Tafl: viking chess

About Tafl: viking chess

Tafl: viking chess is a strategy board game rooted in the Norse tradition of asymmetric play, where an attacking side and a defending side face off under rules that shift depending on the variant chosen. Several scenes show a grid board where some tiles are light tan and others form a green border around the perimeter. A central piece displaying a white crown with a red-lined interior appears across multiple game views.

The game supports three ways to play: against artificial intelligence, with another person sharing one device, or against an opponent online in multiplayer mode.

How to Play Tafl: viking chess — Move the King or Capture It

The attacking black pieces always move first, after which both sides alternate turns. Every piece — black or white — moves vertically or horizontally across any number of free cells, exactly like a rook in chess. Pieces cannot jump over one another, and neither side may move diagonally or capture diagonally.

Movement Restrictions

• Pieces cannot pass through or stand on the central or corner "fortresses" — only the king's figure may occupy those squares.
• Figures cannot jump over each other.

Capture Rules

• Capture is performed by pincer: an enemy piece is taken when two of your pieces surround it on opposite sides during your turn.
• An enemy piece can also be captured between your piece and an empty "Throne".
• The "Throne" is always hostile to attackers; it is hostile to defenders only when it is empty.
• Capture is not obligatory.
• Captured pieces leave the board permanently.

Victory Conditions

• White wins by moving the king from the central "Throne" to one of the corner fortresses (in variants marked with a "fortress" symbol in the corners) or to the highlighted edge of the board (in variants with an edge-win rule).
• Black wins by surrounding and capturing the king.

Game Variants

• Board size: 7, 9, 11, or 13
• Victory conditions: bring the king to the edge or to a corner of the board
• King encirclement conditions: surrounded from two sides or from four sides
• Piece counts: varying numbers of attacking (black) and defending (white) pieces

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Browse the full Games For PC games category for more desktop-friendly titles, or explore the dedicated Games For PC games tag to find additional options suited to keyboard-and-mouse play.