Wikinger-Schach Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setup
  • The Playing Field
  • Basic Rules
  • Sequence of Play
  • Start of Play (20 minutes of playing time run)
• End of the Game
• Tie-Break After the Group Stage

Setup

The Playing Field

The playing field is 5 m wide and 7.50 m long and is bounded by the 4 corner sticks. The kubbs (pawns) are set up at equal distances along the baseline between the corner sticks. The king is set up in the middle of the center line. Each team has one half of the playing field and stands behind its baseline with its own kubbs (pawns).

Basic Rules

1. A game (except the final) is limited to 20 minutes.
2. The team whose turn it is receives the 6 throwing sticks and throws them all one after another.
3. Throwing may only begin once the referee has released the round. A round is released only when no teammate is any longer in the playing field.
4. Each player receives one throwing stick. Throws are made in any order.
5. The throwing sticks are held at the end and thrown straight from below (no "helicopter throw", i.e. no horizontal rotation).
6. Throws are made from the baseline. Exception: if a kubb is standing in one's own field, one may advance to the height of that kubb (front line).
7. Feet must not cross over. The tip of the foot must stay behind the frontmost pawn in one's own playing field. If a player crosses over, the throw is invalid and may not be repeated. Pawns that have fallen over are set up again.
8. The goal is to knock over all kubbs in the opponent's playing field. All field kubbs in the opponent's field must be knocked over first before the baseline kubbs may be targeted.
9. A kubb that is hit and then lies against a throwing stick or another hit kubb counts as knocked over.
10. Hit (and knocked-over) kubbs are picked up by the team in whose field they lie and are thrown from the baseline or front line into the opponent's field. Where they come to rest, the opposing team then stands them upright on their end faces. They may not be lifted off the ground while doing so.
11. If kubbs do not come to rest in the opponent's field when being thrown back, the throw must be repeated once, after all kubbs have been thrown. If the kubb still does not lie in the opponent's field after that, the opposing team may place the kubb freely in its own field. The kubb need only stand one throwing-stick length from the king.
12. Kubbs may only be set up after all knocked-over kubbs have been thrown into the opponent's field.
13. If a kubb comes to rest on the line, it must be tipped into the field. The kubb may no longer be standing on the line.
14. If other kubbs are knocked over or moved while kubbs are being thrown back, the referee must immediately set them up again at the position where they stood.

Sequence of Play

Both teams enter the playing field and meet at the center line to greet each other. One player from each team throws a throwing stick from the baseline as close as possible to the king, without hitting it. The team listed on the left side of the game schedule starts. The player who is closer gains the right to throw. If the king is hit, the other team automatically gains the right to throw and begins the game.

Start of Play (20 minutes of playing time run)

Team A begins and throws all of its throwing sticks one after another at the baseline kubbs of Team B.

End of the Game

A team loses if it knocks over the king before it has knocked over all kubbs in the opposing team's playing field. The game ends immediately; the opposing team wins and receives two points.

If, after the playing time (20 minutes) has run out and the current turn has been completed, the baselines of each team show:

• an equal number of kubbs, the game ends in a draw. No team receives a point.
• a different number of kubbs on the baseline, the team with the larger number of kubbs on its baseline wins and receives one point.

A team also wins if, within a single turn, it knocks over all kubbs in the other team's field and afterwards the king (thrown from its own baseline). It receives two points for this.

Tie-Break After the Group Stage

If teams are level on points after the group stage, the head-to-head result of the two teams decides.

If this comparison also ends in a draw, or if 3 teams are level on points after the group stage, a playoff (Stechen) is thrown over 6 baseline pawns. All teams throw one after another. Each team provides 2 players who, within one minute, throw from the baseline at the 6 pawns on the opposite side. The team that knocks over the most pawns advances to the next round.