Long before chess came to Europe from India, the British Celts played board games in which the goal was to capture a centerpiece of the “king”. There were two variants of this game, Gwyddbwyll and Tallfwrdd.

Gwyddbwyll, which literally means ‘wooden wisdom’ (and is therefore related to the Irish game Fidchell) and is known predominantly from mythological sources. In fact, the game appears in three of the Welsh epics known as the Mabinogion: The Dream of Magnus Maximus, Peredur son of Efrawg and the Dream of Rhonabwy.

In terms of popular belief, gwyddbwyll is played on a 7×7 board and this relates to the Ballinderry game board found in 1932 during the excavation of a “crannog”, or lake dwelling at Ballinderry, West Meath, Ireland. It appears that the game was played with one king and four princes (or defenders) against eight opponents (or raiders).

The king is placed in the center of the board, flanked by four princes. The object of the game is to move the king to the safety of one of the corners. Eight attackers are evenly spaced along the edges of the board. The king wins by moving from the central space to one of the corners of the board and only the king can enter the central space at any time. The king loses if the attackers surround him or if all the princes are lost. The capture of the princes or attackers is achieved by blocking the opponent’s piece between two of your own. However, a piece can move between two opposing pieces without being captured. Each piece can only move one orthogonal space at a time (that is, only forward or backward). If it is not occupied by the king, the central square counts as an additional “man”, that is, any piece (except the king) sandwiched between it and another piece is captured. The king can also be captured on the edge of the board with only three opposing pieces. Which means that if the attackers are reduced to just two men, the king’s side has won by default.

In contrast, Tallfwrdd (literally pegboard [though the name can also be derived from tafl ‘to throw’, referring to the die with which the board is played]) is known from historical sources. It is described in the Cyfrraith Hywel Dda (The Laws of Hywel Dda) which specifies the value of a Towlbwrdd to be provided to various members of a king’s court (and which they cannot sell or give away), as well as the Towlbwrdd value of the King; the last one “is worth six pence, and that is divided like this: sixty pence for the white forces, and … thirty pence for the king, and … three pence and three pence for each man.” This would seem to imply that the game was played with one king and eight ‘princes’ or ‘defenders’ against sixteen ‘attackers’.

More details are given in Robert ap Ifan’s 1587 manuscript in Elizabethan Wales, which provides us with a sketch of a ‘towlbwrdd’ board as an 11×11 square. and a description of the setup and the game which is unfortunately inconsistent with the above information in the sense that it places a king and twelve men against twenty-four men (although at least it is consistent in balancing the king against half the men opponents). ) The setup requires the king to be placed in the center of the board with his own men in the squares closest to him and the opponents in the middle of each side, an ambiguous description at best.

This current interpretation is an 11×11 board with a central king surrounded by twelve princes or defenders. Each side of the board starts with six blue attackers, giving 24 in total. The central square is important since it can only be occupied by the king, although other pieces can cross it, as long as it is unoccupied. The game takes place in alternate turns, and although the existing documentation does not describe who should move first, it would seem natural for the attacker to do this (the king defends himself from an attack after all). The king also has an inherent advantage in the game and giving the attacker the first move helps reduce this.

All the pieces move orthogonally (that is, forward or backward like the rook in chess). They can move any number of squares but cannot jump on another piece and the square to which they moved must also be empty.

Any man (other than the king) can be captured sandwiched between two opponents (that is, when two of the opponent’s men occupy adjacent squares in a straight line with him). Some variants of the game allow pieces to move in squares between opposing men without being captured, but others do not. It is also unclear whether the king can participate in the captures; although the game is more even if this form of capture is not allowed. Furthermore, since no other piece apart from the king can occupy the center square, it may be possible to use it as an additional man and the pieces can be captured by placing them in a sandwich.

The king’s side wins if the king reaches any advantage and the king also wins by default if the attackers have three or fewer men. The attackers can only win by capturing the king; surrounding him on all four sides by his men. However, a variant based on gwyddbwyll would allow the attackers to win if all the princes (defenders of the king) had been eliminated from the board.

There should be enough information here for you to be able to recreate the games, but if you need more information and images, use the links below: