hnefatafl
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A comprehensive overview of the rules and conventions of hnefatafl.
The Rules:
• The attacker uses the black pieces.
• The defender uses the white pieces and the yellow piece (the king).
• Players alternate one move at a time, with the attacker going first.
• The attacker wins by capturing the king.
• The defender wins by getting the king to escape to any of the squares along the edge of the board.
1.
Pieces can move orthogonally by any number of squares, but cannot land on or jump over other pieces.
2.
Your piece is removed from the board (captured) when your opponent sandwiches it between two of their pieces.
3.
Fully enclosing a group of rival pieces with no empty spaces will result in their capture.
Elaborations:
• You can safely move your piece into a sandwich without it being captured.
• A single move can result in multiple sandwichings and/or enclosures.
• Enclosure takes precedence over sandwiching.
• The board's edge can assist with enclosing a piece or group, but not with sandwiching one.
• Enclosure can be used to capture a group of rival pieces of any size or shape, as long as there are no empty spaces around or within it.
• A game cannot be ended with peace or a draw.
• A game cannot be ended by surrendering.
Conventions:
History
Hnefatafl is an ancient Viking board game. You can read about its history online.
Tournament matchups
A matchup between two players begins with one round, which is made up of two games. The challenger is always the attacker in the first game of a round, and the defender in the second game. If a player wins both games within a round, they win the round and thus the matchup. Otherwise, the players keep playing one round at a time until someone does.
Notation
The board can be described in terms of columns and rows, with both being numbered from 1 to 13. For example, 12·9 would represent the square in the 12th column and 9th row. However, for a player sitting opposite, it would be valid for them to describe 12·9 as 2·5, as is apparent from their perspective.
Games can be recorded using written notation, which takes the form of two major columns, each composed of three minor columns. The left major column details the attacker's moves, and the right major column details the defender's moves. The first minor column notes the move number (e.g. '10'). The second minor column notes the direction and destination (e.g. '→9·7', or 'k→9·7' if the king moved). The third minor column notes the number of pieces captured as a result of the move (e.g. '2'). If a move did not result in any captures then the third minor column is left blank. If a move resulted in the king's escape then 'E' is included in the third minor column, or 'K' if the king was captured.
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Titles
Master - bestowed upon tournament winners and those highly skilled in hnefatafl.
<> List of Masters
King - bestowed upon the winner of the Hnefatafl Championship.
The Hnefatafl Championship
For the final matchup, the king piece is made of gold with the year engraved on its base, and is kept by the winner.
© Bilal Mustafa 2024-2025