Fidchell

Fidchell

Layout for a Tafl game, possibly related to Fidchell
Players	2
Age range	Recommended 4 years and up.
Setup time	30–60 seconds
Random chance	None

Fidchell (in Irish; also spelled fidhcheall, fidceall, fitchneal or fithchill, and pronounced [ˈfɪðʲçɛlː] in Old Irish) or gwyddbwyll (in Welsh) was an ancient Celtic board game. The name in both Irish and Welsh is a compound translating to "wood sense"; the fact that the compound is identical in both languages demonstrates that the name is of extreme antiquity. The game is occasionally claimed to be a predecessor of the modern game chess. The game was played between two people who moved pieces across a board; the board shared its name with the game played upon it. The name has evolved into ficheall, the Irish word for chess; the similar gwyddbwyll is the name for chess in modern Welsh.

Fidchell is mentioned often in ancient Celtic legends and lore, but the exact form of the game is open to speculation, due to lack of detail on the rules, playing pieces, and the board. What is clear is that it was played on a board, with opposing sets of pieces in equal numbers. It should not be confused with games like tawlbwrdd or tafl (also called hnefatafl), which involved a king in the centre and pieces in a 2:1 ratio.

One text reads, "'Leth a fóirni d'ór buidi, in leth aili d'findruine,' 'Half its pieces were of yellow gold, the other half of white bronze", suggesting that fidchell was played by equal forces. The Roman board game ludus latrunculorum ("game of little soldiers") was also played with pieces of equal numbers; latrunculi is known from post-Roman Britain, and it is possible that fidchell was a descendent of latrunculi.

The legends describe fidchell as a game played by royalty, and by the gods. In legend, it was invented by Lugh, god of light and inspiration, and was played skilfully by his son, the hero Cú Chulainn. A series of fidchell games forms an important episode in .

Lavish, sometimes mystical gwyddbwyll boards appear often in medieval Welsh literature. In The Dream of Rhonabwy, a prose tale associated with the Mabinogion, King Arthur and Owain mab Urien play the game with golden men on a silver board. In another prose tale, The Dream of Macsen Wledig, the character Eudaf Hen is carving men for his golden board when he is visited by the emperor Magnus Maximus. The board of Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio is named as one of the Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain in lists dating from the 15th and 16th centuries; according to the lists the board is gold and the men silver, and the pieces play against each other automatically. A magic gwyddbwyll comparable to Gwenddoleu's appears in the Arthurian romance Peredur son of Efrawg; a number of French versions of the Holy Grail story feature similar chessboards with self-moving pieces, following the Second Continuation of Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail, though in these only one side moves, while the hero plays the other.