History

The Viking game, or Tablut, is very old. It originated in northern Europe and was played by Swedes, Danes, Finns, Icelanders and Russians. The earliest known reference dates back to 400 AD. It is believed that the Vikings took it to the British Isles, India, Persia and Iraq. The rules of the oldest versions are not known, because only a few boards, pieces and small and obscure comments in literature have survived. It is known, however, that the game was known by tafl, which means “table”.

In 1732 Linnaeus visited Lapland and found the game still being played. The version of the rules he recorded are those presented here.

Material

Tablut is played on a 9×9 board, where one player controls a king, who starts in the central square, and an army of 8 Swedes (White). The opponent has 16 Muscovites (Black).

Definitions

Capture by custody — when two pieces of the same color trap an opponent in the same row or column, the opponent is captured.

In the following diagram, if White plays as the arrow suggests he captures the black piece.

Rules

All pieces move like the rook in chess. The king is the only piece that can occupy the central square.

All pieces can be captured by custody, except the king. All pieces can move to a square that has two opposing neighbors, in the same row or in the same column, without being captured.

To capture the king it is necessary to occupy the four squares orthogonally adjacent to its position, or three, if the fourth is the central square of the board.

Objective

For White: the king must reach one of the four edges of the board without being captured by the opponent.

For Black: capture the white king.