Viking Chess (Hnefatafl): Play Online Free

How to play

1. The defenders and their king start in the middle; the raiders start around the edges. The raiders move first.
2. Every piece moves any number of empty squares in a straight line, like a rook in chess. Only the king may stop on the throne in the middle or on a corner.
3. Take an enemy piece by trapping it between two of yours, in a line. A corner, or the empty throne, counts as one of yours.
4. The defenders win when the king reaches a corner. The raiders win by surrounding the king: four sides on the throne, three beside it, two anywhere else.

The rules in pictures

Tips

• As the king, open two routes to corners at once. The raiders can only block one per move.
• As the raiders, guard the squares next to the corners before you attack the king.
• A piece may move between two enemy pieces safely. Pieces are only taken by the move that closes the trap.
• The king can take part in captures, so use him as a fighter.

A board game from the age of the Vikings

Tafl games were played across the Viking world, and the Icelandic sagas mention hnefatafl by name. A wooden game board from the Gokstad ship burial in Norway has a tafl grid on one side and Nine Men's Morris on the other.

The clearest account of how a tafl game was played comes much later. In 1732 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus recorded Tablut in the journal of his expedition to Lapland. Every modern rule set, including the one used here, is a reconstruction built from that account and from the boards that survive.