Re: Tafl in Russia
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 6:10 pm
Last Saturday (17.02.2018) a Tavlei tournament took place at the same location (the hobby centre “Geek Wars” in Moscow), this event was organised by Dmitriy Pashkov. The used rules set was “Skalk Hnefatafl 9×9 (ExpoMedia) − defender’s capture against the throne even if the king is standing on it + the king can return to the throne + the range of king’s movement is limited to three squares = the modern Russian Tavlei rules (the “Obereg” edition).
Despite of some problems, such as a surprisingly huge number of the participants and bystanders (there was not enough room and there were not enough boards for all those who wished to take part in the tournament, people stood in line to play their games), the limited event’s time, the chosen tournament’s format (because of this kind of pandemonium the players were forced to play only for one randomly chosen side in the eliminatory games to save the time) and unbalanced rules (many players noticed that), it was a breathtaking tournament and a very agreeable pastime.
Here are some photos from the participants (it’s a continuously growing album): https://vk.com/album-105837205_251619898
The official tournament’s statistics from Dmitriy will be hopefully available soon.
The tafl tournaments in Moscow seem to stay regular, that’s good news. But I hope that we shall be able to play other more balanced tafl variants in the new tournaments and all that organising problems will be avoided in the future. First and foremost, we shall continue to spread the word of the Historical Hnefatafl rules in praise of Tablut and Tawlbwrdd. Also Steiger keeps training some people using Fetlar (it’s easier to explain to the beginners) and Copenhagen rules. And of course we shall not stop inviting people to register and start playing all available variants on aagenielsen.dk and playtaflonline.com. Maybe it helps to steer some traffic to our beloved websites.
By the way, I like a lot the Aage’s idea of the Simple Tafl 11×11 rules (Tawlbwrdd throneless Lewis cross 11×11), it’s very easy to explain, it seems to be quite good balanced and it’s very entertaining. Could these nice and simple rules be used on the 9×9 board and could they be simultaneously acceptable balanced?
Despite of some problems, such as a surprisingly huge number of the participants and bystanders (there was not enough room and there were not enough boards for all those who wished to take part in the tournament, people stood in line to play their games), the limited event’s time, the chosen tournament’s format (because of this kind of pandemonium the players were forced to play only for one randomly chosen side in the eliminatory games to save the time) and unbalanced rules (many players noticed that), it was a breathtaking tournament and a very agreeable pastime.
Here are some photos from the participants (it’s a continuously growing album): https://vk.com/album-105837205_251619898
The official tournament’s statistics from Dmitriy will be hopefully available soon.
The tafl tournaments in Moscow seem to stay regular, that’s good news. But I hope that we shall be able to play other more balanced tafl variants in the new tournaments and all that organising problems will be avoided in the future. First and foremost, we shall continue to spread the word of the Historical Hnefatafl rules in praise of Tablut and Tawlbwrdd. Also Steiger keeps training some people using Fetlar (it’s easier to explain to the beginners) and Copenhagen rules. And of course we shall not stop inviting people to register and start playing all available variants on aagenielsen.dk and playtaflonline.com. Maybe it helps to steer some traffic to our beloved websites.
By the way, I like a lot the Aage’s idea of the Simple Tafl 11×11 rules (Tawlbwrdd throneless Lewis cross 11×11), it’s very easy to explain, it seems to be quite good balanced and it’s very entertaining. Could these nice and simple rules be used on the 9×9 board and could they be simultaneously acceptable balanced?