Fidchell
[1] Based on the descriptions in Irish and Welsh literature as well as archaeological finds of game pieces, it is likely to have been a variant of ludus latrunculorum played in Ireland and Britain.
[2][3] The name of the game in multiple Celtic languages -- Old Irish fidchell, Middle Welsh gỽydbỽyỻ, Breton guidpoill~gwezboell, Cornish gwydhbol -- is a compound translating to "wood-wisdom", "wood-intelligence", or "wood-sense".
[citation needed] Fidchell or gwyddbwyll 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.
[5] The method of custodial capture with two men around one enemy on the same line is also explained in the Middle Irish tale of Mac da Cherda and Cummaine Foda, where a cleric plays fidchell all day, refusing to take his opponent's pieces or allow his own to be taken:"Maith", or Guaire, "imrem fithchill."
"Ni anse, dias dub dam-sa im óinfer find duid-seo forsin n-óintí oc imchosnam na saigti thall."
[2][6]Unlike latrunculi with its usual pebble-shaped counters, however, conical pieces may also have been innovated among the Insular Celts, as stone cones for gaming have been found in sites at Shetland, Scotland and Knowth, Ireland.
[4] This is also suggested by Irish legends such as the Echtra Nerai where fidchell pieces become lodged in a skull during a fight:Doneco Fergus seco la soduin ocus bentoi sethnu a chinn do Briccriu cona durn co lotur na cuicfir fichilli batar hind-dum Ferguso hi cenn m-Briccriunn, co m-bo buan d'olcc do.
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.
[1] According to H. J. R. Murray's A History of Chess, the ultimate fate of Fidchell is shown a margin note upon one 15th-century manuscript about the Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh between the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomorians in Irish mythology.
While it is no longer possible to know whether it was introduced into Gaelic Ireland by the Hiberno-Norse or the Normans, by the 15th-century "Fidchell" had come to mean Chess in the Irish language and the original rules of the game had been completely forgotten.
[citation needed] There is clear archaeological and textual evidence that a tafl variant was played in Ireland in ancient times; however, this is more likely to have been the game of brandub, which had a king piece.
