What Tablut Is
Tablut is a Sami board game played on a 9 by 9 board: a king and eight Swedes in the center against 16 Muscovites on the edges, with the king trying to reach the edge. We know it because Carl Linnaeus wrote its rules into his Lapland diary in 1732, and those notes are the fullest old rule set that survives for any game of the tafl family.
Linnaeus left Uppsala on May 12, 1732, and was back on October 10 (old-style dates). The tablut rules sit among his general notes on the Sami, under the diary heading for July 21, when he was in the fells of Lule Lappmark on his way back from the Norwegian coast. Two days later he "took leave of the alpine part of Lapland." The diary does not say he watched a game that day.
The diary was a private field journal, "such a journal as a man would write for his own use," in the words of its English editor. It first appeared in 1811, in English, as Lachesis Lapponica, edited by J.E. Smith and translated by Charles Troilius. The Swedish and Latin original was printed in 1889 in Ährling's edition and in 1913 in Fries's Iter Lapponicum. Our reading comes from those two printed Latin texts; we have not seen the manuscript, which is in London.
The Board, the Swedes and the Muscovites
Linnaeus drew the board himself, and the 1811 edition printed it as a woodcut: a plain ruled grid of 81 squares with no alternating colors. The center square is the castle: "Arx regia. Konokis Lappon., cui nullus succedere potest." The royal castle, konokis in Sami, which no one may enter. Around it a cross of eight marked squares holds the Swedes, and Linnaeus counts them as "Sveci N:r 9 cum rege," nine with the king. Sixteen squares in T-shaped groups at the middle of each edge hold the Muscovites, and rule 13 adds that they have no king: "Muscovitae sine rege erint, suntque 16 in 4 phalangibus disponendi." The Muscovites are 16, set out in four phalanxes.
Swedes and Muscovites are Linnaeus's Latin labels; who first named the sides that way is not known. His sketch tells the pieces apart by shape, not color: a tall stepped king, slim spiked Swedes and notched, forked Muscovites. White Swedes against black Muscovites is a modern habit, and so are the pale and dark pieces on our board.
How to Play Tablut on This Page
Linnaeus's rule numbers are given; our choice marks where he is silent and our reading where he is unclear.
Moving (rules 1, 2 and 7). Every piece moves in a straight line along a row or column, any number of empty squares, never diagonally and never over another piece.
Turns (rule 8). "Svecus et muscovita in gressibus alternant." Swede and Muscovite move in turn. Linnaeus does not say who starts. Our choice: the Muscovites, the attackers, move first.
Capturing (rule 9). "Si qvis hostem inter 2 sibi hostes collocare possit, est occisus et ejici debet, etiam Rex." If anyone can place an enemy between two of his own enemies, it is killed and must be removed, the king too. The 1889 edition reads "item Rex," to the same effect. Our choice: only the piece that has just moved captures, which fits the active "can place" of the Latin, so a piece may step between two enemies safely. One move may capture on several sides at once, and the king fights, counting as one of the two.
The king near his castle (rules 10 and 11). On the castle, the king is taken only when attackers hold all four squares around it. On a square next to the castle he needs three attackers, on his three open sides. Our reading: the castle counts as the fourth side there. Anywhere else, rule 9 applies, and two attackers on opposite sides take him.
The castle itself. The caption on Linnaeus's sketch says no one may enter it. Our choice: no one but the king, since he starts there. To every other piece it is a wall.
The empty castle captures (rule 14). Linnaeus writes that the castle can shut in, so that a soldier on a square beside it with an enemy beyond is killed. Fries prints a question mark in the middle of this rule, and the reading is uncertain. Our choice: the empty castle counts as an enemy to both sides; with the king on it, it does not.
Winning (rules 3, 4 and 12). The king escapes along an open line unless a Muscovite blocks it at once, and "Si Rex tali modo exit, est praelium finitum." If the king gets out this way, the battle is over. Our choice: the king wins the moment he lands on any edge square, and the corners are ordinary squares. The attackers win by taking the king. Rule 12 also ends the war when the king is intercluso, shut in, without defining it. Our choice: there is no separate shut-in rule, and a side left with no legal move loses.
Draws. Linnaeus has none. Our choice: 160 moves in a row without a capture is a draw, each side's move counting as one, and there is no repetition rule.
Raicki and Tuicku
Rule 6 reads: "Ut Rex aditum apertum vidit, clamet Raicki, si duae viae apertae sunt tuicku." When the king sees an open way, let him cry raicki; if two ways are open, tuicku. Rule 5 adds that an open line on two sides cannot be closed. Our reading: one Muscovite move can block only one road, so two open roads win for the king unless the Muscovites' reply captures him or brings the 160-move draw. Linnaeus gives raicki and tuicku as Sami words, like konokis for the castle, and says when to call them, not what they mean.
The spelling differs between the editions. Fries in 1913 prints Raicki and tuicku, Ährling in 1889 has Raich' and tuicha, and the 1811 English has raichi and tuichu. We follow Fries. In our game a Raicki! banner comes up when the king gets a clear road to the edge, and Tuicku! when he has two; it changes no rule.
What the 1811 English Got Wrong
Smith's edition turned rule 9 around. Where the Latin says the king too is killed, the English says a man between two enemies "is killed and taken off, except the king, who is not liable to this misfortune." It also stops at rule 12, so rules 13 and 14 are missing, and it adds "embroidered" squares where Linnaeus wrote only of marked ones. Smith's preface explains how it happened. The manuscript was Swedish "so intermixed with Latin, even in half sentences" that the translator, "not being much acquainted with this language," left frequent blanks, and Smith then rewrote the whole.
In 1913 H.J.R. Murray, in A History of Chess, built his reconstruction of the Norse game on that English text and wrote "The King cannot be taken." Later game historians worked from Murray. The modern 11 by 11 sets, Fetlar (2007) and Copenhagen (2012), also take the king on four sides, and that is their authors' design.
Our game follows the Latin. Two Muscovites can take the king anywhere except on or beside his castle, which makes him far more exposed than in the 11 by 11 sets. The chain from the Latin to Murray is set out, with its editions, on our tablut sources and corrections page.
Tablut, Hnefatafl and Brandubh
Tablut has the family pattern of the Norse and Welsh evidence: a king in the center, a smaller side defending him, a larger side attacking, and capture between two. Whether the Sami game descends from the Norse one is unknown. Tablut is 9 by 9 with 25 pieces. Hnefatafl here uses the Copenhagen rules of 2012 on 11 by 11, with 37 pieces and escape only at a corner. Brandubh is the 7 by 7 game with 13 pieces, a modern rule set on the board size of a 10th-century Irish find. Of the three, only tablut is played from a historical rule text.
Tablut FAQ
What is the difference between hnefatafl and tablut?
Hnefatafl is a Norse game known from sagas and finds, with no surviving rules. Tablut is the Sami game Carl Linnaeus described in Latin in 1732, on a 9 by 9 board, and its rules are the fullest that survive for the family. In tablut the king wins at any edge and can be taken by two attackers away from his castle. The hnefatafl most people play today, such as the Copenhagen rules of 2012, is 11 by 11, with escape at a corner.
How do you play tablut?
The king and eight Swedes start in a cross in the center, 16 Muscovites in four groups on the edges. Pieces move like rooks. A piece trapped between two enemies is removed, the king too, except that on his castle he needs four attackers around him and three beside it. The king wins by reaching any edge square. In our game the Muscovites move first, which is our choice, because Linnaeus does not say.
Can the king be captured in tablut?
Yes. Linnaeus's Latin rule 9 says a piece placed between two enemies is killed and removed, the king too. Only on his castle (four attackers) or next to it (three) is he harder to take. The 1811 English translation reversed this, saying the king is not liable to capture, and H.J.R. Murray repeated it in 1913. Our game follows the Latin.
What do raicki and tuicku mean?
They are the calls in Linnaeus's rule 6. When the king sees an open way to the edge, he is to cry raicki, and with two open ways, tuicku. Linnaeus gives them as Sami words and says when to call them, not what they translate as. Our game shows a Raicki! or Tuicku! banner at those moments, and it has no effect on the rules.
Did Linnaeus watch the Sami play tablut?
His diary does not say so. The rules appear among his general notes on the Sami under the heading for July 21, 1732, when he was in the fells of Lule Lappmark. They are notes filed under a date, not a report of a game he watched. The diary was first printed, in English, in 1811.
Who moves first in tablut?
Linnaeus does not say. His rule 8 says only that Swede and Muscovite move in turn. In our game the Muscovites, the attacking side, move first. That is our choice; the attackers also move first under the Copenhagen and brandubh rules.