How to Play Hnefatafl

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Hnefatafl is an asymmetric two-player strategy game played on a grid board. One player commands a small force protecting a king, while the other commands a larger attacking force trying to surround and capture him. The imbalance in both numbers and objectives gives every game a different texture, rewarding calculation and patience in equal measure.

The game is typically played on a wooden board with 11x11 squares, though smaller variants exist. It suits players who enjoy deep positional thinking without the overhead of complex equipment. A set lives comfortably on a kitchen table, and a game between evenly matched players is usually settled in under an hour.

A little history

Hnefatafl, whose name is Old Norse for roughly 'king's table', is documented in Scandinavian and Norse sources from at least the early medieval period, and game pieces believed to be associated with tafl-family games have been found at archaeological sites across northern Europe including Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia. Exactly when and where the game originated is unclear; its wider rules were not recorded systematically before the modern era, and several rule sets in use today are reconstructions based on board evidence, period references, and comparative study. It appears to have declined after chess spread through Europe during the medieval period.

Setting up

1. Place the board so the central square (the throne, sometimes called the konakis) is equidistant from all four sides.
2. Place the king piece on the central throne square.
3. Place the 12 defender pieces in the cross pattern immediately surrounding the king: typically 4 pieces adjacent to the throne and 8 pieces extending outward along the four orthogonal arms.
4. Place the 24 attacker pieces in four groups of 6 along the four edges of the board, centred on each side.
5. The attacker moves first.

How to play

1. Players alternate turns. The attacker moves first.
2. On your turn you must move exactly one of your pieces. Passing is not permitted.
3. Pieces move any number of empty squares in a straight orthogonal line (like a rook in chess). Diagonal movement is not allowed.
4. No piece may land on the central throne square except the king. No piece may land on a corner square except the king.
5. The central throne square and the four corner squares act as hostile squares: they count as a capturing partner for either side even when empty (see capturing rules below).
6. Capture: you capture an enemy piece by moving your own piece so that the enemy is sandwiched between two of your pieces (or between one of your pieces and a hostile square) along a rank or file. The captured piece is removed from the board immediately.
7. A piece may safely move between two enemy pieces without being captured; capture only happens as a result of the moving player's own move.
8. The king is captured only when he is surrounded on all four orthogonal sides simultaneously by attacker pieces or hostile squares. Surrounding him on three sides is not sufficient.
9. Exception to the king's four-sided capture rule: if the king is on or adjacent to the throne, he must be surrounded on all four sides. If the king has moved away from the throne and is not adjacent to it, some rule sets reduce the requirement to three sides; agree this with your opponent before play begins.
10. The king escapes and the defender wins if the king reaches any of the four corner squares.
11. The attacker wins if the king is captured according to the rule above.
12. The defender also loses if the defenders are reduced to a position where the king has no possible escape route and cannot avoid capture on the attacker's next move (this is treated as a forced win for the attacker).
13. Repetition: if the same board position occurs three times with the same player to move, the game is declared a draw. This prevents either side from shuffling pieces endlessly.

Winning and scoring

The defending player wins by moving the king to any one of the four corner squares of the board. The attacking player wins by surrounding the king on all four orthogonal sides using attacker pieces or the hostile central or corner squares, so that he cannot move without being taken. If neither player can force a result and the same position repeats three times, the game is a draw.

The fine points

The most common dispute concerns the king's capture rule when he is away from the throne. The strict reconstruction used by many organised groups requires four-sided encirclement at all times; others allow three-sided capture once the king has left the central area. You must agree on this before the game starts, as it significantly affects both strategy and game length. Similarly, clarify whether the empty throne counts as a hostile square for capturing the king as well as other pieces; in most widely used rule sets it does.

A second dispute arises around edge squares. Some players treat the board edges as passive barriers with no capturing role; others extend the hostile-square logic to the edges. The mainstream reconstructed rule set does not treat edges as hostile, so absent a local house rule, edge squares are neutral. Finally, shieldwall capture (a rule drawn from some scholarly reconstructions) allows a player to capture an entire row of enemy pieces pressed against the edge if they are bracketed at both ends; this is an optional rule and should be declared before play.

How to win more often

• As attacker, prioritise controlling the board's orthogonal corridors radiating from the throne. Blocking the king's escape lanes early is more valuable than making quick captures.
• As defender, do not rush the king toward a corner immediately. Use your surrounding pieces to clear a path first; an unsupported king sprinting for a corner is easily cut off.
• As attacker, try to keep your forces evenly distributed around the board's quadrants. Concentrating pieces on one side leaves escape routes open on the opposite side.
• As defender, piece exchanges are usually acceptable if they open a clear escape lane, because you only need one corner reached to win; the attacker needs the king captured.
• Both sides should watch for fork threats: a king positioned so that he threatens two corner squares simultaneously forces the attacker to react and often produces a decisive breakthrough.

Variations

Tablut (9x9)

Tablut is played on a 9x9 board with 8 defenders, 1 king, and 16 attackers. It is based on an 18th-century description recorded by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus during his travels in Lapland. The smaller board makes games faster and the tactical patterns tighter, though the asymmetry in piece counts is proportionally similar to the 11x11 game.

Tawlbwrdd (Welsh variant)

Tawlbwrdd is a Welsh tafl-family game referenced in medieval Welsh law texts. It is traditionally played on an 11x11 board with similar piece counts to standard Hnefatafl. The rules are largely reconstructed from brief textual references, and several versions circulate; the core asymmetric escape-versus-capture structure remains the same.

Alea Evangelii (19x19)

This large-board variant, documented in an Anglo-Saxon manuscript, uses a 19x19 grid with substantially more pieces on each side. It is rarely played today outside dedicated historical recreation communities because a game can last several hours, but it demonstrates the breadth of the tafl tradition and rewards players who enjoy very deep positional play.

Sea Battle Tafl (Hnefatafl with edge exits)

A reconstructed variant in which the king may also escape by reaching any square on the board's edge rather than only the four corner squares. This rule dramatically eases the defender's task and is sometimes used as a beginner-friendly adjustment, giving the defending side a realistic winning chance without the positional skill required on the standard board.

Hnefatafl: frequently asked questions