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.
Longest time to move: 3 days.
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 of pause during the following night.
If the opponent’s move is made during the night, the 8-hour pause is split between the two nights.
The pause applies separately to each 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.
How to see your time buffer.
Clocks are managed automatically by the tournament software. Running out of time will automatically result in a loss.
Blue warning when buffer falls below 1.5 days.
Red warning when buffer falls below 24 hours.
There are two ways to check your time buffer:
On the “My current games” page.
At the bottom of the page, click "Enter" under "Show my games and time buffers".
This shows your remaining time buffer and three additional values:
Days until timeout
Days left of time buffer
Hours added per move
Total days used for the game
For example:
Player: 4 days left of time buffer.
(8 hours added per move, 2.1 days used in total)
This means that 8 hours will be added to your time buffer when you make a move, and that you have used a total of 2.1 days for this game.
On the "Check your time" page.
You can also use "Check your time" to see an overview of your time buffer and the time remaining before a possible timeout.
When 5 minutes have passed since your last move, the “My current games” page also shows some time calculations directly.
Format & Elimination.
The tournaments use the Diagonal Tournament Format, a form of double elimination (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 half or more of their games in a round, they are 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.
Here you can get an overview of the tournament and eliminations: Countings.
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
We have come a long way with Historical Hnefatafl and have tested it thoroughly over the past 15 years. Perhaps the time has come to put the historical weak-king variant on a more equal footing with the modern strong-king variant.
The idea is that the World Champion in Historical Hnefatafl should also be recognized as a Hnefatafl Grandmaster at a lower rating, just as has been the tradition in strong-king tournaments ever since the Fetlar Island Championship 19 years ago.
In practical terms, this would mean that a Historical Hnefatafl World Champion would receive the same 100-point rating reduction as a Copenhagen World Champion, becoming a Grandmaster at 2100 rating points rather than 2200.
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 27, 2026.
41 players.
C Copenhagen, H Historical, R Race games
Alexandr Ponomaryev ("Alex Hnefatafl"), Samara, Russia (C, H)
"Waclaw'", Omsk, Russia (C)
"rosk", R-n-D, Russia (R)
"Black Raven", Vermont, United States (C)
"Pokshtya", Jengish Chokusu (R)
"Ailill", London, United Kingdom (C, H)
"SuruRada", Kongsberg, Norway (C, R) invalid (no-show)
Steve Lonsdale ("xerxes"), Peterborough, UK (R)
Gustaf Løvenlund ("gulo"), Copenhagen, Denmark (H)
Aage Nielsen ("Hagbard"), Copenhagen, Danmark (R)
Delray Curtis ("Jrton80"), Kearneysville, WV, USA (C, R)
Daniel Kress ("Colophonius"), Frankfurt, Germany (R)
Tony Higginson ("tonythebook"), Formby, Merseyside, UK (C, H, R)
"Murray7", Auckland, New Zealand (C) disqualified (timeout)
Konstantin Jaehne ("sqAree"), Berlin, Germany (C)
"Pavlo", Lviv, Ukraine (C, H)
"henriquemattos" (C) invalid (no games)
"Potapych", Soroki, Moldova (C, H, R)
Dmitrij Tsvilenev, ("Dimetr"), Moskva, Gardariki (H)
"Hattusili", Iceland (C)
"CarstenCederholm" (C) invalid (no games)
Fabrice Barbier ("Fraech"), Bruxelles, Belgium (C)
Plamen Draganov ("Draganov"), Sofia, Bulgaria (C, H, R)
Luk Martens ("Masterluke"), Sint-Niklaas, Belgium (H)
"saxon", Chemnitz, Germany (C, H, R)
"Zugwykor", Pennsylvania, USA (H)
Paul A. Anokhin ("paul7"), Belgrade, Serbia (C, H, R)
"Zinedine80", Ottawa, Canada (C) invalid (no-show)
"LuckyScoundrel", Minsk, Belarus (C, H)
"Luizz", Munich, Germany (C)
"cacreal", Ottawa, Canada (C, R)
"Finneon7", Germany (C, H)
"Askeladd", Paris, France (C, H)
"brave-frog", Kharkiv, Ukraine (C, H, R)
"Fermillyc" (C)
"Draco" (C) invalid (no games)
Mario Aluizo ("casshern"), Los Angeles, USA (C, H)
Lucho Panchev ("OdinHimself"), Kyustendil, Bulgaria (C)
"Floki", Marseille, France (C)
Hamish Lawson ("ChaolAibhne"), St Andrews, Scotland (UK) (H, R)
"Attila-F" (H) invalid (no games)
The players come from:
15 countries: Russia, USA, UK, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Ukraine, Moldova, Iceland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Serbia, Belarus, Canada, France.
3 continents: Europe, Asia, North America.
Copenhagen Hnefatafl 11x11.
Vínland.
(Valhalla, tegnet af Peter Madsen til Valhalla-albummerne)
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3.9.2026 No-shows.
Players 19 and 24 didn't show up.
Their matches are replaced by:
15 - 21
17 - 23
20 - 26
22 - 25
5.9.2026 Timeout.
Player 22 timed out in half of the games (and eventually timed out in all of them).
The matches are replaced by:
00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
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13.9.2026 Timeout.
Player 12 timed out after a few moves, probably caused by local circumstances.
The matches are replaced by:
08 - 14
10 - 16
Daldøs 3x14 and Saami Sáhkku 3x15 (Kåfjord).
Heithabyr.
(Viking boat under the Aurora. Vignette by Gerhard Munthe, Norway.)
