Play Hnefatafl Online. The Viking Board Game.

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World Tafl Federation Championship 2025 - Sign Up from August 1!

The annual World Tafl Federation Championship is back!
This year's tournaments include Copenhagen Hnefatafl, Historical Hnefatafl, Sea Battle Tafl, Berserk, and Race Games.
Test your skills against players from around the world and fight for the championship titles!
Full tournament details here: Tournament Page 2025.
We look forward to seeing you in the tournament!

Note: This recruitment text was written with the assistance of ChatGPT.

Play against humans.
Тавлеи против людей.
Rasmus Holbroe vikings

jul

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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2025-12-09 09:59 gulo: Hopefully we can get more of the top players on board for testing it!

Dimetr, you’re probably right about Dimetr1 when it comes to top players, but not enough testing done yet I think. As for 11x11 Lewis cross, I think it looks more like advantage for king side currently… If you think attackers are better off, perhaps trying the same changes as we’re doing for tablut may be worth it (same for Dimetr1 perhaps).

2025-12-08 21:35 Hagbard: The Saami Tablut-gulo-w 9x9 is right now measured to balance +1.14.
I tried only two games yet, but in my opinion the variant feels well working and natural, and the rules details look natural and logical.

2025-12-08 21:17 Hagbard: test

2025-12-08 20:21 Dimetr: Gulo ? thanks! But I think, ?Dimetr -1? should be excluded from tournaments - black has too strong an advantage there
Dimetr 2 (13x13), on the contrary, is a good variant, but there is an advantage for White. It would be better to start with Black moving first to improve the balance.
Lewis Cross 11x11 ? W - is a very good and deep variant. Yes, Black has an advantage there, but we are unlikely to come up with a better setup for the historical 11x11.
Perhaps we also need to play more Welsh Tawlbwrdd 11x11 (Bell setup) with White moving first (but even with White moving first, in Tawlbwrdd 11*11 - Black will have a big advantage).
Indeed, in Tablut-W (9x9) - Black has a very strong advantage. This year, at the World Championship, all games between strong players were won by Black. To keep the 9x9 variant, we will have to slightly modify Linney's rules.
Saami Tablut-Gulo-W (9x9) - seems like a good variant to me (a tournament is just finishing now), but more games are needed to verify it. The new rule ? ?the throne is hostile only to Black? - significantly changes the game! You are no longer afraid for the white warrior near the throne. We may looking for new openings, and this will give 9x9 a second life
It will be great if strong players could be able to play Tablut-Gulo-W, when the Championship ends - It will be good for New Year!

2025-12-07 10:03 gulo: Playing the more unbalanced variant clearly favours the player with fewer losses. (Besides, I’m still of the opinion that 13x13 Dimetr1 may be better balanced).

2025-12-07 09:26 casshern: No worries. And just to add, this scenario probably only applies with 2 players only.

2025-12-07 07:17 Hagbard: Alex Hnefatafl has informed that he prefers to continue with 13x13 in the final games -

2025-12-06 22:15 Hagbard: I see your point. If Alex Hnefatafl is of the same opinion, and if it is ok with the umpire, then I suppose that the variant could be changed to 11x11.

2025-12-06 20:49 casshern: @Hagbard: Alex and I did not meet in round 2. I think I brought up this point before, but it makes more sense to me to play each variant at least once. As I said we already played 9x9 and 13x13. I would love the opportunity to play 11x11 as well. Especially since I believe that 11x11 is the most balanced. But fair enough, I suggested this before and am still advocating for this procedure for future tournaments.

2025-12-06 17:46 Hagbard: Comment: last game of Copenhagen Round 2 and Round 3 finished.

... messages three months back ...

Rus'.

Alexander Steiger Dis' game set up in the Royal Hall in Lejre, Denmark. (Click on the image)

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

Hnefatafl is also known by the names Nefatavl, The King's Table, The Viking Game, Viking Chess, Tablut or simply Tafl.
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Viking word of wisdom: The Hávamál.
(Havámál på dansk).

World Championship Tournament 2024.

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

Many thanks to Tim Millar ("crust"), Adam Bartley ("Adam"), John C. Ashton, Nicolas Cartier, Jonas Lööf ("conanlibrarian"), Olli Salmi, Damian Walker ("cyningstan"), Rasmus Holbroe, Thore Nissen, Lucho Panchev ("OdinHimself"), Corey Hart ("Brench"), Alexander Steiger Dis ("Steiger"), Dmitry Pashkov, Delray Curtis ("jrton80"), David Zolli ("branan"), Luk Martens ("Masterluke"), Marian Luck ("themightyglider"), Mikkel Berg-Nordlie ("mihkkal"), Alessandro Arzani ("Abbas Agraphicus") and all players who contributed to this site and to the photo gallery. And not least the more than 600 players the world over who played here 50,000 real tafl games humans against humans and created a vast, practical experience with this intriguing, historical board game.