What is Edge escape?
With edge escape, the defenders win as soon as the king reaches any square on the edge of the board. The corners lose their special role: they become ordinary squares that any piece may stop on, and they no longer help to capture pieces. Everything else follows the standard game.
The attackers have far more to guard, since every open line from the king to the edge is a threat. They must keep the king boxed in from the first moves, while the defenders try to open two lines at once, because one line can be blocked but two cannot. On the 9×9 board edge escape pairs naturally with the king captured by two, the reading of Linnaeus's tablut that the modern translations give. On the larger boards it is much harder for the attackers to stop the king.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Tablut | Edge escape |
|---|---|---|
| How the defenders win | Standard TablutThe king reaches one of the four corners. | Edge escapeThe king reaches any square on the board edge. |
| Corner squares | Standard TablutOnly the king may stop on them. | Edge escapeOrdinary squares: any piece may stop on them. |
| Hostile squares | Standard TablutThe throne and the four corners can close a capture, like an enemy piece. | Edge escapeOnly the throne can; the corners are ordinary squares. |
| Capturing the king | Standard TablutOn four sides; the board edge and the corners count as sides. | Edge escapeOn four sides, by attackers and the throne. The king wins on reaching the edge, so he is always captured away from it. |
| Boards and other options | Standard TablutEvery board and option in the table setup. | Edge escapeEdge escape works on every board with the standard rules. The Copenhagen rules always use escape to a corner. |
History
Carl Linnaeus recorded tablut in 1732 during his journey through Lapland, in the diary later published as Lachesis Lapponica. When the diary appeared in English in 1811, translated by the botanist James Edward Smith, the Latin passages, including the rules of tablut, had been translated by Carl Troilius, a Swedish merchant in London, and that translation contained errors. Many later rule sets were built on it.
The modern translations of Linnaeus's notes by John C. Ashton (2007), Nicolas Cartier (2011) and Olli Salmi (2013) give rules in which the king wins by reaching any square on the edge of the board. Many modern tafl rule sets, especially for the larger boards, keep escape to the corners instead, because with edge escape the defenders are hard to stop.