Hnefatafl – Tablut

Hnefatafl, meaning King’s Table (or literally, Fist Board Game) in Old Norse, is an asymmetric game of pure strategy played by the Vikings and neighboring people with many variations. Its origins are unclear, but it seems that it has appeared during the Viking period, in the 7th or 8th century CE, in Scandinavia and other lands which the Vikings have conquered, as accounted for in archaeological finds of Hnefatafl pieces. Tablut is the most documented variation of Hnefatafl, which has been observed by the Swedish botanist, Carl Linnaeus, during his visit to Lapland (northern Scandinavia) in 1732, among the Saami people. Linnaeus recorded the rules and the shape of the board played by the Saami in his diary, written in Latin, Iter Lapponicum. The diary was translated into English for the first time in 1811 by James Edward Smith, under the title, Lachesis Lapponica: A Tour in Lapland. That translation had many mistakes, including wrong rules for Tablut. Since then there were a few attempts to translate the rules correctly and test them out in Hnefatafl tournaments conducted by Aage Nielsen. The most balanced game resulted from a 2013 (updated in 2015) translation done by a Finnish linguist, Olli Salmi, on his website.

Drawing of Tablut board and rules in Latin. Folio 135 of the original manuscript of Iter Lapponicum, by Carl Linnaeus, 1732. The Linnean Society of London, Manuscript GB/110/LM/LP/TRV/1/2/1, Folio 135.

There are no original surviving complete sets of Tablut with pieces and board together that have been found archaeologically, although there have been various finds of Hnefatafl pieces and boards, which are not specific to a particular variant.

Hnefatafl glass pieces dated to 800 – 1099 CE, found in Björkö, Norr om Borg, Grav, Kammargrav (Bj 523). Historiska Museum, Stockholm, Sweden, 106813. Photo: December 9, 2000. Note the king piece, among the soldiers balls pieces.

A set of 27 Hnefatafl bone, horn and bronze pieces, dated to 800 – 1099 CE from Björkö, Norr om Borg, Grav, Kammargrav (Bj 624). Historiska Museum, Stocholm, Sweden, 364475. Photo: Christer Ahlin, October 20, 2011. Note the king piece, with a bronze crown.

Since Olli Salmi’s reconstruction of Linnaeus’ Tablut rules results in the most balanced game, I have documented those rules here.

Olli Salmi’s Tablut Rules:

1. The game is for 2 players.
2. The board is a square with a 9×9 grid. There are 25 pieces total: 16 attackers (Moscovites), 8 defenders (Swedes), and 1 king. The first player plays for the attackers. The second player plays for the defenders and the king.
3. The initial position of the pieces is shown in the following diagram. The king is placed on the throne. The defenders surround him in the shape of a cross. The attackers are placed on four sides in T shaped groups.

   

4. The central square, called the throne, may only be occupied by the king. The king can go in and out of the throne at any time. Other pieces may pass through the throne when it is empty, but are not allowed to land on it. The throne square is hostile to both the attackers and defenders, meaning that when it is empty it can replace one of the two pieces taking part in a capture.
5. The attackers move first. The two players alternate their moves.
6. All pieces, including the king, move any number of vacant squares along a row or a column, like a rook in chess.

   

   

7. All regular pieces (see about the king below) are captured if they are sandwiched between two enemy pieces, or between an enemy piece and the throne, along a column or a row.

   

   

8. Multiple captures in one move or capturing with the king is allowed.

   

   

9. A piece is only captured if the trap is closed by a move of the opponent. An opponent’s piece is allowed to move in between two enemy pieces without being captured.

   

   

10. The two sides have different goals to win the game.
    1. The goal for the defenders (king’s side) is to move the king to any edge square. If the king has escaped to the edge, the defenders win.

       

    2. The attackers win if they can capture the king before he escapes to the edge. The king is captured like all other pieces by being sandwiched between two opposing pieces. However, if the king is on the throne or on one of the four orthogonal squares next to the throne, then in order to capture him the attackers must surround him on all four sides, and not just two. If the king is captured on a cell adjacent to the throne, the throne can count as one of the four capturing sides and may remain empty during capture.

       

       

       

11. If the attackers surround the king and all remaining defenders, to the point that the king cannot escape, then the attackers win.
12. 3 repetitions of the same move by the same player in a row are not allowed. If 3 repetitions in a row are made the repeating player loses the game.
13. If a player cannot move they lose the game.

On Strategy:

1. According to the rules presented above, the balance of Tablut between the attackers and the defenders is similar to the balance of chess. In chess since white go first they have about 52-59% of winning compared to the black, as has been documented in many different tournament statistical analyses. Aage Nielsen documented based on tournament results, that Tablut is -1.11 balanced on average, meaning that the attackers win about 10% more often. In other words, the attackers win in Tablut 60% of the time, compared to 52-59% of the white in chess.
2. Since Hnefatafl is asymmetrical, each of the players must use a different strategy to win.
3. The attackers need to form a blockade around the defenders so that the king gets surrounded and eventually eliminated. As long as the ring around the king remains unbroken he cannot escape. The blockade is formed by positioning the attackers in the shape of a rhombus on a diagonal of each row. Once the blockade is formed that attackers need to slowly make the rhombus smaller and smaller around the center of the board and tighten the noose around the king.
4. The goal for the defenders is to constantly create gaps in the blockade and have the king escape through one of those gaps to the edge of board. Placing defenders behind the enemy lines makes it much easier for them to eliminate more attackers and break through the blockade.
5. Some chess tactics are applicable in Hnefatafl as well. Forcing the opponent to make a particular move in order to avoid losing the game can be very useful. Creating a fork where one piece can attack multiple opponent’s pieces can provide an advantage. Pinning a piece, which prevents it from being moved from its location by the threat of losing the game, is another useful tactic which gives the player the control of the board.

Bibliography:

1. Linnaeus, Carolus. Lachesis lapponica, or a tour in Lapland. London, 1811. Volume 2, pp. 55-58.
2. Ashton, John C. “Linnaeus’s game of Tablut and its relationship to the ancient Viking game Hnefatafl.” The Heroic Age: A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe 13 (2010): 1526-1867.
3. Walker, Damian. Reconstructing Hnefatafl. Cyningstan, 2014.
4. Walker, Damian Gareth. An Introduction to Hnefatafl. Cyningstan, 2015.