Kubb (pronounced koob) is a popular Swedish game first played many centuries ago by the Scandinavians. It is thought that the original players of  kubb were the Vikings. Legend has it that they used bones to play, but when civilization demanded a more humane approach they began using wooden blocks, hence the name kubb. The game turned into a form of dispute resolution and as the years wore on it became more and more recreational. While the game is no longer played with the bones of dead enemies, kubb still retains its challenging and strategic nature. Kubb is like horseshoes, bocce ball and chess all wrapped into one game.

The word kubb literally means wooden block. And so it is, kubb traditionally is played entirely with wooden pieces. Four wooden pegs mark the field and a larger wooden "king" piece is placed in the middle of the field. Depending on skill the size of the field can be increased or decreased. Next, each team has 5 wooden blocks that the other team tries to knock over by tossing six wooden throwing sticks. The game goes back and forth until one team knocks down all the other team's kubbs and then the kingpin.

On the island of Gotland, off the coast of Sweden, there are a multitude of people that can be found playing kubb at any given time. In fact the kubb world championships are held there each year for anyone brave enough to take on some of Sweden's best. There are millions of people all over the world that enjoy kubbing and rightly so. Kubb can be played on grass, snow, dirt, or for the daring, even on ice. Kubb's popularity is spreading worldwide and anyone who tries tossing a stick soon understands why it's so addicting. 

Kubbing is a way of life. It's for young and old alike. Over the generations there have undoubtedly been many ways to play kubb. House rules can be as different as the players who kubb. But here we've assembled some of the basics needed to you get started playing kubb as soon as possible.

If you don't already have kubb get a kubb game set now!

Kubb Rules & Field Setup

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