About Tablut (A Tafl variant)

Tablut is a variant of the so-called Tafl games, which is a large family of Germanic and Celtic board games from Scandinavian descent. They are characterized by two unequal, in both numbers and properties of the pieces, armies with unequal objectives. Tablut is the best documented variant of the Tafl games. In the 18th century, it was reintroduced to the world by Carl Linnaeus during his expedition to Lapland. His description, however, is incomplete and ambiguous resulting in multiple reconstruction attempts, which yielded multiple rule sets.

The Pieces

Each of the two players, white and black, commands an army of pawns. The white army consists of eight pawns and a king, referred to as “Swedes”. They start from the center area of the board. The black army, the “Muscovites”, only has pawns, but it outnumbers the white army with sixteen pawns. They start from the edges of the board. The initial placement of the pieces is fixed.

The Board

Tablut is played on a rectangular board consisting of 9×9 squares. The columns are called files and are labelled a–i from left to right. The rows or ranks are numbered 1–9 from bottom to top. The central square (e5) is called the konakis (meaning: castle or throne) and is initially occupied by the king. This square is special in the way that no piece can ever occupy this square once the king leaves his initial position (including the king himself).

Movement

Players alternate moves with white moving first. Each move one piece must be moved. Each piece can move any number of squares either horizontally or vertically provided that they do not move through any other piece (like a rook in Chess). Once the king leaves the konakis (e5), any piece may freely move through it.

Capturing

Pawns (of either side) are captured by so-called custodial capture. An enemy pawn that is surrounded by friendly pawns from both sides, either horizontally or vertically, is captured. Moving a pawn into a surrounded position does not capture it. Multiple captures simultaneously are also possible. The king cannot participate in a capture.

Objective

The two opposing sides have different objectives. The objective for white is to escape his king to any square on the edge of the board. The black army is trying to prevent the white king from escaping by surrounding him. To capture the king, black has to surround the king on all four orthogonal sides. When the king is adjacent to the konakis, black only has to surround the king on the remaining three sides to capture it. Any player unable to make a legal move loses the game.