Dablo
Daares
&
Dablo Aasele
boardgames from Lapland
implemented
March 2010
by Mats Winther
See also my homepage.
Rules
Dablo Daares derives from southern Lapland. Goal is either to capture
the enemy king or reduce his forces so that only the king remains. All pieces
move by single steps and can capture, by the short leap, in all directions. The
soldier can only step in the three forward directions. Promotion does not occur.
For the soldier, capture is mandatory. For the king, capture is optional. The
king can only be captured by the enemy king.
A piece moves to an
empty adjacent point. If an adjacent point is occupied by an enemy piece, of
the same rank or lower, and the point directly behind is vacant, then one may
jump over it and capture it, as in checkers. Several pieces may be captured
like this in a single turn.
Discussion
As capture is
mandatory for the soldier, it is sometimes possible to sacrifice one or more
soldiers to enemy soldiers, thus to create a situation where the enemy king can
be captured. However, it is necessary to hunt enemy soldiers with the king,
although this exposes the king to combinations. A shortage of soldiers can lead
to a lost game as it allows the opponent to continue exchanging soldiers until
he wins according to the lone (bare) king rule. This game is strategically and
tactically very interesting, and takes appropriately long time, too.
Example of simple combination. Here black can win
by moving the king to the left. This forces red to capture the soldier, which
leaves the king en prise.
Another typical combination. Black moves the
soldier to nw, forcing the red soldier to capture. Thus, black can capture the
enemy king in two consecutive jumps.
Dablo Daares (Dåres
dablo/tablo/tavelbräde/kloter) is mentioned in connection with the village
Daares (Dåres) in Vilhelmina, Lapland, in northern Sweden (Pettersson,
1999, p.402f). This implementation builds on a reconstruction by
An interesting fact is that the board has the same type
of pattern as the African game
Kharbaga,
and the capture rules are reminiscent of the Italian checkers variant
Damone.
The notion of forward moving soldiers that do not promote, but can capture in
all directions, is known from
Ossetian
checkers. If the soldiers were able to go in all directions, then there is
a lot of movement back and forth which would create monotony. Pettersson says
that in certain parts of Lapland has the rule of forward movement only
been introduced, at least for the soldiers. This is also borne out by
The
'absolute king' rule is reminiscent of Italian Damone variants, where capture of
the Damones is sufficient for a win. This rule is corroborated by a note to
Dablot Prejjesne from 1892 by Wiklund ("Den som först förlorat
alla sina brickor, har tappat. Efter öfverenskommelse kan äfven den
tappa, hvars kung blifvit öfverhoppat och slagen af den andres kung;
vanliga brickor kunna då ej slå kungarna"). There also seem
to have existed smaller dablo variants where king capture was sufficient for a
win. The suggested 'lone king' rule exists also in
Shatranj.
The soldier's mandatory capture remains a point of contention.
The
below source says two rows of pieces on each side, but the dablo type of game
functions finely with any number of pieces (or any size of board). Several
variants have been implemented.
Dablo Aasele
Sigrid Drake (1918, p.291) relates a variant from Aasele (Åsele), Swedish Lapland. It includes 18 pieces plus king on each side, on a 41 square board. It is also implemented, as Dablo Aasele.
References
Drake, S. (1918). Västerbottenslapparna under förra hälften
av 1800-talet. Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell.
Keyland, N. (1921). 'Dablot prejjesne och Dablot duoljesne'.
Etnologiska Studier. Göteborg.
Pettersson, O.P. (1999).
Nybyggares dagliga leverne. Umeå: DAUM.
Pirak, A. (1937).
En nomad och hans liv. Stockholm: Nord.
Wiklund, K.B. (1892).
Note: catalogue nr. 71978. Nordiska Museet (Stockholm, Sweden).
© M. Winther 2010
To play you must have installed "Zillions of
Games". Either double-click on DabloDaares.zrf or
1. Run "Zillions of Games"
2. Choose "Open Game Rules..." from the File menu
3. Select "DabloDaares.zrf" in the Open dialog and click "Open"
DabloDaares.zrf is a rules file used by the Windows program "Zillions
of Games". Zillions of Games allows you to play any number of games
against the computer or over the Internet. Zillions of Games can be purchased
online. For more information please visit the Zillions of Games website
www.zillions-of-games.com