Son of Monse: I'm wondering if the writer of this article has read our discussion here on Brainking about the Latin rules!
In my opinion a good translation should first look at the text and context. Then, a translation/interpretation should be tested against actual high-quality gameplay.
A rule-set which is unsupported by the text - such as corner Tablut or even citadel Tablut - might be an interesting modern variant but doesn't have much to do with the historical game. On the other hand, if rules based on a translation/interpretation of the text lead to a broken game, it's unlikely the game was actually played that way.
I think the rules we use on Brainking are based on a translation which is problematic but not impossible. After a lot of games, we now see white has an advantage even on the higher levels. However, the game is not (quickly) broken and we can imagine it kept people interested until chess invaded the north.
Now let's look at the interpretation offered by the new translation: 1) The citadel part looks far-fetched and is unsupported by the text; it's based on the outlook of the board which is more naturally explained as just showing the starting point of the black pieces. Introducing the citadels as new game elements pushes this into the direction of a modern variant instead of a reconstruction. I'm inclined to ignore this part of the article.
2) The other part is the capturing of the king, i.e. the king can capture and the king can be captured by 2 when outside (but not next to) the castle. I think this is the more interesting part. Looking at the Latin text only, the interpretation offered in the article is more natural as it doesn't need to come up with the "unarmed king myth" and the "etiam rex" bit doesn't need to be changed or explained away. So, before turning to the gameplay - the ultimate judge - I'd say this is a big plus for the 'new' interpretation. The crucial question is: does this rule-set offer a playable game, interesting enough to be kept alive for centuries? Compared to our rules, it will be a lot easier for black to capture the king, which is only partly compensated by the king being able to take part in captures.
I don't want to jump to conclusions without playing the new rule-set - did anyone tried to play it yet?
Does one side have a big advantage? How does it interact with the "jump-over-the-castle rule"? And what about the infamous perpetual raichi?
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