World Tafl Federation Championship 2026, September 1, 2026 -

Tournament Rules.

Sign-Up.

• Deadline: August 31, 2026, at 12:00 (noon) Danish time.
• Historical: September 7, 2026, at 12:00.
• Race Games: September 14, 2026, at 12:00.
• Sign-up buttons are available on the "Play against humans" page.
• Players may not participate in a tournament under more than one alias.
• Players unknown to this site must complete at least one game before registering is effective.

Start Dates.

• Copenhagen Hnefatafl: September 1, 2026
• Historical: September 8, 2026
• Race Games: September 15, 2026
• Subsequent rounds will begin as soon as possible.

Tournament Lines.

There are three separate tournament lines. Players may enter one or more:

• Vínland, Copenhagen Hnefatafl 11x11 (16)
  Hints how to win Copenhagen Hnefatafl:
  • Tim Millar ("Crust").
  • Plamen Draganov ("Draganov").
  
  
• Markland, Historical Hnefatafl
1. Historical Hnefatafl 9x9 (aka Saami Tablut) (192) (Round 1)
2. Historical Hnefatafl 11x11 (183) (Round 2)
3. Historical Hnefatafl 13x13 (189) (Round 3 onwards)
• Heithabyr, Race games
1. Daldøs 3x14 (171) (Round 1)
2. Saami Sáhkku 3x15 (146) (Round 2)

Game Rules.

• Copenhagen
  NB. About shieldwalls, see Doctor Crustus explains shieldwalls (Tim Millar)
• Historical Hnefatafl
Note: Historical Hnefatafl is played with two small rule additions introduced by Gulo and Dimetr:
• The throne may not be crossed by Black.
• The throne is friendly to White.
• Race games
  NB. Notice that you can change the sequence of dice.

Timing & Night Pause.

Games use the Fischer Clock system:

• Initial time: 4 days per player.
• Increment per move: 8 hours, gradually reduced in very long games.

Night Pause.

• Active between 23:00 and 07:00 local time.
• Each move received during the day grants up to 8 hours pause that night.
• If the opponent moves at night, the pause splits between nights.
• Pause applies per move and does not accumulate.

Christmas/New Year Pause.

Timing is paused from 23 December 2026 to 2 January 2027.
Players are free to continue their games as they wish, but no timing will be applied during this period.

Time Buffer Display.

• Blue warning when buffer falls below 1.5 days.
• Red warning when buffer falls below 24 hours.

Clocks are managed automatically by the tournament software, and exceeding your time limit will automatically result in a loss.

How to see your rest time buffer.

• On your "My current games" page:
  at the bottom of the page, click "Enter" to "Show my games and time buffers".
  Here the time buffer left is shown, and the current status of three additional parameters.
  E.g.

  Player: 4 days left of time buffer.
  (8 hours added per move, 2.1 days used total)

  means that 8 hours are added to the time buffer when you move; you have used in total 2.1 days for this game.

Format & Elimination.

The tournaments follow a double-elimination format (described here: Diagonal Tournament Format):

• If a player does not start his tournament within 3 days, he is removed for no-show.
• A player is eliminated after four losses.
• If a player times out in more than half of his games in a round, he will be disqualified.
• If at any time you want to leave the tournament, please say so in the chat forum.

Note: Race Games do not use double-elimination but follow a separate points-based system.

Race Games Format.

• Uses the Formula One points system to determine standings.
• If there are multiple winners with equal points, they share the title.

Titles & Awards.

Winners of each line will receive the title:

• World Tafl Federation Champion (for Copenhagen Hnefatafl)
• Historical Hnefatafl World Champion
• Race Games Master

Umpires & Information.

Tournament administration and adjudication are handled by WTF umpires:

Further information will be provided here and in the chat forum during the tournament.

Lucho Panchev ("OdinHimself") created this video for the tournament of this year!

Hat tip to Gulo, Dimetr and AlexHnef for inputs to the planning.
Last updated: August 6, 2026.