⟵ Ninth Night Academy

Uig Bay · Isle of Lewis · carved c. 1150–1200

The Lewis Chessmen

Norse chess, played with the walrus-ivory warriors of the Hebrides

White to move

Fallen — Black’s losses

Fallen — White’s losses

The saga (moves)

No moves yet.

Opponent

You play

Skill of the foe

Modelled on the Lewis Chessmen — some 93 pieces found in a sandbank on the Isle of Lewis in 1831, likely carved from walrus ivory and whale teeth in Trondheim, Norway. Note the bishops with their mitres, the queens resting a cheek on one hand, and the berserker rooks gnawing the rims of their shields. One army here is rendered in pale ivory, the other in the deep tone of pieces once thought to have been stained red.

Raise your warrior