YardGames.com
A partial Kubb set
Kubb, so I’m told, is the yard game equivalent of chess
… that is, if chess were played by chess masters sometimes clad in Viking garb and often on fields of ice or snow in temperatures dipping, well, pretty darned cold.
Yes, they are both contests of strategy, but Kubb also has elements not often linked to chess – community and camaraderie.
“Hitting a block of wood with a stick should be so easy, but there’s much more strategy involved with the game,” says Lake Superior Kubb Co-Chairman Shane Linge of Duluth. “Corn hole is like checkers and playing Kubb is like chess … and that’s where it’s addictive.”
Shane got addicted to Kubb (rhymes with “tube”) through his brothers, who also make up most of the local Kubb club with their wives. It’s a round-about story a bit like a back-and-forth round of Kubb.
CHERYL CARLSON PHOTOGRAPHY
The Lake Superior Kubb crew plays on ice in Superior, but also on grass and indoors on sand.
“My brother Erik, he had gone to the Renaissance Festival, and they had a Viking encampment,” Shane says. Erik saw them playing a game with sticks and bricks – or rather throwing batons (kastpinnar) and wooden blocks (vedkubbar). The game derives its name from the latter.
At Christmas in the Linge family, “secret Santas” must make their gifts, adds Shane, so “Erik ended up making a Kubb set for my other brother.”
Once you have those blocks and batons, of course, you have do something with them. “We played it one night and got hooked.” They also began to discover the game’s ties to the region and its Scandinavian cultural ties.
“Kubb comes from Gotland, Sweden – they hold the world championship there,” says Shane.
Gotland is Sweden’s largest island. Legend has it that the Vikings originated this game, perhaps using skulls and femurs rather than batons and blocks, Shane says with modestly gruesome glee. The game can be played on grass, sand, snow, ice … anywhere the blocks will stand.
We do know that the first Kubb World Championship was held in Rone, Gotland, in 1995. The first U.S. National Kubb Championship was held in 2007 with 15 teams and 35 players, not too far from the extend Lake Superior neighborhood. According to USAKubb.org, it is the largest kubb tournament outside of Europe.
“Eau Claire, Wisconsin, is the Kubb Capital of the United States,” says Shane. “The U.S. Kubb is there. My wife Jenny and I, drive down to Eau Claire every week. … We kind of went hog wild with it. It’s a lot of fun.”
COURTESY LAKE SUPERIOR KUBB
The Lake Superior Kubb crew plays on ice in Superior, but also on grass and indoors on sand.
au Claire’s Kubb claims reach beyond the United States. The city council there declared the city “Kubb Capital of North America” on December 13, 2011.
The goal of Kubb is straightforward … knock down your opponents’ king with your batons. But before the king can be clobbered, or perhaps we can say “kubbered,” all of the opponents’ wooden blocks must be knocked down. If one team runs out of batons before the king gets knocked, those toppled blocks can be added to the opponents’ field and must also be knocked down along with their own blocks before their king is vulnerable. And it gets more complicated … and more strategic … from there.
“We are super competitive,” admits Shane. The team has its sights set on a future trip to Sweden for a championship. “It’s on our bucket list, if we can hit the gold bracket here.”
Not so far fetched a dream. In September 2022, Gregg Jochimsen, a social studies teacher from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, became the first American to win the Kubb World Championship in Gotland. He had been playing for a decade as a five-time U.S. national tourney champion, and in Gotland won both the team and individual titles. “He landed in the Sports Illustrated magazine,” Shane enthused about coverage of Jochimsen’s win. “It’s exciting for us.”
The other mission for Shane and the team is to spark more Kubb enthusiasts. “Lake Superior Kubb is trying to spread it in the Northland. We haven’t grown super big, but we have a handful of people that continue to keep coming, The question is how to create a league. It’s growing steadily, just not as fast as we hoped.”
To speed the spread, the group invites would-be participants to its almost daily summer practice sessions, posted on its Facebook page. The team sets up to teach Kubb at the CHUM Rhubarb Festival in June in Duluth and welcomes all ages and physical abilities. And any time of year, you can contact the Kubb club for a little training. “We would have you understanding the game after a couple of rounds,” promises Shane, “but then there’s a lot of strategy.”
COURTESY LAKE SUPERIOR KUBB
If you can judge a game’s popularity by the folks you hang out with and whether someone has a tattoo, then Kubb has arrived. The tats from two different Kubb players above proves one. This selfie at the U.S. Kubb Championship of Lake Superior Kubb members proves the other. From left, Jeremy Linge, Jenny Linge, Jade Linge, Shane Linge, Erik Linge and Stephanie Linge.
With everyone wanting the game to thrive and spread, says Shane, you might even get help from the opposition, even at tournaments. “Your competitive opponent will try to teach you tricks and tips.”
Players as young as 6 or older than 90 can join the game. “It’s super family oriented – you get types of people from all different spectrums,” Shane says.
A great time to watch a local Kubb tournament is during the annual Lake Superior Ice Festival in Superior (January 27-28, 2023).
But whether on ice or sand or grass, Kubb’s main lure comes down to the fun of its social interaction, says Shane. “Hang out with your friends, and throw some sticks.”