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Comments by Michael Ireland

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Viking Chess Set. Game board and pieces in search of rules. (Cells: 37) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
📝Michael Ireland wrote on Sat, Nov 28, 2020 06:04 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
New information on this thread: Another copy of this chess set has been found in an online posting on Board Game Geek!  Follow this link and scroll down to see the photo and comments: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/276021/item/7825120#item7825120

Sadly this set is also missing the rules!  But I am attaching my most recent ruminations on what the rules were when I played the game in my youth :-)

Viking Chess Rules as best as they can be remembered – November 28, 2020

The goal of the game is to checkmate your opponent's king as in regular chess. 

Board: The board is made up of "rings" linking "crosses" (the spaces).  There is a centre space, the “star”, in the middle. 

Pieces: There is a king, 2 rooks (flat tops), 2 bishops (spikes) and 4 pawns per side.

All pieces start off the board.  

On their first turn (white goes first) each player places their king anywhere on the board on any space except the centre space (I believe that no piece could start on the centre star because it gives too much of an advantage to start there - but I am not 100% certain of the rule). 
In the second and subsequent turns, each player can either move an existing piece on the board or bring another piece onto the board as per turn 1.  

Different pieces move differently as follows:
-	Pawn moves one space in any direction 
-	Rook moves up to 3 spaces up or down, or one space to the side
-	Bishop moves up to 3 spaces around one of the rings, or one space up or down. 
-	King can move up to 3 spaces in any direction up or down

Once placed on the board a piece can enter the centre space or through it.

A player takes an opponent's piece by moving a piece into their opponent's piece's space.  Once a piece is removed from the board it cannot return.  I do not believe there is a rule to promote a pawn to a Bishop or Rook.

The King is the strongest piece on the board combining both the Rook's move (3 up or down) and the Bishop's move (3 around a ring in either direction). 

If the King is taken/mated the game is over.

📝Michael Ireland wrote on Sun, Nov 29, 2020 03:15 PM UTC in reply to Jean-Louis Cazaux from Sat Nov 28 06:44 PM:Good ★★★★

Thank you for pointing that out. I have now reviewed Pritchard's encyclopedia myself and agree there is a resemblance to Jabberwocky chess, but with fewer circles and no Queen (the King becoming the most powerful moving piece). I think we are getting closer to the origin story here of this board.

Arne Basse, from what I understand was a furniture designer, not known for chess boards. But he or whoever came up with this game could have been influenced by Parton. The timing would have been right as the board was produced in 1966. I wish there was a way to find out more about whether there is an archive of his designs somewhere, presumably in Denmark.


📝Michael Ireland wrote on Sun, Apr 24, 2022 10:45 PM UTC in reply to Pim Hovenga from Sun Feb 7 2021 10:09 AM:

Nice!


📝Michael Ireland wrote on Fri, Jan 20, 2023 05:27 PM UTC:

Update to the Rules I posted in 2020 after receiving more feedback on the Internet about this game. Almost complete except for the question of promotion. The game, I am informed, is called The Windrose Game (Danish Viking Chess).

The goal of the game is to checkmate your opponent's king as in regular chess.

Board: The board is made up of "rings" linking "crosses" (the spaces).

There is a centre space, the “star”, in the middle.

Pieces: There is a king, 2 rooks (flat tops), 2 bishops (spikes) and 4 thralls per side.

All pieces start off the board.

On their first turn (white goes first) each player places their king on the edge of the board.

In the second and subsequent turns, each player can EITHER bring a piece onto the board edge OR move an existing piece on the board.

The different pieces move as follows:

  • Thrall moves one space in any direction
  • Rook moves up to 3 spaces up or down, or one space to the side
  • Bishop moves up to 3 spaces around one of the rings, or one space up or down.
  • King moves up to 3 spaces in any direction up or down Once placed on the board a piece can enter the centre space or move through it.

A player takes an opponent's piece by moving a piece into their opponent's piece's space. Once a piece is removed from the board it cannot return.

When a King is mated the game is over.

Note: One commenter thought that a Thrall could be promoted to a Rook or Bishop if it reached the centre star space but this cannot be confirmed. This could be played as an optional rule.

The game was available for sale in Copenhagen (where my parents bought it) and also at Modern Designs in Ithaca NY (no longer in business?).


📝Michael Ireland wrote on Thu, Apr 4 06:10 PM UTC in reply to Jean-Louis Cazaux from Fri Jan 20 2023 06:40 PM:

Would love to update the page but I am unable. The original account I setup in the early 2000s is locked and I can't get back in. I have the UserID but the password is no good. When I try to change the password I get the following error: "Cannot continue, because no row in the Person table could be identified."

At some point, someone scrubbed the original account locking it down.

I had to create a new account just to leave the latest comments.


@ Michael Ireland[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Michael Ireland wrote on Mon, Jun 10 12:32 PM UTC:

I have posted the Windrose Game on my page. It needs to be reviewed for public posting by an Editor. Thank you


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