafl 13x13 starting Nov. 26th 2021.
Next: Sea battle-2526 9x9 and Historical Hnefatafl 13x13.
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.
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  11-23/14:25 Hagbard:  The Daldøs 3x14 tournament finished with #1 Draganov, #2 Hagbard, #3 Holidayinnes, L716 and Docbullen

  11-22/14:56 Hagbard:  The Daldøs 3x12 tournament finished with #1 Hagbard and Xerxes, #3 Cacreal and Hnefihunter

  11-22/10:35 Hagbard:  - Similarly, World Champ. table for Sahkku, out of 10 players 5 are eliminated in Round 1 and 5 move on to Round 2.

  11-22/10:24 Hagbard:  - Similarly, when the World Champ. table for Copenhagen is examined the same way, then out of 21 players 12 are eliminated in Round1 and 9 move on to Round 2.

  11-22/10:04 Hagbard:  Good points.
If the World Champ. table for tawlbwrdd is seen from the point of Single Elim. (4 games against 2 opponents), then out of 13 players 8 are eliminated in Round 1 and 5 move on to Round 2.

  11-22/09:47 Draganov:  @Hagbard, how many games would be played in a single-elimination match. In my opinion if we play just 2 games, too many matches will be split and the winner will be determined by additional criteria. How are we going to resolve ties? My second considiration is about the match-length. For me playing just 2 games in a round is not enough to satisfy my desire to battle on the tafl field. Many players on the site are playing 10-15 games at once. Focusing on just 2 games would be boring for them. 
In my opinion, we need to play at least 4 games matches (2 games with the whites and 2 games with the blacks) against a single opponent.

  11-21/18:44 Hagbard:  The World Champ. Tourn. is not finished yet, 5 games or more are left, and time for evaluation is not until after the finis.

However, it would be interesting to try to downscale the "Double Elimination" scheme which was used, into a similar "Single Elimination" and see if it would work.
It could be tested from Nov. 29th with the variant Sea battle tafl 13x13 (Nielsen). The positive game balance helps the cargo ship a bit to escape.

  11-20/17:19 Hagbard:  May Odin give you knowledge on your path

  11-18/18:13 Hagbard:  fixed for now

  11-18/12:59 mihkkal:  Hi! There's a bug in the Daabloe game between Holidayinnes and me. He has immobilized my pieces but the game hasn't noticed that he's won.

  11-17/16:19 holidayinnes:  Speaking as umpire, I agree with the computer's list.

  11-17/09:10 Hagbard:  ATTENTION please! Copenhagen Round 3 starts Nov. 20th 18 o'clock Danish time.
Umpire Mike, do you agree with the computer's list of players who move on?
(sqAree, Draganov)

  11-13/16:26 OdinHimself:  Congratulations on the first Bulgarian champion! And respect to all opponents in this tournament!

  11-13/00:10 ChaolAibhne:  Speaking as umpire, I declare Draganov as the winner of the Tawlbwrdd tournament

  11-12/17:29 cacreal:  @plamen - validation and happiness come from within , look inside your gold medal 🥇 is waiting

  11-12/10:16 Hagbard:  Name adjusted.
But the win validating is an umpire's case -

  11-12/09:44 Draganov:  And could you also validate my win in the Welsh Tawlbwrdd championship?

  11-12/09:41 Draganov:  @Hagbard, can you add my first name to the list with the information about the players in the tournaments. My full name is Plamen Draganov and I used my family name as a username.

  11-09/15:25 Hagbard:  fixed

  11-09/14:57 ChaolAibhne:  @Hagbard When viewing completed Hex games, it seems that those that have been resigned have a broken image for the final board position

  11-09/09:21 Hagbard:  The Hex 11x11 tournament finished with #1 Chaolaibhne, #2 Cacreal and Holidayinnes

  11-01/13:55 Hagbard:  Monday morning Nov. 8th.

  11-01/12:42 mihkkal:  When will the Daabloe tournament begin?

  10-31/20:26 Plantagenet:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l44yv9scoK4

  10-31/02:10 Jrton80:  @Draganov yes, beserker is more complex, but that does not make it longer - stubborn refusal to resign while I still had my knight makes berserker longer

  10-29/23:17 Hagbard:  The Daldøs 3x16 tournament finished with #1 Draganov, #2 Cacreal, Xerxes and Rosk

  10-29/12:58 Draganov:  Yes, I understand that while the Copenhagen World Championship is running, it will not be good to disturb the players with another tournaments. However, after the world championship is over, I think it would be good to have more than one tournament running in the same time.

  10-29/12:24 Hagbard:  I see your point. There's deliberately been a pause in the ordinary tafl tournaments until the Cop. World Champ. gets to Round 3, as to not disturb the players.
So we've practised the non-tafl games in the waiting time.

  10-29/11:37 Draganov:  @Hagbard, I can see that the next tournament will be Daldøs 3x14. These kind of games (Sahkku and Daldøs) are very easy-going and they are finished in less days than the tafl tournaments. In my opinion it would be better if you organize more than one tournament in the same time. These tournaments are not as serious and tough as the world championships and could be played more regularly. So, in this way, we could test a lot of variants. I mean we could play at the same time not only Sahkku and Daldøs but also some minor and inferior variants such as Tyr, Simple Tafl, Brandubh. I think an active player could easily play in two tournaments like Brandubh and Tablut simultaneously.

  10-28/16:20 OdinHimself:  Skal, Plantagenet, my friend.

  10-28/15:13 Draganov:  Welcome back to Plantagenet! I am glad that such a strong player is back to the game and hope to see him battle against the new generation of players including myself. Cheers!

  10-28/10:01 Draganov:  @Jrton80, I have never played Berserk Hnefatafl 11x11 but I supposed that it is more complex game than the other tafl variants. So, probably it is normal that the game was longer. However, winning with the whites after so many moves is an amazing achievement for you.

  10-27/19:08 Jrton80:  @Draganov The longest game I have been in and with white winning is: jrton80 / Bogd Khan. Berserk Hnefatafl 11x11, 224 moves, 2019-04-26 22:44:50, white won (jrton80) - FYI I have beaten Bogd Khan once with either since then. I think I annoyed him with that win. and @xerxes yes I do recall that game.

  10-27/13:11 mihkkal:  The Borchgrevink Expedition built the first houses on Antarctica, and one of the very first board games to be played in those houses was Sáhkku. More info here (click on each picture in the post for info) https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2485023098297757&id=1418288921637852&viewer=1418288921637852&m_entstream_source=timeline&paipv=1

  10-27/11:46 ChaolAibhne:  Yes, I agree with Casshern and Draganov moving on to round 3 of the Tawlbwrdd tournament

  10-25/00:29 Hagbard:  ATTENTION please! Tawlbwrdd Round 3 can start very soon.
Umpire Hamish, do you agree with the computer's list of players who move on?
(casshern, Draganov)

  10-23/20:00 Hagbard:  The Saami Cuhkka 5x5 tournament finished with #1 Jrton80 and Rosk, #3 Docbullen

  10-23/11:12 xerxes:  @Draganov: I had a 149 move game with Jrton80 in the 2018 Wolrd Champs.  White won

  10-22/16:21 Hagbard:  May Thor grant you strength and courage on your way

  10-22/16:17 Hagbard:  I can check after the tournament; there's a good chance that the 142 moves game is the longest one.

  10-22/09:38 Draganov:  @Hagbard, can you find the longest game in which the whites won? I just wonder to know what is the longest victory for the whites and what is the game in which the blacks won with the least amount of vikings left?

  10-22/09:35 Draganov:  @SqAree and @OdinHimself, I am glad that you like my games. I think they are good examples of white's positional play. Against Casshern the game was a true battle for every square. It is good that the whites manages to win in a longer game. It means that tafl is a rich game with many opportunities for both sides to win the game. Even after 100 moves the whites are not lost and have chances to win the game.

  10-22/08:24 OdinHimself:  @SqAree: Indeed. I'm very proud that Bulgaria finally delivered a "good" tafl genius! :) Good luck further Plamen, my friend! You, Bogdan and me must clear the evil, black spot that Dantes sticked to Bulgaria's name in the tafl world and show all these fine gentlemen here the true face of our nation - honest and purposeful pursuit of development. We are all brothers here, no matter what, we all breathe and live in the name of hnefatafl!

  10-22/05:00 Hagbard:  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03972-8

  10-21/19:44 sqAree:  Very nice games with white, @draganov. It's cool to see white victories in such long games. They looked really interesting and fiercely fought as well. :)

  10-21/07:20 Hagbard:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsoPiMD8zNU

  10-21/02:49 holidayinnes:  Yes hagbard, I agree with the players advancing to round 2

  10-20/10:18 Steiger:  https://youtu.be/JCAP8P67SC0

  10-20/10:15 Steiger:  It is everyone's duty to identify and isolate fanatical beings with messianic manners !!!
Think ... Feel!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kongsberg_attack

  10-20/07:20 Hagbard:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLzlegtzs-M

  10-19/19:51 Hagbard:  I guess that Daldøs in Denmark is today mostly for special interested people, that is game board historians and historical game board enthusiasts.

  10-19/19:45 Hagbard:  Using the shown dice function, a test was run throwing the dice 1000 times.
Result:
1  268 times
2  235 times
3  253 times
4  244 times

  10-19/19:43 Draganov:  @Hagbard, what is the popularity of Daldøs in Denmark? Is it a well-known game amongst the people?

  10-19/15:48 xerxes:  @Hagbard, Draganov: Thanks.  I'm always unlucky in my games !

  10-19/14:56 Hagbard:  ATTENTION please! Copenhagen Round 2 starts Oct. 22nd 18 o'clock Danish time.
Umpire Mike, do you agree with the computer's list of players who move on?
(casshern, holidayinnes, paul7, Jrton80, Rollo, sqAree, Luizz, OdinHimself, Draganov, Masterluke, cacreal, Potapych, garun19)

  10-19/14:30 Draganov:  So, I can't see anything wrong on the programming point of view. Probably Xerxes was just unlucky in his games.

  10-19/14:26 Hagbard:  The latter. 1 is 1 for the program but is just presented for the player as X.

  10-19/14:21 Draganov:  And what happened if the function returns 1. How 1 is converted to X or it is just displayed as X on the Front-end but the back-end logic is using 1 for X?

  10-19/13:57 Hagbard:  This is the function call:
$terninger = $this->rand_best(1, 4) . $this->rand_best(1, 4);

  10-19/13:52 Draganov:  @Hagbard, as a programmer (JavaScript) I can't see anything wrong with this code. It creates an array with 100 elements and each of them is with a random value between min (1) and max (3). Then it randomizes these elements in the array and generates a random position and return one of the 100 elements from the array based on the generated position value. Well, this code is very good for randomizing the values and produces a value based on a lot of randomization. However, can you check the logic for the generation of X value? I remember that in Sahkku there was a bug in which a value of 1 was produced instead of X and with the dice value of 1, we could not activate a piece.

  10-19/13:33 Hagbard:  Yes and yesterday I started a game with incredibly many nox. But I use this algorithm from the internet, and it does look very efficient (php):
function rand_best($min, $max) {
    $generated = array();
    for ($i = 0; $i < 100; $i++) {
        $generated[] = mt_rand($min, $max);
    }
    shuffle($generated);
    $position = mt_rand(0, 99);
    return $generated[$position];
}

  10-19/13:06 xerxes:  @Hagbard: Ref the new Daldos 3x17. I have had ten moves so far across 6 games, but have only had 1 'X'.  I realise that might just be bad luck, but it does seem a bit unlikely if the dice are random.

  10-18/21:03 Hagbard:  Yes that's a typo. Daldøs is the Danish version.

  10-18/20:38 mihkkal:  Hi! I was just wondering about the cup tournament for "Saami Daldøs". To my knowledge daldøs isn't traditional in Sámi culture, and there doesn't exist any traditional Sámi variants of daldøs. We have Sáhkku, which is a related game, but daldøs is unknown in Sápmi.

  10-17/18:10 Irish Raven:  @Hagbard: Thanks for the clarification.

  10-17/17:56 Hagbard:  It's a bug in the function "Show Time Buffers". The value is correct for the player whose turn it is, but sometimes the same value is incorrectly shown also for the other player. It has no effect, the player not in the turn will not time out.

By the way the large forum is now opened for new registering.

  10-17/16:37 Irish Raven:  Hagbard - In my Brandubh game against Paul7 I have noticed that my time buffer has gone down by 2 days even though it has been Paul7 to move for the last 2 days. Is there something wrong here?

  10-16/09:33 Hagbard:  No you mean the cannot-move issue? Possibly, it happens so rarely -

  10-15/23:45 Hagbard:  Is it the two Tyr 15x15 games? They look normal?

  10-15/22:31 Jrton80:  @Hagbard is my memory playing tricks on me or didn't we find that issue in Berserker once?

  10-07/15:50 holidayinnes:  Speaking as Copenhagen umpire: The Cacreal / Draganov game is unfinished because of a bug in the programming.
Black won this game since white is blocked and cannot move.

  10-06/11:41 Hagbard:  Umpire's case.
But there seems to be an imperfection in the program there.

  10-06/11:31 Draganov:  @Hagbard, it seems that there is a bug and the rule 9 of the Copenhagen variant is not implemented automatically. 
rule 9: 'If a player cannot move, he loses the game'.
Can you check my game against Cacreal. I blocked his last viking but the game is still not over despite he is not able to move.

  10-04/22:11 ChaolAibhne:  Yes, I agree with the list of players who move on to the next round of Tawlbwrdd

  10-04/21:26 Hagbard:  I don't know what happened there. Removed the piece.

  10-04/21:08 Masterluke:  @Hagbard: something weird is going on in my battle tyr-w 11x11 against Rollo. He took two of my men in a berserk move: f2 and h2 (move 29). Yet my man on f2 stays visible. He’s gone in the replay, though.

  10-04/18:48 Hagbard:  Still working on the details

  10-04/18:38 Draganov:  @Hagbard, is it possible to have the pairs for the Welsh Tawlbwrdd round 2 announced?

  10-04/17:20 Hagbard:  ATTENTION please! Tawlbwrdd Round 2 starts Oct. 7th 18 o'clock Danish time.
Umpire Hamish, do you agree with the computer's list of players who move on?
(casshern, Masterluke, jilles, paul7, Rollo, Draganov)

  10-01/09:46 Adam:  Speaking as Umpire: Regarding the removal of Alex H's games from the Copenhagen tournament: It was unanimously agreed by the four umpires that the nature of Alex H's resignations; simultaneous and largely in positions which did not warrant resignation, displayed a decision on his part to not participate in the tournament. We hasten to add that resigning a game in and of itself does not warrant having a game or player removed. This was an unusual set of circumstances, effectively the same as a player timing out more than half of their games, hence it was covered by the rule stating: A player who causes half or more of his Round games to time out or does not show up for the round, is disqualified from the tournament.

  09-30/09:47 Hagbard:  The Historical Hnefatafl-w 13x13 tournament finished with #1 Jilles, #2 Holidayinnes and Rollo

  09-30/07:32 Jrton80:  @Bogd Khan I am on the fence about it. I mean, on the surface it does seem a bit of an overreaction, but casshern is obviously pissed about it which does not often happen and I have not had the time to look at the games in question. Of course, I am saying that after taking a 2 hour nap after dinner.

  09-29/17:54 Bogd Khan:  What a decision?! Why do you say Alex did not completed his games? He did it. And everyone saw that. Why do you say if someone resign he did not complete his games? Unfinished game should be a a game lost by timeout, not resign. If you think resigning is not fair just remove that button... and don't think I like Alex or defend him. I don't like him, but the decision is not right.

  09-29/10:45 Draganov:  I shared my thoughts on the tournament format. I am glad that Hagbard implemented elimination format after 3 test tournaments, which were quite successful in my opinion. I have never been intending to be an Alex's proxy. I just share his intention to join the tournament since he was banned from the chat. I also shared some of his thoughts regarding the game changes and that's it. I think if Alex has to tell us something regarding the game, we do not have to censor him. However, I truly agree that he deserved to be banned since he insulted many people (including me in Facebook, so he will not be able to use me to share his thoughts on the game anymore). Well, my intention is to focus on the games and play more instead of writing in the chat. I said what I had in mind regarding the tournament format. I didn't want to make changes for this tournament. I proposed a tournament of first round group round-robin and semifinals and a final of single-elimination format. However, my proposal is to test such a format and not to implement it in 2021. Probably after 2-3 years if everything is OK with the format it should be consider to be used in the world championship. So, enough talk from me, I am going to use my sword and axe fighting on the board and not my keyboard for writing.

  09-29/08:32 MasterLuke:  I couldn't agree more with Jrton80 and Odinhimself. I think we should appreciate the effort Hagbard has put in this website through the years. Please cut off that annoying crap about how the tournament should be organised... And please don't bother waisting one word more on individuals like Alex Hnefatafl (hereby I did it for the last time myself). This is a game, we play it for fun. No prizes to win. I'd like to read more encouraging, happy things on this forum.

  09-28/23:53 Jrton80:  @OdinHimself I have been feeling the same way - Love to play but I have not been all the motivated nor worried about winning and all this does seem to be Much ado about nothing

  09-28/23:48 Jrton80:  @Draganov "Methinks doth protest to much" Yes, I am misquoting - But seriously, I ask you, please, quit being Alex's proxy. Unless you got some actual code to offer, you are just making trouble. There is history here which I do not think you are, or can, take into account. We have done the round robin thing. The first world tournament I was in here was exactly all the other tournaments ran throughout the year, everybody in and the blood was everywhere then we got split up into groups, then geographical groups, then by player rating, and a few other changes I am skipping or forgetting AND now we got this double elimination thing going. The Tournaments do change. To keep pushing for changes before the cycle is complete is getting a little annoying. Could we Please complete this one and see the results first?

  09-28/21:58 holidayinnes:  Holidayinnes: Speaking as umpire for the Copenhagen tournament: Alex Hnefatafl, Gungnir, Saxon, Mathgamain, Jollyroger and Halle did not complete the minimum number of games and so their games will be removed from the tournament, as if they had never registered. This decision was unanimous amongst all umpires.

  09-28/21:20 ChaolAibhne:  Speaking as umpire for the Tawlbwrdd tournament: Cato and Saxon did not complete the minimum number of games and so their games will be removed from the tournament, as if they had never registered.

  09-27/18:27 Hagbard:  ATTENTION please! Sahkku Round 3 starts Sep. 30th 18 o'clock Danish time.
Umpire Mikkel, do you agree with the computer's list of players who move on?

  09-27/09:13 Draganov:  @Casshern, my proposal for the semifinals and the final was a single-elimination format with at least 4 games starting simultaneously. In my opinion, best of 4 games match could not be too less for players with equal strength. That's why my personal wish is if it would be possible to play 8 or 10 games matches. When we had groups, a player usually played against 7-8 opponents. It means that a player played 14-16 games at once. I don't think playing 10 games against one opponent would be more exhausting than playing in a round-robin group. I have tested this best of 10 games matches against Holidayinnes, Alex, Floki and Jrton80 and couldn't see any problems on both sides. However, I will not advocate this match format for the first round where there are many players and some of them are not going to show off. It would be really a confusing situation if a player timed out all of his 10 match-games. However, I am proposing this single-elimination matches best of 8 or best of 10 games only for the semifinals and the final. It is supposed that the 4 players who will reach the semifinals will be experienced and well-known, so I think we are not going to have no-showers on the semifinals.

  09-27/08:27 Steiger:  Throughout the history of this site, there have not been many inadequate users among Hnefatafl fans (we all know their names), but for all their inadequacy, they have all made significant contributions to the development of Hnefatafl and our community. But, despite their usefulness, I personally do not have the slightest desire to play and communicate with them!

  09-27/08:11 Steiger:  @casshern: Mario, my friend, it seems to me - that you took the brunt. And you, the best of us! We appreciate it! I wish you health and prosperity!
And my compliments to Ааge: few people deserve to bear the name "Hagbard" - Ааge really deserves it!

  09-26/21:15 casshern:  A few more thoughts and I will start with a repost from about a month ago:

08-29/08:43 Dimetr:  About Alex Hnefatafl - 
Maybe he is careless in his statements,
but this site needs him.
There are only a few strong players here, including Alex.

If Alex really is so good and we “need” him. Then why are other players so quick to write off his games? After only about 10 moves they say, he has bad position. He will probably lose anyways. And just like players who time out their games, I don’t think we “need” someone who is going to forfeit a majority of his matches, in only a few moves. Especially when he continues to be a very active player.

I am sorry to continue to drag everyone’s name through the mud. Odin and Sebastian are the true victums here. They did nothing wrong. I just don’t understand how Draganov, Bogd Khan, and others continue to not see what Odin, myself, and others see. I guess I just want more accountability and less excuses.

  09-26/21:15 casshern:  For all who continue to defend/excuse/accept/write off Alex’s actions:

The truth is we cannot know why he forfeit all his games. He might tell Draganov that it was because he did not like the format. But that could be a lie, right? We can speculate that he felt he was going to loss anyways, but we cannot know for sure, right? And even if he does say that, it could be a lie right?

Alex has continuously acted with malicious intentions. From being banned from chat for abuse, to intentionally forfeiting games to lower his rating to get better seeding in tournament. As Draganov warned could happen.

If it were another player then I would probably give them the benefit of the doubt. But, I think I can safely say that most players here are honest and respect fair play. Therefore I can’t see any other player acting with such poor sportsmanship.

I understand that we cannot control these things. Some players will cheat to try and create an advantage. Some players just don’t have the time to play. This is the difference between timing out games and forfeiting intentionally/prematurely.

My point is we cannot know why Alex did what he did. I have stated what it looks like to me. I feel that it sets a bad precedent. How do we judge similar situations moving forward. Should we just accept the outcomes or should there be penalties?

  09-26/18:45 casshern:  @Fenric7: Thank you so much for pointing out the games between Cacreal and Sebastianmucke. I had not taken a look at them until you pointed them out.

The Sebastianmucke/Cacreal game is a perfect example of why players should finish the matches that they start. It can be argued that Sebastian had the advantage for most of the match. And especially for the final 10 moves or so. As the march wound down and the victory for Sebastian seemed inevitable. But Cacreal found a way to pull out the last minute victory.

It is beautiful to watch such moments like that. Which is why I am so upset that Alex intentionally forfeit the majority of his matches without even trying. It really undermines the integrity of the tournament. I have also had matches over the years were one side or another had a huge advantage. Only to lose the match because of a last minute mistake or a stoke of pure brilliance. Here are a couple of examples from 2 of my old Berserk games:

Casshern/Hagbard (2017-03-03)
Casshern/Khan Asparukh (2019-01-06)

Looking back at the game with Khan, I see how white created a lot of good positions. Even so, I remember when I was playing the game it felt completely hopeless to me. I thought black had done a great job defending. I was on the verge of resignation when I saw one last hope to go for. Had black played g1-g4 on move 57, it would have blocked the double capture that was to come and blocked the king from getting to the B file, which was the immediate danger. I may have continued to play the position if black had played g1-g4. But, I believe that black would have won after that point. White would have just been prolonging the game, hoping for a mistake that was highly likely not to come.

  09-26/17:55 casshern:  @Draganov: Your proposal for 1 round of round robin then Swiss system for Semis and Finals would still take 3+ rounds, just like last year. I don’t see how this will help shorten the duration of the tournament. Except for the fact that all but 4 players will be eliminated after the first round. Additionally, it would probably lead to using tiebreakers. Which I think should be avoided.

The Tyr test tournament that we did to test this current tournament format shows why the Swiss system is not best here. Jilles and I played 3 full matches in the tournament and we split each set of games. Plus, we split another pair of games which brings our record against each other to 4-4. We may still be playing now to see if one of us could sweep a pair of games to find a winner. Or we could us tiebreakers, like shortest game or fewest pieces lost. But, that was not necessary because I lost 1 game to you and Jilles did not. There is our tiebreaker. In a natural form.

Plus I don’t think the Swiss system works well for correspondence games. It works best with a shorter time control. Players cannot play multiple matches simultaneously. Since we do play correspondence here, I think being able to play multiple matches simultaneously helps us speed up the tournament duration. Even with Swiss system we will have players who play slowly. Dragging out the tournament. I don’t see how Swiss system would change this issue.

To clarify, I am referring to your proposal of Semis and Final as the Swiss system, in this instance.

  09-26/11:35 Draganov:  I think it would be enough for the champ to warm up when joining on the semifinals. The champ can always practice meanwhile with other opponents. It is not necessary to start from the first round and play with weak opponents.

  09-26/11:25 Fenric7:  The World Champ needs opportunities for match practice to stay in form. Playing people later may mean the Champ is underdone perhaps. Also, when I started playing in June, my rating was 1400 plus. This seems to have been the average rating combining all other players. My true rating is certainly less than 1200 as I have never won with my blacks. The white privilege in Copenhagen Rules is very real. You have to be clever. I wonder how long the best players take over each move? I don't know enough for there to be much point in taking more than ten minutes. I consider my moves by analysing over a proper board. Having a higher IQ would help more though.

  09-26/07:02 Draganov:  The Swiss system is good but very slow when playing correspondent games. I still truly believe that my system is the best. Round-rubin first round of three groups and semifinals and a final. The world champ can join the group winners on the semifinals.

  09-26/06:59 Draganov:  The problem with rating manipulation could be easily solved. We just need to keep records on the monthly rating or the rating for a three-month period. Then the rating for seeding in the tournament should be based on the rating records for the whole year. New players could start the tournament playing against other new players like this year.

  09-26/02:29 Fenric7:  Cacreal

  09-26/02:28 Fenric7:  The two games played btw Careal and Sebastianmucke are very good and worth a look.

  09-26/00:24 Fenric7:  Thinking with greater clarity (more than none), I realise that there are real probs for the organisers to resolve and it would be best if the tournament didn't take three years to be completed. Perhaps rating manipulation could be resolved by having only the top 4 or 6 or 8 players in the world champs. Have another tournament for the lower rated, running at the same time. Want to play in the world champs? Play better games.

  09-26/00:14 Fenric7:  My tournament is over. Thank you organisers. Thank you opponents. Unfortunate to have one player not turn up. Never mind. Two real victories with the white pieces was the minimum I wanted to achieve. Since I've only been playing since June, sanity and realism forces me to find this acceptable. Now to improve and have my first ever win with the black pieces. Black pieces matter! Actually, no pieces matter. But we pretend that they do. Comment: all this discussion amazes me. A tiny group and all this kerfuffle. If the game has been 'gamed' than the game has to get smarter. I don't consider this to be cheating. But I don't think that drugs in sport is cheating. So I deviate from normality quite a bit. Suggestion: change the qualifying criteria. Change the format. Maybe the Swiss system like in Chess. This will cause mismatches at first but soon will settle down. Also a candidates tournament to determine a challenger to take on the world Champ in a best of how ever many games. Unlike the Chess world championship, more than one game could be played at a time. I wish I could watch the games while they are being played, but understand this is ill advised. I don't think Alex 'cheated'. If it's a problem, make the rules clearer. Umpire's decision. Ban a player for life if you really want to stamp out certain behaviour. Make people play under real names and make them prove who they are, so  they can never play under other names. That's not right. Or, don't care, as it's just a game and all this is just a silly part of the great game of life. Don't worry, it will all be over soon enough and this will seem trivial.

  09-25/23:55 Bogd Khan:  @casshern I do agree with you about manipulation. In this tournament system it's very easy to cheat, especially if already eliminated player helps you in the games between you to win without losing points. That's why I think this system is not very good. Yes, it's funny, it's something new, it's quite fast, but seems unfair. I also can finish Alex's games, everyone who doesn't participate can, but It's not right according to me. The tournament has rules which should be followed, at least until tournament ending. The next tournament will have new rules and less problems I hope. But this one should be finished with the current rules. 

@All However if you think everything in this system sucks there is always an option Hagbard to change tournament setup and every player to play against every other player with adding new games between the players who still not met. In this case Alex will feel even worse for leaving his games hahaha

  09-25/20:17 Draganov:  My will is to finish these unfinished games but against Alex or someone of similar strength. My personal wish is Herjan ... this old, creazy and mead drunk warrior. He is a true berserk, so I would be happy to fight against him. Hagbard could be my second choice. However, this proposal is the best creative solution that I can propose.

  09-25/20:14 red-ron:  @OdinHimself: My thoughts exactly. Skal! 
Christoph

  09-25/19:54 Draganov:  However, I think that we don't have to annulate Alex's games since he clearly beat Cacreal. So, I think that someone could finish the abandoned games or they could be left as they are. I don't think Cacreal deserved two wins against Alex since he clearly lost a game against him. However, I don't care since his games against Alex will not affect the tournament result and he will be eliminated because he is going to lose twice against me and Holidayinnes.

  09-25/19:47 Draganov:  My personal proposal is to implement a rule that if a game is abondon too early because of timing out, not showing at all ot resigning in a too unclear position, the umpire should finish it. However, in our case the umpire is a participant in the tournament (Holidayinnes) and if he needs to play in 6 additional games, it would affect his focus on his own games. That's why I think that Hagbard could be the most suitable person to finish the games or a volunteer outside the tournament.

  09-25/19:39 Draganov:  @Casshern, let me give my opinion on the situation. As an amateur chess player, I know that a similar situation occurred in chess 50 years ago when the Soviet players decided to play against Fischer and give him hard play but played badly and lost against the one of the Soviet players who was decided to win the tournament. Well, Fischer solved this issue when he beat and smashed alone all of the Soviet players. I am sure you can beat all of us although this situation is not the same and Alex or anyone else is not cheating you.If I have to be honest, I don't think that we could prevent such cheating. If a group of players decide to cheat, they will be able to do it. We just need to trust each other and play fairly. What is your proposal in our situation?

  09-25/18:48 casshern:  @Odinhimself: Thank you for your posts. I have always respected your play and your opinions. We may not always agree on things, but if find you to be of sound mind and noble intentions. You have done so much for the game. It is a shame when things like this happen here.

@All: I am simply trying to improve everyone’s tournament experience. I think you all would agree that cheating should not be allowed. I only personally withstand cheating against me because I seek to explore the deepest depths that this game has to offer. But what should and can be done about cheating or game fixing?

  09-25/18:39 casshern:  Regardless of your opinion of what may or may not have happened here. The fact is that a few players have been fitted from foul play by one player. Now, I would like you guys to address my questions/concerns about this type of situation moving forward. Forgot what has happened in the tournament. Just think about the scenarios that I have presented. What should we do about players “fixing” matches in future tournaments? Should it just be allowed to happen? Should we just say, “Well tough luck. We can’t control it. Deal with it.” What should be the consequences for cheating? No consequences? As “honest” players, how would you feel if you felt things were unfair? Things were happening that created an advantage for specific players. What should be done?

  09-25/18:22 OdinHimself:  Alex is a psycho, don't pay attention to him, a couple of days ago he was banned even from Felhuhn's mobile app. My friends, brothers, please, let's just play some hnefatafl and be happy with it. I'm done talking. Skal!

  09-25/18:20 OdinHimself:  I told you some time ago, when Alex Hnefatafl first appeared in this site, he's mad and no one should pay attention to him, but you didn't listen and I obtained (a deserved) post ban. Most of you are highly intelligent people and I'm deeply shocked when I read your posts. This forum has become a women's market. Excuse my viking rudeness and directness, but "Bite your tongues" and be men. I feel sorry for Hagbard (imagine how he has to deal with this flock of croaking geese), this man is our treasure and if we lose him some day it will be too late to realize what we had and what we don't have no more.

  09-25/18:18 OdinHimself:  And you know what - it's relieving. I feel free and pure. I will not say a word if you delete my account, if you zero my rating, if you put me to face a weak or strong opponent... I just don't care. It's indifferently to me at which place am I going to finish the tournament, even if it's the last. Several years ago I played for victory at all cost, now I don't. If you played better than me, then you deserve the victory. The only thing I have zero tolerance for is cheating. Unfortunatelly, if I can't prove it, I have to remain silent.

  09-25/18:17 OdinHimself:  Hi all. I want to ask you politely not to associate my name with Alex Hnefatafl, Edmond Dantes and other psychos. I will state my position one time only: I participate in this tournament for the love of the game. I don't care about ratings, formats, calculations etc. I even haven't looked at the Archives to review the latest games (for example the forementioned Alex/cacreal match). I work all day long, start my PC when I'm back home, visit the tournament page, make my moves trying to play the best I can and then I surf through some other music torrent trackers before I turn off the PC and go to bed. That's it.

  09-25/17:54 casshern:  In the past players have finished some games, but timed out the majority of their games. But, I have never seen a player start his games and just give up without even trying to finish the position. Especially when he has better positioning than his opponents.

  09-25/17:52 casshern:  Cacreal lost his matches fairly. What you guys seem so be missing is that Draganov, Odin, and Sebastian did not win fairly. They won because another player is trying to intentionally cheat the system. What if certain players were to only sign up and play to help one or several players succeed. They would play hard against certain players and not play hard or even simply resign against one or several players.

You guys are all smart enough to understand this concept. You point out how players can make new user names or intentionally loss games for better seeding before the tournament. But, these things would happen before the tournament. They would have no baring during the tournament. Each player would still have to play their games to the best of their abilities. But I am talking about manipulation that is happening during the tournament. Do you guys not see how this is a problem?

I will give you an example. What if a player, Alex for example, were to tell another player, Draganov as an example, that he will let him win to better help his chances during the tournament. Additionally, Alex would try to win games against Draganov’s opponents to give Draganov a leg up. And you can apply this concept to everyone.

Such actions would undermine the integrity of the tournament. How do we ensure that this is not happening? We cannot. I personally think that this is not the case here. But, it is exactly what it looks like is happening here. It is manipulating game results during the tournament. And beside, a player doesn’t have to resign to manipulate, he can simply just player lower than his abilities against certain opponents. And we would have no way to know or prove it.

What if I had such help? I wouldn’t mind players forfeiting against me for no reason and taking point off of my opponents. But it has never been done before now. For a player to not even try to finish his games when he had good positioning, even an advantage. In the past players have finished so

  09-25/13:43 Bogd Khan:  I do agree with Draganov. Carceal lost the game. That's it. Other games has no matter. @casshern I think that Draganov and Odinhimself were in much better position, because they are great players with whites. If they were playing against you or me the chances would've be 50/50. But this is Alex. I find him very good with white pieces but his defence is often the weak part of his games. However he is very smart player and he can see early when the game is lost. That's why I do approve his choice to resign. I don't understand why do you say that to resign isn't fair play. It'll be not fair play to give 2 points to carceal although he lost one of his 2 games...

  09-25/12:55 Draganov:  What if a player beat one opponent and timed out all other games? Do we need to annulate all of his games including the game that he won? However, I don't care about it. Hagbard could annulate all Alex's games. Cacreal is out even without losing to Alex. Rhe only person who has interest now Alex to finish his games is Casshern since Odin, Sebastian and me could potentially lose some points.

  09-25/12:45 Draganov:  And yes, Alex was unfair to resign early. But what is my fault on it? He clearly beat Cacreal and he wasn't going to beat me, Odin and Sebastian. Can you make a difference between finished game with a clear victory and a game which is not finished? Cacreal lost to Alex, that's it. The other players didn't lose.

  09-25/12:40 Draganov:  @Casshern, I am not going to defend myself thy I am not Alex. Hagbard could prove that we are playing from different countries. To say that we are one person is the same as if I say that you are Edmond Dantes. It's ridiculous.

  09-25/12:35 casshern:  @Draganov: Bottom line is, you did not beat Alex. More importantly he did not beat you. But you did not earn that. It was a gift from him to you. I think most players would like their opponents to forfeit too! It wouldn’t be fun, but it would save a lot of time.

  09-25/12:21 casshern:  @Draganov: Is it not clear why I quoted you? You speak and Alex does.

You should know why I quoted you, if you had read my quote. I have no proof that you and Alex Hnefatafl are not the same person. And even if you are different people, I have no proof that you two are not working together.

Alex has played unfairly. I think you would call this cheating. He intentionally forfeit games before the tournament to lower his rating. And he intentionally forfeit games in the tournament to help certain players. You coincidentally happen to be one of those players. If he didn’t want to play the tournament, then why did he sign up? It looks to me like he only wanted to avoid playing me and try to beat Cacreal.

Is that not what you warned about, a “bloody massacre?” Which your “friend” conveniently spared you from.

If you truly are for fair play, I don’t see how you don’t condemn his actions. He is intentionally and unfairly giving a leg up to you, Odin, and Sebastian. He continues to communicate through you. I find it ironic that you preach fair play, but are so close to someone who has no integrity.

  09-25/11:52 casshern:  @Bogd Khan: Please don’t be so naive and foolish.

I noticed how you back tracked your statement from, “Alex had no chances to win in the games he resigned.”

To, “Maybe only in the games against Draganov and Odinhimself he had some chances to defend.” (Which are probably the games that matter most. Since it is highly likely that the winner will be one of the 3 highest rated players.)

As the highest rated player here, this is my opinion on the games that Alex forfeited prematurely. It looks like black has the advantage in ALL games. Which means that Alex would have been eliminated (having split all is games would have given him 4 losses or 2 points). And Odinhimself, Draganov, and Sebastianmucke each would have lost one game (0.5 points).  Had Alex finished all his games.

In Alex’s games as black, white didn’t have any pieces that were behind black’s pieces. Rule 7b states, “If the attackers surround the king and ALL remaining defenders, then they win, as they have prevented the king from escaping.” How can you think white is better in any of these games? When the king and all his men are out flanked by black’s pieces.

As I have said, I think everyone should play every game through to the end. It is not over until all hope is extinguished. And given white’s positioning, I would say that the fight is nearly over, in each game.

Have you ever resigned a game so early? Without white having even moved the king off the throne??? Or without white having even been able to get a piece past your defenses?????

  09-25/11:38 Draganov:  @Casshern, I can't see why you quoted me. As you can see I didn't deteriorate my rating byt Alex did it.

  09-25/10:59 casshern:  @Draganov: Text from previous posts:

09-08/14:33 Draganov:
“I will face OdinHimself and SebastianMucke. But if I lose several games on purpose and deteriorate my rating before the start of the tournament, I will face much easier opponents in the first round.”

09-08/15:43 Draganov:
“he/she will be placed in the lower stream and will have a strong chance to reach the final rounds without any injures while the survivor of the massacre between the strongest players will reach the final in bloody condition. Then the player who advanced from the low rated position will need to win probably once against the top rated player in order to eliminate him.”

09-10/08:50 casshern:
“Conspire, work together, make multiple accounts, I don’t care, personally. As long as black moves first and white follows, it doesn’t matter to me. However, you are absolutely right. It would be unfair to me and especially other players if someone were to cheat as you have said.”

  09-25/07:35 Draganov:  We are also not sure whether Alex would have left the tournament if his game positions against me, Sebastian and OdinHimself were good. In my opinion he started playing as hard as he can but after realising that he will not manage to continue to the next round, he left the tournament protesting against its format.

  09-25/03:00 Bogd Khan:  @cacreal I don't understand why you feel penalised. Alex was just better than you in this game... It's obvious he was in bad positions in all other games.

  09-24/23:09 cacreal:  Can anyone else borrow your crystal ball ? 🔮

  09-24/22:59 Draganov:  Losing 8 vikings as black doesn't mean that the game is lost. And I just decided to play more solidly and not to take any unnecessary risk in the end of our second game. This is just another winning plan or you can prove me wrong if you continue playing and beat me.

  09-24/22:51 Draganov:  I am open to play these two games against you from the point where Alex resigned after the tournament. We just need to repeat the moves until this point. However, what if Alex has beaten me, Sebastian and OdinHimself? What will be your award for our hypothetical losses since you lost to him, me (twice) and Holidayinnes (once or more likely twice) and are out of the tournament?

  09-24/22:49 cacreal:  Draganov you are overconfident for someone that has lost 8 men and refuses a 2 for 1 kill in your favour a few times

  09-24/22:39 Draganov:  @Cacreal, tell us how many times I beat Alex? Indeed, he beat me 13 tumes but I beat him 25 times plus the two games in which his positions weren't good. With blacks I completely stopped him in our tournament game. This game is out of any doubts. In the other game I am having very promising position if not completely won position. You must be penalised not because you played faster against Alex but because you simply lost against him. By the way, even if all the games against Alex are annulated, you will be again out of the tournament since you are done against me and it seems you will not win against Holidayinnes since the whites hardly ever win games that are longer than 70 moves.

  09-24/21:54 cacreal:  Draganov writes like Alex didn’t beat him 13 times and 2 out of the last 4 games they had  - the archives are readily available , bingo boy split with Draganov also so he definitely can be beat. I will admit I did split with Alex but should not be penalized by playing our game faster than others.

  09-24/19:56 Bogd Khan:  Maybe only in the games against Draganov and Odinhimself he had some chances to defend, but it doesn't mean that he was in the better position. The games shouldn't be annulated

  09-24/19:50 Draganov:  Or maybe the umpire Holidayinnes or Hagbard could play instead of Alex?

  09-24/19:19 Draganov:  I think if we annulate Alex's games, it will be messy. Moreover, I don't think he will like to continue his games. He didn't like the tournament format and he decided to leave the tournament. However, he did this in a moment when his positions were not good for him. He decided to resign in our games but he managed to clearly beat Cacreal in one of their games. I think that this Cacreal's lost could be counted. It was a fairly played game with a clear result.

  09-24/18:26 Bogd Khan:  Alex had no chances to win in the games he resigned. However it looks quite early to resign at 16 move, but I don't think he has to be disqualified for this. I think it's better to resign when you see the game is lost, instead of playing until last move.

  09-24/12:33 cacreal:  Can we ask Alex to finish all his world championship games he resigned early from instead of adding open challenges now ? He resigned against Odin, Draganov and Sebastien without any reason, please disqualify all his games that round

  09-24/11:21 Hagbard:  Computer's list for Sahkku Round 2:
rosk, paul7, Hagbard, Draganov, Bogd Khan

  09-22/20:51 Hagbard:  ATTENTION please! Sahkku Round 2 starts Sep. 25th 18 o'clock Danish time.
Umpire Mikkel, do you agree with the computer's list of players who move on?

  09-21/09:05 xerxes:  No Shows: Hagbard is right that we need to be as inclusive as possible and allow 'anyone' to enter, but 'no shows' entering and then not completing (or even hardly starting) their games also devalues the competition and is disrespectful to those who have entered.  Perhaps a requirement for entry is that a player must have entered and completed a competition on this site in the last 6 or 12 months or something.  That would go some way to demonstrate their commitment and show that they understand how the site works.

  09-21/00:02 Fenric7:  sqAree: Sorry to raise bad memories. It was a little sadistic of me to mention such a massacre. But it was so clinical and expertly executed. Myself, I'd give anything to be the victim of such a brilliancy. My opinion on WTF Champs. It's a World Champs, so there needs to be some sort of credible entry criteria. Being allowed to 'rock up, off the street' is a bit silly. No sport worthy of respect would allow strangers to walk in and enter a World Champs. All players should provide their real names or real sounding names they always go by. I felt that at least 20 games in the last 18 months or 15 in the last year or be a known player who has played at least 20 games in their lifetime. Having people not play any games should be much less likely. New players who are real people who really want to play can wait till next year or play some games against players who for some reason are good but have decided not to play in the World Champs. Beside, there are other tournaments of a lesser nature for them to play in. The World Champs serves as both a magnet to attract interest and to see the best players play the best games. The second aspect should be the primary objective. My concern is that I know there are quality players who are not entered this year! Why? All rational answers welcome.

  09-20/23:18 casshern:  I think a minimum game requirement will help with no shows. But perhaps as a compromise, if a new player registers for the tournament with no game history, can he/she just post in the forum here that he/she intends to play? I think that would be a show of good faith that the player intends to play, at least. Ultimately, it is impossible to stop player no shows.

  09-20/21:23 Draganov:  It even could be a requirement for playing 5 games if 10 is too much. I think 5 games would also be enough to see if a player is going to continue playing or he is just exploring a new game and is not interested in it anymore.

  09-20/20:29 Hagbard:  - of course, if it was written that new names had to play just 10 games before the tournament starts, that's not a big requirement, and only the no-shows would not do that ...

  09-20/20:25 Hagbard:  Yes I appreciate that principle, that would've saved us troubles with the tournament tables.
However being World Championship it is also important that the tournament is an open event where all people can join, including people we do not happen to know.
Sometimes new names from reenactment clubs or board game clubs find their way here, as they should and they're welcome.

  09-20/19:39 Draganov:  @MasterLuke, that's why I suggested adding the condition of having at least 10 finished game if someone wants to join the world championship.

  09-20/18:41 MasterLuke:  Those guys Saxon, Gungnir and Cato register for the championship, they make one or two moves, and then let the games run out of time... I don't get it... Why register in the first place? There's absolutely no honour in winning this way :(

  09-20/17:40 sqAree:  It's cool to see that one of my games is on the list, but that game was extremely painful for me, it felt more like I got completely massacred. :D

  09-20/13:56 Fenric7:  There is no guarantee that my knowledge of these expert games will translate into good results for me. Maybe, maybe not.

  09-20/13:49 Fenric7:  All Adam/Crust games of 2015 have merit I suppose. 
All Casshern/Plantagenet games are worth a look but my personal favourite is Plantagent/Casshern 2017-11-26. 55 moves.

  09-20/13:18 Steiger:  @Fenric7: How about:
2017 Casshern/Plantagenet (2017-10-25) 50 moves. Black won;
and
2015 Adam/Crust (2015-10-15) 33 moves. White won?

  09-20/12:03 Fenric7:  Mostly agree completely with the 'best games'.
My list concurs closely.
2020 Cacreal/Casshern (2020-12-11) 131 moves king Captured.
2019 herjan/casshern (2019-07-23) 192 moves.
2018 Casshern/Sqaree (2018-11-13) 60 moves. Exit Fortress.
2017 casshern/Odinhimself (2017-10-25) 52 moves. Exit Fortress.
2016 Adam/Herjan (2016-10-01) 76 moves.
2015 No one stood out to me.
2014 Crust/Scachus (2014-10-10) 142 moves. Great Black game.
That's enough from me.

  09-20/11:01 casshern:  @Draganov: As you point out, we can’t totally be sure who we are playing against. Anyone can create multiple usernames. As you also pointed out, why did bingoboy deregister from the tournament? Who was Edmond-Dantes? Is he still active here under a different username(s)? I guess what I am trying to say now is that I don’t care anymore. I have held a grudge against Edmond-Dantes, but I think it is time for me to let it go. Like him, you, Alex, and probably everyone here, my hope is for tafl to be revived into a game with so many players that anyone could play a live game at anytime. That just seems so far off to me that I cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. I think Aage, Lucho (Odinhimself), Steiger, and so many more have done so much to try to get us to that point. What I am saying is that I am willing to even listen to people like Alex, if they have valuable and constructive ideas to achieve that goal. But you can let him know from me, if its not already obvious to him, that no one will listen to him if he continues to be like Edmond-Dantes and constantly insults people.

  09-20/10:42 casshern:  Continued text:
I think these are reasonable time controls, but it would still take about 2 hours. I think it would be hard for most people to find two hours to commit to playing. As for how the tournament takes a long time to complete, 6 months. I don’t think it’s an issue of time control or tournament format. Some players just play very slowly. Like only 1 move per day. If you try to speed them up by forcing them to play 2 or more moves per day, Im sure they will time out their games. Then the champion would probably just be the person who has enough time to constantly play.

  09-20/10:38 casshern:  @Draganov: This is my long overdue response to your last post to me. I do not consider myself to be the GOAT of Tafl. For me personally, I have never played against Crust, Schachus, or Nath. At least, Nath timed out all his games with me. I don’t consider these as wins. And I would like to play more games with Plantagenet before I could confidently say that I am better than him. To me, he beat me fair and square in 2017 and I have not had the opportunity to take revenge or fail again since. I consider myself behind Plantagenet or at the most an even/equal play with him.

Now to more serious matters. As I said, all this talk of tournament format and cheating is old to me. Edmond-Dantes was the first to push for changes, at least from the time that I started playing here. He was also very rude and disrespectful to people. He had good points, but no one wants to listen to someone who constantly insults everyone they talk to. In these two ways you and Alex remind me of Edmond-Dantes. Alex is very rude and insulting and you (or both of you) are pushing to “improve” the tournament format and credibility. It is a desirable goal, to improve the tournaments and grow the game. But, as I told him, the world chose to abandon tafl. People just aren’t interested. We here are a community who share one thing in common, we all love the game of tafl. But we have only a minute fraction of the numbers of players who play other games like chess. Many people don’t even give tafl a chance because they can’t play “live” like you can in chess. Many of us are in different time zones. To try and schedule a tournament with “live” games is very difficult. As I suggested before, the best way to do it would be to have the players agree on a set time that worked best for them. But even to play a set of games in a 2 hour period each player would only have 30 minutes per side per game. Unless, you ran both games simultaneously. In which case it would be an hour per side per player. I think these a

  09-20/09:44 casshern:  @Fenric7: Fantastic list of games, thank you!! I think it would help to list the date of the games from the archive as well. So players know exactly what games to look for:

Herjan/Casshern (2019-7-23) - a very long game, but very high level from both sides

Exit Fort (Fortress)
Cacreal/Casshern (2021-3-19)
Casshern/Herjan (2019-4-21)
Casshern/Sqaree (2018-11-13)
Casshern/Odinhimself (2017-10-25)

Shieldwall (corner escape)
Casshern/Khan Asparukh (2018-11-13)
Edmond-Dantes/Casshern (2017-10-25)

I didn’t look up all the games you mentioned. And I added a couple of games. Please help me fill in the rest of the list, in this format, thanks!

  09-19/23:31 Fenric7:  Draganov's ideas are good. I would call it the 'Tournament Brilliancy'. There is value in studying all the games of the top three or four players. But as in Chess, studying the games of lower rated players can be helpful to less strong players. It's easier to understand the strategy of lower rated games. But the beauty of high rated games is both entertaining and educational. My idea of 'Best Game' for last year's tournament would be Cacreal vs Casshern, 2019 herjan vs Casshern, 2018 Casshern vs Sqaree, 2017 Casshern vs Odinhimself. My favourite game from the pre-Casshern era is from 2014, Crust vs Scachus. Study games of Casshern, Odinhimself and I like Plantagenet games too. Also, study White Fortress wins. Examples, 2017 Casshern vs Odinhimself, 2018 Casshern vs Sqaree, 2019 Ytreza vs Sqaree, 2020 Adam vs Garun19. Just some thoughts from a beginner.

  09-19/22:38 Hagbard:  Interesting idea!!

  09-19/22:35 Draganov:  It will be beneficial for the new players to learn the tactical tricks of the game.

  09-19/22:34 Draganov:  @Hagbard, can I suggest you to make a honourable mention of 'best game of the tournament' or something like this in the same way as there is some recognition for man of the match, goalscorer of the tournament or something similar in the other sports? After the end of the tournament, you or the umpires can pick some games and we can vote for the best one. After that this beautiful game could be commented by the winner who created it or any other good player.

  09-19/22:26 Draganov:  The positive part of this tournament format is that I as a high rated player have already faced the best players (Casshern and OdinHimself) and can test my playing skills. If the tournament format was like previous years, I would not be sure that I would have managed to defeat all other awesome players and reach these two great warriors. Now, I can also see the benefit of being highly rated. If you are number 1 or 2 in the list, you will have less games. For example Casshern as number 1 has only two opponents and OdinHimself as N2 has three. The other players are playing against 4 opponents at once.

  09-19/08:55 Hagbard:  - 3 Al.Hn. posts removed -

  09-19/07:31 Fenric7:  I'm perfectly happy with how this tournament is proceeding. I've only been playing since June. I have paid nothing. For this I get an organised competition with people close to my beginner level. With the outside possibility of success within the eccentric realm of a global lunatic fringe. Already I have a victory and can legitimately claim to be the Southern Hemisphere Champion. I would like to get better. I would like all the players who register to play. It seems some register and don't even play. That seems strange to me. All the best to all of you.

  09-18/08:24 Hagbard:  The Skalk Hnefatafl 9x9 (ExpoMedia-w) tournament finished with #1 Jrton80, #2 Draganov and Rollo

  09-18/08:22 Hagbard:  I'll have a look at it.

  09-17/09:49 Draganov:  @Hagbard, I also would like to ask about my rating in the Berserk Hnefatafl 11x11. In the separate rating list I am rated third with rating 1689 and 42 games in this variant. However, I have never played Berserk Hnefatafl 11x11. Can you explain to me this inconsistance regarding the separate rating list?

  09-17/09:43 Draganov:  @hagbard, I saw that in the separate rating list it is written that Red-ron had 10 games in Welsh Tawlbwrdd. However, I didn't manage to find any of them. Why it is written that he played these games when I can't find them in the archive?

  09-15/14:42 Bogd Khan:  @Hagbard can you fix it. I was not able to register because I disregistered after the end of the time to register for the tournament and there is no option to register again...

  09-15/14:19 Draganov:  If we have a matches of 4 or 6 games (perfectly 10 games -> 5 with whites and 5 with blacks) the chance of an equal result will be less. So we will hardly ever need second criteria such as game length or pieces taken.

  09-15/14:18 Bogd Khan:  Usually there is problem with loading the page. If it's not completely loaded it skips and my finger goes exactly on the disregister button....

  09-15/14:17 Draganov:  I do think my proposal is the best and it is good to be tested. It is very simple and exciting. Just split the players into 3 groups. The winner of each group continues to the second round where they will meet the world champion. The second round is a semi-final with single-elimination matches. The pairs are based on the rating (or the points that each winner won in the first round). The world champion will play against the weakest of the first round winners based on rating or points from the first round. The other two winners from the group phase will also play against each other. Then we have a final match between the semifinal winners. However, in order this format to work well, we need semifinals and final matches of at least 4 games between players or even 6 games in a match. All of this games could start in the same time. It is as simple as that.

  09-15/14:13 Bogd Khan:  @Hagbard I click it by mistake, I was trying to enter my nickname. Can you fix it?

  09-15/14:12 Draganov:  @Bogd Khan are you sure you are participating in the Saami Sahkku tournament. I can't see you in it and it is written that you deregistered from the tournament.

  09-15/13:09 Bogd Khan:  @casshern This year I don't have time for playing in such a long tournament so I'll participate only in the Sahkku tournament. This game is much faster than Hnefatafl ;)

  09-15/13:07 Bogd Khan:  @Hagbard I think Mario is right that the best and the fastest tournament system would be a classical championship system (Like premier League in football) Everyone plays against all other participants, If there are  equal scores than there should be play off. But in a tournament with 30 players it's almost impossible. The 3 round system is slowing the game. I think a single game can't continue more then a two mounts ( so the tournaments will end much faster (2mounts, not 6). The system that you're using this year is wrong. Just because the weaker players will have advantage in the final against the better rated players. It's just not fair to have advantage this way...The right system is like in tennis tournaments:best players with weaker opponents and meet the best in the end of the tournaments. The US open final this year was a perfect example of my opinion. Player with best ranking met the second plyer in the end of the tournament (Making perfect final) In your tournament first player meets second in the first round...there is no sense. In tennis every player is trying to have more points in the ranking before big tournament  because he will have more chances to meet best players later in the tournament. Now Alex is loosing rating to play against weaker opponents...no sense again.

  09-15/00:58 Hagbard:  May Loki give you laughter as you go

  09-14/21:11 Bogd Khan:  Deregisters from the World Championship Tournament 2021.

  09-14/17:50 Jrton80:  @Casshern said "Am I then at a disadvantage to someone who registers as another alias? Perhaps. But I say, BRING IT ON. " Of course you would say that, you cocky git, but at the same time I have never had reason to question your integrity. O'BTW, I have studied your games, when I had time, but it never fails that I have forgotten things by the time I would need to use them which is why I will never be GM here but I like playing all the same.      As a General note: I have always seen discussions like these as someone trying to gain an angle that they can then exploit. When the math - which face it people is really dead simple when talking results in a game - gets too conditional or complicated - without a solid statically backed reason - that I cannot understand it at a glance but instead I find myself studying it for a meaning, someone must be hiding something, but I have often been told that I am an cynical asshole, mostly by The Woman with whom I live, so I figure she should know. And the whole adding a half hour clock to the world tournament thing would knock me out way too fast - I really do spend most of my time IRL.

  09-14/17:05 Jrton80:  @Hagbard, Talking about tie breakers - what is up with the 4 way tie in Skalk Hnefatafl 9x9? could we use that as an example and get an order there both ways? And yes, I too and being lazy and not doing the research but I can later and at a glance it does seem consistence.

  09-14/11:54 floki:  @Hagbard Thx for this cheer up video, puts me in great spirit before entering the battlefield. Good luck everyone for the tournaments !

  09-14/11:03 garun19:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2021. (Copenhagen)

  09-14/11:03 garun19:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2021. (Copenhagen)

  09-14/10:57 garun19:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2021. (Copenhagen)

  09-14/08:35 Hagbard:  Deadline for registering is September 14th 12:00 Danish time!

  09-14/07:41 Hagbard:  Sorry, I see that you meant the first one, Marken Er Mejet. Yes a traditional old harvest folk song. But these artists, the American grandchild and the elderly gentleman, give the melody their own blue grass style.

  09-14/07:33 Hagbard:  It is. From the nortwestern part. All along the west coast (North Sea) fishing in the sea has been the most important occupation since the earliest times, and this has brought them in always close contact with England, Scotland, Ireland. Even the dialect in the whole area has a peculiar strong influence from English also since the earliest times. The dialect sure is Danish, but very many Danes don't understand a word of it ...

  09-14/01:00 Jrton80:  @hagbard, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PksfdopFbvk is really a Danish folk song? That sounded to be like Blue grass straight from the Tenseness valley without the banjo

  09-13/22:28 JollyRoger:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2021. (Copenhagen)

  09-13/18:17 Draganov:  @Casshern, I understand your point of view and it is quite reasonable since you are the GOAT of tafl (greatest of all time). I think noone here can come even close to beat you in the Copenhagen variant at the moment. However, my goal is not to advocate a new format in which we are going to have more chances to defeat you but to make some positive changes and increase the level of intense and action. Playing for 6 months like in the previous championship was exhausting and in my opinion not entertaining. We need a shorter format with more intensive battles and not a tournament in which half of the games are pointless. In the elimination format each game has a huge value since it could be the last for a player or at least a game in which the player is badly hurt. 
As I have said, I understand your point of view that you don't care about the person behind a single nickname but this is because you are very good at playing tafl. By the way, it would be funny if you play a match against the World (or at least the rest of the players here) like Kasparov did it in 1999 and he won the game. However, my point is to keep the game as fair as possible and the fact that Bingoboy deregistered from the tournament is clear enough to show us that there was something wrong with him. I am sure that he is back with his real username and everything could be fair this time.

  09-13/11:52 Hagbard:  One day left to register for the World Champion Tournaments.

  09-13/10:25 Потапыч:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2021. (Copenhagen)

  09-12/20:26 Draganov:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2021. (Tawlbwrdd)

  09-12/19:46 floki:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2021. (Tawlbwrdd)

  09-12/17:57 bingoboy:  Deregisters from the World Championship Tournament 2021.

  09-12/13:12 cacreal:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2021. (Tawlbwrdd)

  09-12/13:11 cacreal:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2021. (Sáhkku)

  09-12/13:09 bingoboy:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2021. (Tawlbwrdd)

  09-12/10:04 casshern:  @Bogd Khan: The one win was when it mattered the most. Im sure you would have more victories if we played more. I was surprised to see that we have only played a hand full of games. That is partially my fault. I haven’t been as active as of late. But hopefully we can play more often in the future. Also, I noticed that you are only registered for Sáhkku. Don’t forget to register for Copenhagen!!! I would hate to see the runner up from the last two years not register. I have been getting rusty from lack of playing. So, this could be your year! And I wouldn’t mind playing Tawlbwrdd against you either, if you can handle the game load.

  09-12/09:45 Hagbard:  New in gallery: Production phases of the Tyr pieces.

  09-12/07:56 Hagbard:  Three days to the World Champion Tournaments.

  09-12/07:20 cacreal:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2021. (Copenhagen)

  09-12/02:25 Fenric7:  Yes, I thought of that. Man... Champion of half the 🌍. That will set on my virtual mantelpiece, alongside my New Zealand Tiddlywinks Champion Trophy.

  09-11/19:00 xerxes:  @Fenric7: Just think, wherever you finish in the Tournament you will be Southern Hemisphere champion.

  09-11/12:34 Bogd Khan:  @casshern I also don't think the this is a good idea. It's not important how you win. With 16 or 116 moves. If you beat me in 16 moves and I beat you in 116 it doesn't make you a better player than me... something else makes you better :D.... the fact you win all other games against me

  09-11/09:12 Fenric7:  Ah yes. I shall have a look at your games.

  09-11/08:34 MasterLuke:  @Fenric7: don't worry, I am a 'beginner' for almost 2 years by now :). I just registered for the Copenhagen championship, so we'll meet very soon, I guess.

  09-11/08:33 MasterLuke:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2021. (Copenhagen)

  09-11/03:43 Fenric7:  Plantagenet: Will ye no come back again? Study games. Very important. I hope it works for me.

  09-11/03:39 Fenric7:  I think I am the only person from south of the equator in this game. True?

  09-11/03:35 Fenric7:  Great, I can say I will be competing in a World Championship. I look forward to the opportunity to play people who are closer to my beginner level. All those low rated players, it's not too late to enter. I'd hate to lose all my games. Interesting discussion on various event matters. My results should show that I'm a real person. But for the record...Name: Murray Cramp. Age: 52. Religion: Reject bad ideas. Political affiliation: The be thankful for your mortality, party.

  09-10/15:20 casshern:  That’s very interesting. Perhaps they are connected. So, the less pieces black losses, the faster black is able to stop the king. That would make sense. The more the game turns into a blood bath, the harder it becomes for black to win and the more likely it becomes for white to force a draw.

So in every match up both sides won as black, and Bogd Khan lost more pieces and took longer so secure a winning position. This is definitely proof why it is not good to rely on such tiebreakers. Bogd Khan would have lost any semifinal match up against Casshern, Death, or Khan Asparukh. I also noticed that bogd khan timed out some of his games. Another factor to consider.

All in all, I think the way the tournaments have been run, has lead us to the best possible outcome in determining a champion and ranking of players. It could take a very long time to find a champion, if players were to keep splitting games. Luckily, it has not happened this way so far. Players have been able to determine a winner based on the games they play, not having to rely on the tiebreakers. I say, just keep playing games until one player is able to win on both sides. We will see how this year’s tournament will play out. Things worked out naturally between Jilles and myself in the test tournament.

  09-10/10:38 Hagbard:  I had a look at the Final 2019 and Bogd Khan's three tied matches.
Bogd Khan/Casshern:
Both won as black, Casshern with 36 moves, Bogd Khan with 66 moves.
Casshern lost 1 piece as black, Bogd Khan lost 3 pieces as black.
---
Bogd Khan/Khan Asparukh:
Both won as black, Khan Asparukh with 20 moves, Bogd Khan with 80 moves
Khan Asparukh lost 0 pieces as black, Bogh Khan lost 6 pieces as black.
---
Bogd Khan/Death:
Both won as black, Death with 95 moves, Bogd Khan with 113 moves.
Death lost 0 moves as black, Bogd Khan lost 4 pieces as black.
------
So in all cases the criterium of shortest game length and a criterium of fewest lost pieces give the same result.
(Perhaps the two phenomena are connected? When black loses more pieces, it becomes more difficult and takes more moves to win?)

  09-10/09:44 casshern:  @Draganov: One last thing. I find that it is usually the cheaters who accuse everyone else of cheating. I hope that you are an honest player. And I do appreciate that you are pointing out all the flaws in the system. Forgive me for taking things personally, but this all just seems like a ploy to dethrone me. Again, I personally don’t care. You have beaten me, as have many players here. But I know that my win percentage is very lopsided. I think Plantagenet is the only player who I have roughly split most of our games. No one else comes close. I am not trying to demean anyone, but this is the truth. I don’t know if the thinking here is to cheat to beat me? Perhaps you or others think this is the only way? To which I say, ridiculous. I think everyone should be honest and have integrity and honor. I am not a machine who wins all my games. This goes for everyone, also. Get better, don’t cheat. Im sure we all enjoy playing this game. But like me with chess, you will only get better if you play more, learn from your mistakes, study past games, and above all try to look ahead. Try to see your opponent moves before he makes them. So you can block them. It is as simple as that. That’s all that I do with hnefatafl. I mention chess because those are all the things that I don’t do in chess and that’s why I am a below average chess player.

  09-10/09:21 casshern:  @Bingoboy: Im not ready to relinquish any crown yet. I might even add the “most messages.” Lol. 😂😝🤪😭

  09-10/09:17 casshern:  @Hagbard: Sorry, I am too lazy and don’t have a lot of time to do the research myself. If you want, I can look it up myself though. Im just curious to know who would have moved on in each of Bogd Khan’s split games? I would assume that the pairing for the semi’s would have been Casshern vs Khan Asparukh (1v4) and Death vs Bogd Khan (2v3).

  09-10/09:12 casshern:  @Hagbard: I have been satisfied with every tournament since I started playing here. Even my first year when Plantagenet beat me. Things just worked out perfectly. We split out games and our games against Edmond-Dantes. Then, he swept me in the next round. But, I am curious about Alex’s idea to use single elimination. At least with a top 4, semis and final. I don’t think this is a good idea. The 2019 championship, I think, is the perfect example of why we shouldn’t adopt the single elimination. The final that year was between myself, Death, Bogd Khan, and Khan Asparukh. I split with Bogd Khan and swept the other two. Bogd Khan split all games. And Death swept Khan Asparukh. I had 5 points, Bogd Khan and Death tied with 3 points and Khan Asparukh 1 point. Naturally, since Bogd Khan had a better strength of record with the win against me, he got second place. But, I am curious about these proposed “tiebreakers.” I would like to play a little devil’s advocate. Who would have been given the victory is each of Bogd Khan’s split games? Here are the tiebreaker rules I would follow. If black won both games, I think the player who lost less pieces as black would be deemed victor. For white, least amount of moves. And in case of the guillotine or another similar position, I would count the victory from when the player established the position.

  09-10/08:50 casshern:  @Draganov: You do bring up some great points. There are many ways for a player or players to cheat. I think Aage does the best that he can. But, we are such a small community. We must trust each other. And hope that everyone plays honestly. I can tell you and everyone here that I have only ever played as Casshern. And I do not have a bot that gives me moves to play, as I have been accused of in the past. In fact, I don’t know of a bot that is better than even an average player. This may be news to you and other newer players here. So now you know. In fact, I have know of plans to conspire against me. To which I say again, BRING IT ON. I thank you for worrying about me because of the new format. But, personally, I don’t care. To me, It is me against the world. If it were up to me, I would play every player in the tournament! That’s how the tournaments used to be, but it was too many games for some people. I wouldn’t mind. Conspire, work together, make multiple accounts, I don’t care, personally. As long as black moves first and white follows, it doesn’t matter to me. However, you are absolutely right. It would be unfair to me and especially other players if someone were to cheat as you have said. So I say to you and everyone else, we are all brothers here. Our community is too small for such evil acts. Please, be honest. Do the best that you can. Have fun!!! Don’t cheat!!! In any of the ways that draganov has pointed out or in any other way!

  09-10/08:31 casshern:  @Draganov: Perhaps you are correct. It would not be “fair” if your opponent could study your tactics, moves, style, etc. But as the highest ranked player I can tell you that I don’t care. I encourage everyone to study my games in the archives. And then study other high ranked players. This is what I do. Am I then at a disadvantage to someone who registers as another alias? Perhaps. But I say, BRING IT ON. Is this not the gist of this game? White is outnumbered by many foes on all sides. Should white quit then before the battle has even been fought?? NO, of course not. You recently said that Tablut is unbalanced and favors black. I have proven that statement incorrect. I recently played as many top players as I could. And I swept all games as both black and white, except against Alex Hnefatafl. In which case we both won as white. All this talk about cheating and tournament format can be traced back to Edmond-Dantes. But who was Edmond-Dantes? Perhaps he is still active on this site under a different alias? Alex sounds a lot like the reincarnation of Edmond-Dantes. Maybe bingoboy or draganov? Or another name? It matters not to me. It is up to me to find a path to victory. Same for my opponent. This is not chess where half the games end in a draw. Perhaps all chess games should end in a draw. But hnefatafl is not like chess in this regard. Draws are very rare. And I view any attempt to force a draw as cowardice. I think most tafl variants favor one side or another. And this is the essence of the game. To push on, despite the odds. Find a way to overcome! Never give up!!!

  09-10/08:21 Hagbard:  Five days to the World Champion Tournaments, there's still time to register!

  09-09/16:29 Draganov:  Do you think it is fair to participate in the tournament with a new nickname? If someone joined the tournament with a new nickname, it will give him a huge advantage. Rest of the players will not be able to study his games before the start of the tournament and will not be able to prepare specifically for this player. For example, I like to study the opening moves of my opponents and their style of play and make my strategy based on this. If I don't know who I am playing with, I will not be able to make my custom strategy against this player. However, he knows who I am and he will be able to prepare for my moves and game play.

  09-09/15:24 bingoboy:  Are there special points awarded for the most messages ? draganov seems like he could be the world champion

  09-09/10:29 Hagbard:  Updated

  09-09/09:53 Draganov:  @Hagbard, Alex Hnefatafl asked me to write that he wants to join the world Copenhagen tournament. Is he banned or restricted to join?

  09-09/09:52 Draganov:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2021. (Sáhkku)

  09-09/09:51 Draganov:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2021. (Copenhagen)

  09-09/06:33 Hagbard:  One more for the harvest festival:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqLsYrlf1Z0

  09-08/17:56 Hagbard:  You're quite right concerning the problems of unknown users.
I checked the new ones you mention, and they're ok.
Always the risk of a new name ending up a no-show. 
Saxon, sakar, mathgamain, helle and Cato will be placed last in the tournaments and thus cannot affect established players by not showing up.

  09-08/17:46 Draganov:  Additionally, I also think that this year we are going to face the problem with newly created users again. Last year we had Fastov who played very well and reached the second round. After the tournament, he didn't play any game. I think he was an old-known player with a new username. This year we have two players who don't have even a single finished game (helle and red-ron). We also have two players who have played only 2 games (sakar and mathgamain) and they didn't mention their locations. We practically don't know anything about them. The chance they are old-known players with new usernames is high. We also have bingoboy, who is a very good player but he joined just before the start of the tournament. I don't have any problem with these players and I will not complain if someone of them eliminates me. However, it is not good that some good players are making new usernames just for the tournament. Furthermore, I think there is a high risk someone of the newly created usernames not to play a game and to timeout all of his games. They probably heard about the site and the tournament and registered out of enthusiasm but will never visit the site again. It will not be good to have inactive players in the tournament. In my opinion we need a criteria of playing at least 10 games or even 10 games in the last year in order to join the tournament.

  09-08/16:58 Hagbard:  Yeah that is thought-provoking ...

  09-08/16:51 Draganov:  Indeed, the last test tournament put the two best players in the final battle and also the previous test tournaments (Fetlar final Draganov vs Holidayinnes and Welsh Tawlbwrdd final Jilles vs Paul7). However, I am not sure if the next tournament will place the two best players. It is more likely that this will happen because Casshern, Odin and other high rated players are very strong. From the low rated players I expect Holidayinnes or SqAree to make a good tournament but my concerns are more or less for the future tournaments. Imagine that Odin or someone else who stands a real chance of beating the best player (Casshern) deteriorates his rating or even joined the tournament with a new username and in this case he will have very low rating. It is completely possible situation that in the final we could have a battle between Casshern (1.5 points lost) against the purposely low-rated Cheater (0 points lost). Then the cheater will need to win only 1 game out of 4 in order to secure another tie-break or if the cheater is equal to Casshern he will be the champion after equal result 2:2 on the final.

  09-08/16:00 Hagbard:  Very interesting view! The fights from round 2 and onwards will probably be a bit messy, and an ordered list of winners #1 #2 #3 etc. cannot be made the simple way it was in the previous years.
In the format test 2 which just finished, however, it was the two strongest players who met for the final duel, which Jilles won.

  09-08/15:43 Draganov:  OK, I understand but this format is going to make the second and third place much more reachable for low-rated players. It is almost the same if we have 2 groups. The first one filled with the highest rated players and the second one filled with the lowest rated players. In the end probably the winner of each group will face each other. In this scenario we could expect a final battle between a 1800+ player versus a 1400 player. Moreover, if a strong player deteriorate his/her rating before the tournament, he/she will be placed in the lower stream and will have a strong chance to reach the final rounds without any injures while the survivor of the massacre between the strongest players will reach the final in bloody condition. Then the player who advanced from the low rated position will need to win probably once against the top rated player in order to eliminate him.

  09-08/15:28 Hagbard:  If you join the Copenhagen then at the moment you'd meet casshern, OdinHimself, SebastianMucke and bingoboy in the first round. The chance to move on to round 2 is perhaps 50%.
Were your rating artificially lower, you'd naturally have a higher chance of moving on.
However, in my opinion, it is near mathematically certain that the strongest player of the lot will come out the winner in the end anyway, no matter which detours others could take, because in the end they'll have to beat the strongest player, too.

  09-08/14:33 Draganov:  @Hagbard, in the upcoming world championship the format will be double elimination. However, I wonder what is the benefit to have high rating in this format? For example, if I have rating like 1800, I will face very strong opponents in the round 1 (battle of brothers). In that case, I will face OdinHimself and SebastianMucke. But if I lose several games on purpose and deteriorate my rating before the start of the tournament, I will face much easier opponents in the first round. Of course, I will play fairly and will keep my rating high until the beginning of the tournament and will face the greatest warriors in the first round but I would like to know if there is a benefit to have high rating for double elimination format or it is better to join the tournament and attack the others from behind (from a low rated position).

  09-08/10:05 bingoboy:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2021. (Copenhagen)

  09-07/20:07 Hagbard:  536 there was a fimbulwinter three years non-stop, the weak sun couldn't cast a shadow. It's believed that this real event is the background for the Norse myth of the fimbulwinter and ragnarok. And that people at that time sacrificed all they had for the sun to return; it worked since the sun did return after three years!

  09-07/10:23 MasterLuke:  @Hagbard (and others who are interested): In the meantime I found more info on the internet: it's not the Staffordshire Hoard (which looks very reminiscent with all those bent pieces), but a newly discovered pre-Viking era gold treasure in Denmark. It's fascinating, thanks for the link!

  09-06/11:58 Hagbard:  Just found here, the news were in TV yesterday. It is from about 500 ac., as is the hnefatafl game.

  09-06/11:33 MasterLuke:  @Hagbard: Seems mighty interesting and such beautiful pictures! A pity the site has nog English section, I don't understand a word of it. Is it about the The Staffordshire Hoard?

  09-05/23:03 Hagbard:  https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/webfeature/guld

  09-05/07:42 Hagbard:  Ten days to the World Champion Tournaments, there's still time to register! You don't have to be Fischer or Spasskij to join, all are welcome!

  09-05/07:40 Hagbard:  The Tyr-w 11x11 tournament finished with #1 Jilles, #2 Holidayinnes, #3 Rollo

  09-04/18:39 Hagbard:  The tournament format test 2 finished, winner Jilles:
http://aagenielsen.dk/wtfdoubleelimtest2.php

  09-02/23:50 Hagbard:  The Sea battle-204577-w 11x11 tournament finished with #1 Holidayinnes, #2 Rollo, #3 Hagbard

  09-01/16:16 OdinHimself:  Registers for the World Championship Tournament 2021. (Copenhagen)

  08-31/06:36 Hagbard:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PksfdopFbvk

  08-30/09:37 Draganov:  I proposed a mixed tournament system -> 1 round should be Round-robin or Swiss and the second round should be a semi-final with Single Elimination matches. 
The problem with the previous world tournament formats was that the tournaments had too many group round-robin rounds. In the last year we have 3 groups of round-robin format. Adding long time control to 3 rounds of round-robin made the tournament to last 6 months. 
In my opinion, when we have short standard tournament time control (4 days time buffer) and only 1 round-robin round (it should be the first round) and then we have just 2 rounds until the end of the tournament (a semi-final and a final match) then the tournament will last only 3 months or even less.
If we have 30 players we can divide them into 3 groups and the winners of each group will qualify for the semi-final where the world champion will join them. In that scenario we are going to have 4 best players in the semi-final matches. The rest of the players will enjoy playing against at least 6-7-8-10 players depending on the number of the participants in the first round. If we have a group of 8 players in the first round, then even the worse player will have 14 games played before leaving the tournament. 
In my opinion we need a big final match between the two best players. It will be exciting and will be beneficial for the game if we have the opportunity to see 4, 6, 8 or 10 games between two of the highest rating players.

  08-30/09:16 paul7:  Regarding number of moves comparison. I fail to understand how this could be seen as a good thing. Any secondary criteria affect the way the game is played. Anyone who played a single elimination tournament in the app surely knows that people do abuse it, for example make useless moves trying to prolong the game which is obviously lost anyway to get a higher number of turns. This does affect the game and I'm certain that it does so in an adverse way. Sure, you have to have a secondary criteria when you're running a single elimination tournament, but the round robin or Swiss system don't need such kludges at all.

  08-30/09:04 paul7:  Oh, and both sides are most certainly not the same either in chess or in go.

  08-30/09:02 paul7:  In my humble opinion as long as the number of participants is not too large the round robin tournaments are far superior to the single elimination ones. First of all they allow a new player to explore the variant while playing the same game against different competitors in a limited amount of time. In the single elimination system the new player will likely be eliminated immediately and lose the chance to grow as a player. Second, the single elimination requires a careful seeding to ensure that the top players don't meet each other too early, and I'm afraid that the ratings are a bit too volatile for that. When playing the round robin or the Swiss system, the best players are very likely to end up with the most points. There's a reason why, say, chess tournaments are either round robin or Swiss after all.

  08-30/09:00 Dimetr:  Hello!
Alex Hnefatafl ask me to post this about tournaments:

"You count each fight separately. But it's not right. This can only be done in games where both sides are the same (chess, go, checkers). Here, two color change games count as one. In two games, either White wins twice, or Black (that's 1/1). And then the number of moves is compared. These are fundamental things. But in a tournament, each game is counted separately. Secondly, points can be awarded if two teams play with each other. It's every man for himself here. After the tournament it will be necessary to: 1) change the tournament system 2) enable FM, IM, NM, GM to convene tournaments on their own. 3) add a new time control 10-30 minutes 4) add the mills game. In those days, it was the second game after Hnefatafl"

  08-30/08:36 Steiger:  Salute from Fomich, kumpels!: https://youtu.be/0Y5I0ujS-eY

  08-30/08:25 Hagbard:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyvnoruQ1yQ
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 2020.
See the tournament page.
National Tournaments started July 1st 2020.
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"), 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 31000 real tafl games humans against humans and created a vast, practical experience with this intriguing, historical board game.
Updated 27.11.2021