Hnefatafl Unblocked

Hnefatafl is a game of escape and encirclement that Norse players enjoyed long before chess reached their lands. The sides are deliberately unequal. In the middle of the board sits a king with a small bodyguard. Around the edges wait twice as many attackers, trying to trap him before he can slip away to safety. This unblocked Hnefatafl uses the compact 7x7 Brandubh setup from Christopher Müller’s PaperGames, so a full game fits in a short break, against a three-level AI or a friend sharing your device.

Goals and Movement

Defenders (the king plus four guards) win the moment their king steps into a corner.

Attackers (eight pieces arranged in a plus shape around the rim) win by boxing the king in from every direction.

Being unable to move at all also counts as a loss.

The attacking side opens. All pieces, king as well, travel as far as they like along a row or column, the way a rook does. There are no diagonal moves and no jumping.

Five squares are special. The center throne and the four corners belong to the king alone. To everyone else they are solid blocks that cannot be entered or crossed. They do act as an enemy, though, when an ordinary piece standing beside one gets trapped.

Captures

Ordinary pieces fall when an enemy closes them in from both ends of a line. A capture only happens on the capturer’s own move, so walking into the space between two opponents does you no harm. The king is a bigger target: he falls when every neighboring square is an attacker or the edge of the board, which means only three attackers are needed if he is on the rim. His throne is never used against him.

Hnefatafl controls

To do this	Keyboard	Mouse	Touch
Slide one of your pieces	Tab to the board, arrow keys to reach a square, Enter on your piece and again on the target	Click your piece, then the square it should slide to	Tap your piece, then the target square
Choose your army and the AI level	—	Pick defenders or attackers and a level, then click "New game"	Pick defenders or attackers and a level, then tap "New game"
Undo a move	—	Click "Undo"	Tap "Undo"
Give the game away	—	Click "Resign"	Tap "Resign"

Plans for Each Side

Playing the defenders

• Clear the king’s paths early. Move guards off his row and column so he can sprint.
• Aim for a double threat. If the king can reach two corners next turn, the attackers can only block one.
• Keep guards away from the corners, where a single attacker can capture them against the corner square.

Playing the attackers

• Occupy the squares beside the corners. One piece there shuts two escape lines.
• Herd the king toward an edge, where three pieces are enough to finish him.
• Do not chase guards. Every move spent on a capture is a move the king can use to run.

Learning and Levels

The Easy AI picks moves blindly, Medium checks one turn ahead, and Hard digs several turns deep before a short timer runs out. Taking the defenders first is a friendly way to learn how the king moves. Then switch sides and see how hard he is to catch. Fans of asymmetric hunts should also try Fox and Geese, and Bagh-Chal is another game where the two sides play by different numbers.