Gwezboell set

The Breton word 'gwezboell' is the equivalent of the Welsh 'gwyddbwyll' and the Irish 'fidchell'. These last two words often feature in ancient Welsh and Irish legends, referring to a board game. What exactly that board game was is unclear; it may have been a Celtic version of hnefatafl, it may have been a Celtic version of the Roman game ludus latrunculorum, it may have been something entirely different. Or it may have been all of the above, at different times; more on that in a future blog post.

I don't remember where I got this commercial Gwezboell set; it was many years ago. Although the box proclaims gwezboell to be 'Celtic chess', the creators of this set clearly adhered to gwezboell being a version of hnefatafl. A 9 x 9 version to be precise, with the king escaping at the board's corners.

The board itself is made from cardboard, and the pieces are plastic chess pieces: a king plus 8 + 16 pawns. All in all a very basic set.

By the way, the picture is the only thing I still have of this set; I can't find it anywhere ...