Hnefatafl, also known as The Viking Game, The King's Table or simply Tafl, is one of those two-player games where the opposing sides are not equal in number. The defending side comprises twelve soldiers and a king, who start the game in a cross formation in the center of the board. Their objective i...
Hnefatafl, also known as The Viking Game, The King's Table or simply Tafl, is one of those two-player games where the opposing sides are not equal in number. The defending side comprises twelve soldiers and a king, who start the game in a cross formation in the center of the board. Their objective is for the king to escape by reaching any of the four corner squares.
The attackers comprise 24 soldiers positioned in four groups of 6 around the perimeter of the board. All pieces move like the Rook in chess and pieces are taken by "sandwiching" i.e. moving your piece so that an opponent's piece is trapped horizontally or vertically between two of yours. There is a host of information on the Internet about Hnefatafl, including many rule variations that are worth experimenting with.
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Antes de la introducción del Ajedrez en los siglos XI y XII, los escandinavos aguzaron su ingenio jugando un juego conocido como Tafl. Tafl en noruego antiguo significa "tablero" y al final del período se refiere a una variedad de juegos de tablero. Sin embargo, el término Tafl era el más usado comúnmente para referirse a un juego conocido como Hnefa-Tafl o "Tablero del Rey".
Hnefatafl era conocido en Escandinavia antes del 400 d.C. y fue llevado por los vikingos a Groenlandia, Islandia, Irlanda, Gran Bretaña, Gales y hasta el lejano oriente como Ucrania. Los sajones tenían su propia variante, derivada de un juego común de Tafl alemán, que era aparentemente el único juego de tablero conocido por ellos antes de la introducción del ajedrez.
