Kubb

This article is about Kubb the game. For the band, see Kubb (band).

Kubb is a lawn game where the object is to knock over wooden blocks by throwing wooden sticks at them. The word "Kubb" (rhymes with rube) means "wooden block" in the Gotland dialect of Swedish.

Kubb can be quickly described as a combination of bowling, horseshoes, and chess.

Rules vary from country to country and region to region, but the ultimate object of the game is to knock the king over before your opponent does. This, combined with the fact that there is a surprising level of strategy that can be used by players, has led some players and kubb fans to nickname the game "Viking Chess." However, unlike chess, if a player knocks over the king before achieving their objectives, that player instantly loses the game. But some games have been known to last for hours.

The game can be played on a variety of surfaces such as sand, concrete, grass, or even ice.

Kubb is a good game for supervised children, but in such cases, the 10-metre pitch length specified in some instructions needs to be shortened.

An excellent family game

History

Although it is often claimed that the game dates back to the Viking Age and survived on Gotland, there doesn't appear to be any firm evidence of this, and in fact Föreningen Gutnisk Idrott (The Society of Gotland Games), formed in 1912, does not list Kubb as one of the traditional games from Gotland. There is anecdotal evidence of Kubb being played in various places in Sweden in the early 20th century, but how similar those rules are to the ones used today is unknown.

Interestingly the key feature of the game (opposing teams throwing) is shared by the games Kyykkä and Bunnock, both of which come Karelia or neigbouring areas.

When commercial Kubb sets were first manufactured in the 1990s, the game quickly became very popular. Interestingly, the first commercial sets used pieces of wood locally available from a Swedish factory producing wood for the catering industry, so the king piece was based on a large meat tenderiser that was in production and the sticks were standard 10-inch filo pastry rolling pins. The dimensions and weight of these pieces have remained standard since then, although there is little evidence that this is due to any reason except expediency.

The game has now gained international interest, and a yearly World Championship has been held since 1995 on Gotland.

Game pieces

There are typically twenty-one game pieces used in Kubb:

• Ten Kubbs, rectangular wooden blocks about 15 cm tall and 8 cm square on the end.
• One King, a larger wooden piece around 30 cm tall and 10 cm square on the end, sometimes adorned with a crown design on the top.
• Six Sticks, wooden batons around 30 cm long and anywhere from 3–5 cm in diameter.
• Four Stakes, or other markers, to designate the corners of the pitch.

A typical set

There is considerable variation in the design of these pieces. In some sets, every piece apart from the King has a circular cross-section, whereas in others, every piece has a square cross-section.

In Nordic countries the game is widely available, but elsewhere it is not well known, so most purchases are via the Web.

Setup

File:Kubb350px.JPG

Game Setup

Kubb is typically played on a rectangular pitch approximately 5 m by 8 m. Although there are no official rules as to the size of the field, the dimensions can be altered for younger players or to accommodate faster games. Typically the pitch is grass, but kubb could also be played on sand, snow, or dirt. The pitch should always be level, with no more than a 3 inch drop from one end -- or one side -- to the other.

Stakes are driven into the ground at the corners of the pitch. No other markers are used to demark the field's boundaries, although an amateur league in Somerset uses twine (in Swedish known as "Klumpa ihop sig av tvinnar" -- literally "The cord that cannot lie".) to assist in discussions when fallen kubbs are returned. The narrow ends are called "baselines."

It is worth noting that in serious play, or in games where the players are skilled, or where money is bet, the use of twine or strings should not be encouraged, as the ability to reach common agreement over whether a kubb is "in" or "out" promotes sportsmanship and a sense of fair play, which is a hallmark of this unique game.

The king is placed in the centre of the pitch, halfway between baselines. An imaginary line drawn through the king and parallel to the two baselines divides the field into two halves.

The kubbs are set up across each baseline, five to a side.

Rules

Any number of people may play kubb, but typically matches are one-on-one or two teams of two.

There are two phases for each team's turn:

1. Team A throws the six sticks, from their baseline, at their opponent's lined-up kubbs (called Baseline kubbs). Throws must be under-handed, and the sticks must spin end over end. Throwing sticks sideways or spinning them side-to-side is not allowed.
2. Kubbs that are successfully knocked down are then thrown by Team B onto Team A's half of the pitch, and stood on end. These newly thrown kubbs are called field kubbs.

Play then changes hands, and Team B throws the sticks at Team A's kubbs, but must first knock down any standing field kubbs. (Field kubbs that right themselves due to the momentum of the impact are considered knocked down.) Again, kubbs that are knocked down are thrown back over onto the opposite half of the field and then stood. In New Zealand, knocking down a Baseline kubb before all field kubbs would result in the throwing team forfeiting the rest of their turn.

If either team leaves field kubbs standing, the kubb closest to the king now represents that side's baseline, and throwers may step up to that line to throw at their opponent's kubbs. This rule applies to field and baseline kubbs only; fallen kubbs are thrown from the original baseline, as are attempts to knock over the king.

Play continues in this fashion until a team is able to knock down all kubbs on one side, from both the field and the baseline. If that team still has sticks left to throw, they may make one attempt at knocking over the king (In Somerset, as a sporting gesture, right-handers will attempt this using the left hand, and vice versa). If a thrower successfully topples the king, they have won the game.

However, if at any time during the game the king is knocked down by accident -- even by a newly thrown kubb -- the offending team immediately loses the game.

Victors are typically determined by playing best two out of three. For friendly games between Kubb clubs, and for private games between opponents of widely different standards, the Tjaereborg Handicapping System can be used. If the difference in the current standing between two opponents is between 10% and 20% -- for instance, if Gunther is on 79% and Erika on 63% -- then Gunther gets one fewer stick to throw. And for each additional 10% band difference, a further stick is conceded, down to a minimum of two sticks.

For informal play between players of widely differing abilities, such as an adult and a child it is permissable to shorten the width of the arena on the child's opponent's side, making it easier for the child to hit the kubbs, and it is also permissable to move the king closer to, but not behind, the child's line.

Kubbuteo

For those without gardens, or merely wishing to hone their tactics, Kubbuteo is a fair, though ultimately unsatisfactory, alternative - it's lack of three dimensional play leading to its downfall.

It can be played using pieces from other games, such as jenga and is easy to set up and play.

Travel Kubbuteo, for use in environments such as a coach, train carriage or caravan uses pieces scaled to 1:65 and an arena the size of a tabloid newspaper. Matchsticks are used for flicking, as in this version, the pieces are flciked, like traditional Subbuteo.

External links

• Kubb pictures, community, tournaments, newsletter links & sets
• German Kubb Association - Kubb tournaments, community and links - Kubb Union e.V.
• World championships, held since 1995 on Gotland
• Kubb category at Open Directory Project
• History and Rules of Kubb - kubb.co.uk
• Apparel Celebrating the Ancient Swedish Game of Kubb - www.cafepress.com/iplaykubb
• Swiss Kubb Platform - www.swisskubb.ch
• German Kubb Website including Rules - www.kubb-spiel.de
• Dan Eskildsen's personal photo album including photos of people playing Kubb
• The Tossing Yard & Camping Games Forum - www.Kubbspel.com

See also

• Bunnock, the Canadian equivalent.
• Tournament Of Knights, a similar Swedish game using balls.
• Bowling
• Game of physical skill
• Kubbuteo, a tabletop game involving similar levels of violence and tea-drinking
• Kyykkä, a similar Finnish game