HnefaChess
The Viking game Hnefatafl was famous in Europe until it was replaced by Chess. The goal of the game was for one King to escape from the centre of the board to the border, while the other King had to prevent it. It was a game of unequal armies and opposite strategies.
Placing both Kings in the centre of the board, and forcing both of them to escape, while keeping both armies equal, was the idea of this game.
Setup
The board looks like this:
The 28 green squares in the centre of the board are inaccessible for the game and cannot be jumped over.
The initial setup looks like this:
The black Queen swaps places with the black King.
Pieces
Each player has a regular chess set of 16 pieces placed in the central 8x8 square.
Each player has an additional set of pieces:
- 14 non promoting Pawns placed behind the enemy line
- 14 promoting Pawns placed on their own right gate
- 4 Knights, 4 Bishops, and 1 Rook, placed in the corner they control.
Rules
The central 8x8 chessboard has 4 gates. Each player controls two gates.
The objective of the game is for the Kings to reach one of the red squares in the corners of the 16x16 chessboard.
There is no castling.
The Kings can be in check but checkmating them will lose the game.
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By Florin Lupusoru.
Last revised by Florin Lupusoru.
Web page created: 2024-03-13. Web page last updated: 2024-03-22