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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.