Viking Skak
Dansk udgave

About This Page

These pages are mostly about Scandinavian chess, Scandinavian players, games and events. However also chess from the rest of the world could be a subject for this page, as long as it is in the Viking spirit!

The purpose of this page is mainly to publish some games I have commented. I comment the games in the hope it will increase my understanding of chess. Publishing the games, I am forced to do the commenting properly! I also hope you enjoy the games and send me some comments pointing out mistakes in my analyses!

I also hope these pages will be entertaining for the readers, and are open for suggestions to improvement.

The name of these pages was difficult to find. First I thought of The Chess Corner or The Knight or something like that, but those names or similar names was already in use by others. Calling the page The Karsten Fyhn Chess page was simply to boring, but finally I got the idea to call it Viking Chess. Having found the name the subject of these pages almost presented it self. Writing about Viking chess players, and presenting their games.

Viking chess players I understand as players from the Nordic Countries; Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, The Faroe Islands and Finland. (even though the Finns strictly speaking not are Viking descendants. The Vikings travelled far. There were Viking settlements in England, Ireland, France (Normandy), Sicily, Greenland and even Newfoundland! And the Vikings travelled on the rivers of eastern Europe all the way down to Constantinople, where they served as bodyguards for the emperor. Further the Vikings even founded Russia! So Viking Chess really do not have any geographical limitations.

It is also known that the Vikings actually played chess. Legends tell about chess games with high stakes! Where the stakes depended on not only who won, but also how he won! To be mated by a knight with the king still on e1/e8 should have been the most humiliating (= expensive) way to lose. Also the Viking Goods played chess. The chief good Odin plays against his adviser Mimer. Mimer was a very wise Good, who got killed. The Goods however didn't want to loose his advise, so they saved his head, and made his head living again, so he was a head with no body! But an excellent chess player.

However I confess I might mostly write about Danish chess (because I am a Dane, and have more access for material about Danish chess) but if you, the reader, want to contribute to these pages with commented games or some Viking tales, you are very welcome to do so.

Enjoy!

Karsten Fyhn