Thanks for the reply. You've an interesting viewpoint, as you say the approach adopted by either side is quite different, I guess that makes it natural to have a preference.

As multiple game matches are designated a colour I was overestimating the ratio of whites to blacks in your games, in fact there is almost nothing in it, 73 whites and 69 blacks in decisively completed games, and 6 draws, 3 with each colour. Your results are somewhat better with white, 49 white wins to 43 black wins and 24 white losses to 26 black losses. I've compared results by colour for all the players with established ratings and of the eighteen only one has better results with black. Among the higher rated players the difference is slight but for lower rated players white wins are far more common. In the games played between the top five rated players white wins by 16-10 so they appear to balance their ratios by winning with black against lower rated players. As the game is asymmetric in both force and aims it would be strange if there were no bias and it seems easy from these figures to conclude that white has the advantage, however it's also possible to suggest that black is more difficult to play, after all black has more pieces, more possible moves and therefore a greater likelihood of making a mistake. A further point is that of the eighteen players with an established rating ten appear to have a preference for black.

I'm interested that you prefer black but you have played white in the majority of your games and as far as I can tell without any particular bias in your results.

Thanks for the reply. I've just taken a look at two finished games, one white one black, it turns out that the numbering/lettering for the notation is inverse so, I guess the players do get their individual viewpoint(?!).

When we play games 'live' the players sit on opposite sides of the board. Naturally in games such as chess with an oriented board the players each have their own view of the board even in online play but how about tablut? Do both players have the same view of the board? When playing with a physical board I'm sure there's a psychological element in the choice of playing towards the opponent or towards home, or even to the side.

Harley: thanks for the interesting reply. It seems to me that black has no equivalent way to force a draw by repetition(?) and thus it contravenes the spirit of the game for white to have that advantage. As a parallel example, in shogi a draw by voluntary repetition is fine but if one side forces the other to accept the draw by continually checking it is a loss for the checking side. I dont know how much accurate information is available about how tablut type games were played but as they existed for several hundred years I think it's reasonable to assume that they had fully satisfactory rules. I'm not complaining just philosophising.

I think it's probably too easy for white to force a draw by perpetual threat but that's just my impression. How have the results of games so far played worked out in percentages white/black wins/draws? What is the situation if white's pieces are surrounded such that none can move but the blacks are not adjacent to the king on all four sides? Do you class this as a draw? I think in the spirit of the game this should be a black win.

Thanks

There are two points that are not clear from the rules. Firstly does the throne only function as a capturing piece if it is the king being captured or can pieces belonging to either side be captured by one opposing piece if they are positioned next to the throne? Second what happens if white can repeatedly threaten to move the king to the edge and black has only one piece that can block ie a forced repetition somewhat similar to perpetual check, in this case does the white side have to vary in order to avoid forcing the repetition or is the game considered drawn?