What is a Tafl Game?
Tafl (pronounced [tavl]) is an Old Norse word for table and was used to describe a multitude of games that followed the same pattern of two uneven armies competing on a latticed board. It’s often described as a precursor to chess which came to prominence in the 12th century, save for the Sámi version called Tablut which survived until the 18th century.
When it comes to variants there are numerous versions that have originated across Northern Europe including Alea evangelii (Anglo Saxon), Ard Rí (Scottish) and many more…
All these variants follow the same base rules of:
- There are two armies: attackers and defenders. Attackers have roughly twice as many pieces as defenders
- The defenders have a King piece that must escape the board in some way
- The attackers must capture the King before they escape
The rules have been subject to debate for many years as most historical records of the games have been lost and often passed by word of mouth. The only ancient form of tafl to survive was Tablut as it was documented by Carl Linnaeus in 1732 into Latin and then translated into English in 1811. Unfortunately this translation was filled with errors and modern versions of tafl had to make corrections in order to balance matches.
The size of the board ranges from 7 to 18 tiles per side and similarly does the number of total pieces with smaller boards proving to be less forgiving when making a mistake.
Legacy
There are scattered references to tafl games in manuscripts, chronicles, stories, poems and even physical finds in burial sites. These finds have varied in materials where in some cases the pieces were carved from horse teeth!
Since 1981 there’s been a major effort in trying to revitalize these games and in 2011 the World Tafl Federation was created, holding an annual global competition.
More Information
The Wikipedia article on tafl games is a good place to start as well as Aage Nielsen’s site which hosts the World Tafl Federation matches.