Hnefatafl forum

The versions Frisian Dablo 11x9 have mandatory capture.
Frisian Dablo0: Normal Dablo plus mandatory capture.
Frisian Dablo: Pieces move only diagonally forward, but capture in all directions as usual. Kings and princes can move backwards. Men on the last row are promoted to princes.
Frisian Dablo2: Pieces move only forward (3 directions), but capture in all directions (8). Kings and princes can move in all directions (8). Men on the last row are promoted to princes.
Frisian Dablo is Dablo merged with Frisian Draughts, invented by Aage Nielsen, Denmark, Nov. 2022.

• Saami Daabloe 11x9, Frisian Dablo0 11x9 and Frisian Dablo 11x9 work
• The Frisian Dablo2 11x9 is too chaotic.

I am attaching, among other things, my article about DABLO, which was published in the very last issue of VARIANT CHESS, no. 64, in 2010.

At that time I collaborated with the Swedish researcher Mats Winther. I sent him the rules of a number of lesser-known board games, after which he implemented them using Zillions-of-Games, a program that is now more than 25 years old.

In my article - which you are welcome to publish on your website, Aage - I present a couple of examples of Mats Winther’s attempts to create interesting "reconstructions", or perhaps rather improvements, of the Sámi dablo war-game type.

As far as I can see, your experiences with the rule variants you mention, Aage, correspond well with Mats Winther's experiences. As noted in my article, Mats also implemented a variant in which the soldiers could be promoted to princes.

Besides variants on boards of different sizes with different numbers of pieces, he implemented both variants where each player had only a king and variants where the players had both a king and a prince. I think the latter main variant is the most interesting.

From what you write, I get the impression that your variant called Frisian Dablo02 works best, in the sense that it results in a game that is not overly long.

However, it might be a good idea if you also tested how that variant works if, instead of compulsory capture for all pieces, you introduced Mats Winther's rule that compulsory capture applies only to the soldiers, not to kings and princes.

That rule probably makes it somewhat harder to capture the opponent’s king, so it will likely lengthen the game somewhat. The examples I present in my article, where the board is slightly smaller - that is, with 41 intersections on a 5×5+ board - nevertheless resulted in relatively short games.

Mats Winther also implemented "Medieval Alquerque" in variants with short and long kings respectively, as reconstructed by Arie van der Stoep. Both variants function reasonably well on the 25-point board, although the short-king version is somewhat drawn out.

I tried both variants last year in Kalundborg, but I prefer playing Kharbaga on the 41-point board (5×5+). Mats implemented Zamma/Srand (Quadruple Alquerque with promotion to long king), Kharbaga, and the Indonesian Permainan-Tabal/Dama.

I am attaching a French article by Abdallahi Ol Bah, the only existing article on tactics and strategy in this North African game, as well as Rob Jansen's Dutch article on Permainan-Tabal.

Finally, I am attaching the rules for Christian Freeling's draughts variant DAMEO, as well as the rules for my own variant DABLEO, inspired by several of the games mentioned above.

The largest known North Scandinavian dablo / tavelspel / tärnspel had 94 points, on which as many as 2×44 pieces (or coffee beans) were placed, leaving only the central line empty.

In this variant - also played on smaller boards - there were no kings or princes in the initial position, and promotion of pieces is not mentioned. It appears that the pieces moved forward and captured in all directions, and there is no mention of compulsory capture.

It must have been an extremely drawn-out game, and it is easy to understand why it eventually died out.

In an attempt to create a game that functions better, I have chosen to increase the pace by using Christian Freeling’s rule from DAMEO, according to which a piece may jump over one or more consecutive pieces of the same colour, both diagonally and straight forward, provided that there is a free point behind the last piece jumped. This rule, together with the rule that pieces are promoted to long kings that move and capture any distance in all eight directions, makes even the large SUPER DABLEO a game that might interest dedicated players.

Most players will probably prefer Standard Dableo or the somewhat larger GRAND DABLEO, whose 72-point board is shown in Nils Keyland's article from 1921 (see my article), and which later appears in all game books describing "Dablot Prejjesne".

Besides rediscovering the Mauritanian Kharbaga, I can probably take credit for rediscovering the rule in dablo that makes the game more interesting: namely that one may also win simply by capturing the opponent’s king - a rule mentioned only in a single sentence in a handwritten note at the Nordiska Museet from 1910.

Perhaps together we could expand the coverage of Dablo variants, including my new Dableo game, on Aage’s website.

I think it would be fun if someone wanted to play it online, and I plan to bring paper boards and pieces to the game evening at the BGS conference in Alicante next month.

It is perfectly fine that you publish my email on your website, but I think it would make more sense to present the rules for Dameo and Dableo in English rather than in Danish.

Therefore, I have revised the English Wikipedia article containing the rules for Dameo and also reworked what I wrote about the rules for Dableo.

The Wikipedia article was missing an important rule in Dameo which also applies to Dableo: a piece that reaches the back rank is crowned only if it remains there. If it arrives there by jumping over an opponent’s piece and must then jump back over one or more additional pieces, it is not crowned.

You are welcome to replace the two Danish-language pages RULES OF DAMEO and RULES OF DABLEO with my new English versions.

As mentioned, I hope that you and others will try out my Dableo game, which is a somewhat different development of the Sámi dablo games than your Frisian Dablo variants.

I would also like to ask whether it might be somewhat uncertain to judge Frisian Dablo 2 as a more chaotic game than the standard Frisian Dablo. I see that only 14 games have been played in that version compared with 144 games in the other version.

Finally, I hope that you and others will test the rule introduced by Mats Winther in the variant with kings and princes, namely that the latter do not have compulsory capture, unlike the non-royal pieces.

This should presumably make it somewhat more difficult to capture the king, and I understand from the Ukrainian player you mentioned that it becomes far too easy if all pieces are subject to compulsory capture.

I also think it might be a good idea to publish Mikkel Berg-Nordlie’s articles on Dablo - perhaps both in Norwegian and English, and possibly also his articles on Sáhkku, if he agrees.

I am attaching the Dablo articles from 2018, although you may already have them. In the Norwegian version Mikkel mentions a few more alternative rules than in the English version.

Summary

• Peter published an article on Dablo in Variant Chess (2010).
• He collaborated with Mats Winther, who implemented several experimental Dablo variants in Zillions of Games.
• One rule suggested by Winther: only ordinary pieces must capture; kings and princes are exempt.
  This makes the king harder to capture and may produce better-balanced games.
• This rule might also be interesting to test in the Frisian Dablo variants, especially Frisian Dablo2, which already seems to produce reasonably short games.
• Peter also mentions related alquerque-type games, particularly Kharbaga, which works well on the 41-point board (5×5+).
• Finally he introduces his own variant Dableo, partly inspired by Christian Freeling’s game Dameo.

I do not know whether you have yet received any response to my new game Dableo.

Since last time, I have sent the rules for this and for some Halma-like games from around 1893 to Mats Winther in Stockholm, who programmed Shan Tu, Romette, Trio, and Chinese Checkers with Zillions-of-Games.

He has also modified some of the games slightly, for example by introducing a “Super Halma” rule both in a somewhat reduced version of Chinese Checkers and in a variant of Trio, which inspired Mats to invent a new game, Ternion.

The Super Halma rule means that, in addition to the ordinary Halma/Chinese Checkers jump over an adjacent piece, a piece may also make a long jump over other pieces, provided that it lands just as far behind a piece as the distance between itself and that piece — in other words, a symmetrical jump.

In addition, he made a hexagonal version of Romette, which he calls HexRomette, and which reduces the somewhat overwhelming number of possible moves to a more manageable level.

Mats Winther has also tested my Dableo with Zillions, but feels that it becomes too short a game on the board with 50 points and 2×18 pieces.

He suggested that I might think along somewhat different lines and modify the board.

I have now done so, and this has resulted in a rather different game, which I now call Dableo, as well as a hexagonal variant, which I call HexDableo.

Mats Winther has not yet implemented the two new variants, but I hope he will do so.

In the old Dableo, I have chosen to omit the Dableo rule allowing pieces to jump over rows of pieces of the same color.

That perhaps makes the game too fast on the smallest board, and perhaps makes the game too difficult to survey on the larger boards.

I have chosen to call the revised version of the first Dableo “DabloDame.”

DabloDame is simply the Sami/North Swedish Tärnspel with compulsory captures and a long-range (“flying”) king.

Dableo, on the other hand, is Christian Freeling’s Dameo with Dablo kings and princes, which cannot be captured by soldiers, but only by pieces of equal or higher rank.

Unlike in Dablo, the pieces are promoted only when they reach (and remain on) the back rank.

HexDableo is a corresponding hexagonal game, based on Christian Freeling’s HexDame, but with the Dameo rule that pieces may jump over one or more pieces in a row of the same color.

I hope that you will delete “Dableo regler på dansk” as well as “Dableo rules in English” and replace them with the attached English-language rules for the three games mentioned above.