Hnefatafl World Championship 2020

You may well be familiar with the fact that chess has its regular world championships, with Magnus Carlsen the reigning men's world champion, and Ju Wenjun the reigning women's world champion.

Hnefatafl also has a regular world championship. Unlike for chess, the hnefatafl tournament is organised as an on-line tournament. 

The 2020 hnefatafl world championship started in September 2020 and was completed last month. Actually, there were two tournaments running side-by-side: 'historical hnefatafl', on a 9x9 board, and according to tablut rules, and 'modern hnefatafl, on a 11x11 board, and according to Copenhagen rules. 

The tournament ran over three different rounds, with the best players in each round continuing to the next round. A total of 16 players registered for the 9x9 tournament, and 28 players for the 11x11 tournament. Quite a few players participated in both tournaments. 

Mario Aluizo was victorious in both tournaments, and unbeaten in the final rounds of both. He can therefore rightly be called the undisputed 2020 Hnefatafl World Champion. 

Rules, scores, the moves of all games, and much more can be found here. Congratulations to Mario!

Tawlbwrdd, with a twist

Only a handful of medieval manuscripts give us information on 'tawlbwrdd', but it is very clear from those manuscripts that tawlbwrdd was a Welsh version of hnefatafl, played on either a 9 x 9 or an 11 x 11 board. Tawlbwrdd as marketed under the title 'The Celtic Game' is a very basic 11 x 11 version. To fit in the small box, the board comes as four 'jigsaw' cardboard pieces which interlock to create the full board. The pieces are simply plastic (black and red) discs, with a black cube representing the king.

There is some controversy regarding whether or not tawlbwrdd was played with dice. According to some, the word 'tawlbwrdd' translates as 'throw-board', suggesting the use of dice. This would make tawlbwrdd unique among hnefatafl variants. However, none of the manuscripts mentioning tawlbwrdd specifically talk about dice, or suggest they played a role in the game.

Nevertheless, 'The Celtic Game' is marketed as a game played with dice. Or rather, with a die, as one is included.

And, in case you're wondering, the die determines how many squares a piece can move every time. Remember, this is not based on any historical evidence ....