Overview
There is no score inside a game. A game is won or it is not, and a match is a short run of them — which is exactly why the sheet is a row per game rather than a column of points. What it keeps is how the afternoon is going.
Setup
Mark a pitch eight metres long and five wide. Stand the king in the middle. Each team stands five kubbs along their own baseline, evenly spaced. The six batons start in the middle beside the king.
Decide who throws first by tossing a baton nearest the king — closest without touching it goes first.
How to play
A turn is six batons, thrown underhand and end over end, from behind your own baseline. You are aiming at the other team's kubbs.
Every kubb you fell is picked up by the other team at the start of their turn and thrown back into your half, where it stands wherever it lands. Those are field kubbs, and they change the game completely: from then on you must fell every field kubb before you are allowed to aim at the baseline again. Hit a baseline kubb while a field kubb is still standing and the throw does not count.
Once your field kubbs are clear, the other team may throw from level with their nearest field kubb rather than from their baseline — much closer, and much more dangerous.
Fell every one of the opponent's kubbs, field and baseline both, and you may then throw at the king. Knock the king down and the game is yours. Knock the king down at any earlier moment and you have lost it.
Scoring
A game produces a result, not a number.
- The team that fells the king last: 1.
- The other team: 0.
- A team that fells the king early: 0, and the opponent takes the 1 immediately.
- Under a time limit, when nobody has reached the king: the team with fewer standing kubbs takes the 1.
The sheet takes one row per game. Nothing here is ever negative and no game is worth more than a single point.
Ending the game
The match goes to the first team to reach the target number of games. Two — best of three — is the tournament standard and what most gardens settle on once somebody suggests a rematch.
Set the target to one and a game is the whole match.
Common variations
Pitch size is the setting people actually change. Eight metres is a real throw; five turns it into something a seven-year-old can win, which is often the point.
The advantage line is the rule most casual games forget, and leaving it off makes a bad throwback far less punishing. Tournaments keep it precisely because it should hurt.
Helicopter throws — spinning the baton sideways — clear a line of kubbs far too easily. Almost every organised game bans them, and most gardens do too once somebody tries it.
Scoring at a glance
| Who wins | First to target |
|---|---|
| Played to | 2 points by default |
| Score sheet | Counting up to or down from a limit |
| Typical round score | 0 – 1 |
| Negative scores | Never — scores only go up |
| Worth knowing | One game is one row. The team that fells the king enters 1 and the other enters 0 — there is no running point score inside a game, only the result of it. |
Kubb — score sheet
Worked example
Settings: Games to win2, Batons per turn6, Felling the king earlyInstant loss. Teams: Blue and Yellow.
| Game | What happened | Blue | Yellow |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blue cleared the field and took the king | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | Yellow felled the king with two kubbs still standing — an early king, so the game goes to Blue | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | Yellow cleared the field and took the king properly | 0 | 1 |
Running totals:
| After | Blue | Yellow |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 3 | 2 | 1 |
Blue reach two games at the end of game 2 and the match is already decided; game 3 is shown only to prove that a row entered afterwards does not unseat the result.
Expected standings: Blue 2, rank 1 — winners; Yellow 1, rank 2. the game is over.
House rules and settings
Every table plays Kubb a little differently. These are the 8 rules groups argue about. Each one is a setting in the app — and changing it recalculates a match that is already in progress, which is the thing no other score keeper does.
Games to win: what is the default in Kubb?
How many games a team must win to take the match. Two is best of three, which is what most tournaments play; one is a single game.
Default: 2. Adjustable from 1 to 3 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Games to win”.
Batons per turn: what is the default in Kubb?
How many throws a team gets each turn. Six is standard. Fewer makes the game longer and much more forgiving of a bad turn.
Default: 6. Adjustable from 4 to 6 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Batons per turn”.
Pitch length in metres: what is the default in Kubb?
Distance between the two baselines. Eight metres is the tournament pitch; a shorter one suits children and a garden that will not take a full one.
Default: 8. Adjustable from 5 to 10 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Pitch length in metres”.
Felling the king early: what are the options in Kubb?
What happens when a team knocks the king over before clearing every one of the opponent's kubbs. Losing on the spot is the real rule and the reason the king is frightening.
Default: Instant loss. Two options:
In the app: “Felling the king early”.
Badly thrown field kubbs: what are the options in Kubb?
What happens when a felled kubb thrown back into the other half lands outside the field. Two attempts and then the opponent may stand it anywhere is the tournament rule.
Default: Two throws, then opponent places. Three options:
In the app: “Badly thrown field kubbs”.
Advantage line: on or off in Kubb?
Lets a team throw from level with their nearest field kubb rather than from the baseline, which is what makes an unlucky throwback genuinely costly.
Default: on.
In the app: “Advantage line”.
Helicopter throws allowed: on or off in Kubb?
Whether a baton may be spun sideways rather than end over end. Banned everywhere serious because it is far too accurate against a line of kubbs.
Default: off.
In the app: “Helicopter throws allowed”.
Time limit in minutes: what is the default in Kubb?
A cap on a single game, for tournaments that have to finish. Zero means no limit, which is the garden default.
Default: 0. Adjustable from 0 to 60 in steps of 5.
In the app: “Time limit in minutes”.
Variants of Kubb
One game
No match at all — the first team to fell the king wins and everybody goes and sits down.
Doubles
Two against two, which is the most common garden format and the one the standard six batons is balanced for.
Speed kubb
A time limit on the whole game, with the team holding fewer standing kubbs declared the winner when it runs out.
Kubb is also known as
Viking Chess, Kubben, Kubbspel, Gotland Kubb, Swedish Chess. These are the same game — the rules and the score sheet above apply to all of them.
Keep score offline
The sheet above works in your browser. Cardzo for iPhone remembers your players, survives a closed tab, and works in a field with no signal.
Coming to the App Store.