| A Patience game | |
 A game of Nestor from Professor Hoffmann's Illustrated Book of Patience Games. | |
| Family | Adding and pairing |
|---|---|
| Deck | Single 52-card |
| See also Glossary of solitaire | |
Nestor is a patience or solitaire card game played with a single deck of standard playing cards. [1] The object is the removal of pairs of cards with the same value from a layout of six rows of eight face-up cards and four additional face-up cards. [2]
As described in Louis Hoffmann's book The Illustrated Book of Patience Games (1892), Nestor is played as follows: [3]
Several variations exist. [4] One alternative rule in this game is after the eight columns are dealt, the reserve cards are placed as one overlapping row and the top card is the only one available for play.
In the variant Vertical, seven columns of six cards each are dealt, with a reserve of 10 cards. With fewer buried cards, this increases the odds of winning.
In the variant Doublets, twelve columns of four cards each are dealt, with a reserve of four cards.
Games of patience, or (card) solitaires as they are usually called in North America, have their own 'language' of specialised terms such as "building down", "packing", "foundations", "talon" and "tableau". Once learnt they are helpful in describing, succinctly and accurately, how the games are played. Patience games are usually for a single player, although a small number have been designed for two and, in rare cases, three or even four players. They are games of skill or chance or a combination of the two. There are three classes of patience grouped by object.
Klondike, also known as Canfield, is a card game for one player and the best known and most popular version of the patience or solitaire family, something which "defies explanation" as it has one of the lowest rates of success of any such game. Partly because of that, it has spawned numerous variants including Batsford, Easthaven, King Albert, Thumb and Pouch, Somerset or Usk and Whitehead, as well as the American variants of the games, Agnes and Westcliff. The distinguishing feature of all variants is a triangular layout of the tableau, building in ascending sequence and packing in descending order.
Pyramid is a patience or solitaire game of the Simple Addition family, where the object is to get all the cards from the pyramid to the foundation.
Gargantua is a patience or solitaire card game that is a version of Klondike using two decks. It is also known as Double Klondike and as Jumbo.
Napoleon at St Helena is a 2-deck patience or solitaire card game for one player. It is quite difficult to win, and luck-of-the-draw is a significant factor. The Emperor Napoleon often played patience during his final exile to the island of St Helena, and this is said to be the version he probably played. Along with its variants, it is one of the most popular two-deck patiences or solitaires. The winning chances have been estimated as 1 in 10 games, with success typically dependent on the player's ability to clear one or more columns. The game is the progenitor of a large family of similar games, mostly with variations designed to make it easier to get out.
Agnes is a patience or solitaire card game that emerged in England about the same time as Klondike appeared in the US. The classic version has the unusual feature of packing in colour, a feature it shares with Whitehead. By contrast, the later American variant appears to have been influenced by Klondike with packing is in alternate colours. The classic game has been described as the best single-pack patience yet invented.
Beleaguered Castle is a patience or solitaire card game played with a deck of 52 playing cards. It is sometimes described as "Freecell without cells" because its game play is somewhat akin to the popular solitaire computer game of that name but without extra empty spaces to maneuver. Beleaguered Castle is also called Laying Siege and Sham Battle.
King Albert is a patience or card solitaire using a deck of 52 playing cards of the open packer type. It is a conventional building game, and is said to be named after Albert I of Belgium and is a variant of Somerset. It is the best known of the three games that are each called Idiot's Delight because of the low chance of winning the game.
Royal Cotillion is a solitaire card game which uses two decks of 52 playing cards each. The name probably derives from the fact that since the two kings and two queens of the same suit, the king and queen of each suit dance the cotillion. It has been given the alternate name of Lords and Ladies because if the game is won, the final layout will show the king and queen of each suit together.
Congress is a patience or solitaire card game using two decks of 52 playing cards each. It is a simple but strategic game which requires skill and careful choosing for it to be completed successfully. It is closely related to Forty Thieves but has eight instead of ten columns. It is sometimes called President's Cabinet, and can typically be completed successfully less than once in 20 games.
Crazy Quilt is a patience or solitaire card game using two decks of 52 playing cards each. The game is so-called because the reserve resembles the weaves of a carpet or an arrangement of a quilt, with cards alternating vertical and horizontal rotations.
Tournament is a patience or solitaire card game which uses two decks of playing cards shuffled together. It is a variant of the much older game of Napoleon's Flank or Nivernaise and was first known as Maréchal Saxe.
Diplomat is a patience or solitaire card game which is played using two decks of playing cards shuffled together. Its layout is similar to that of Beleaguered Castle, and the play is similar to Forty Thieves. It can be completed successfully more often than not.
Duchess or Glenwood is a patience or solitaire card game which uses a deck of 52 playing cards. It has all four typical features of a traditional patience or solitaire game: a tableau, a reserve, a stock or talon and a wastepile. It is relatively easy to get out. It is a reserved packer, the same type of game as Canfield or Demon. Arnold describes it as "an interesting game with a fair chance of a favourable outcome."
Westcliff is the name of two closely-related patience or card solitaire games of the simple packer type, both of which are played using a deck of 52 playing cards. One version is particularly easy to win, with odds of 9 in 10; the other is harder with odds closer to 1 in 4. The game has a variant, Easthaven.
Cribbage Squares, occasionally Cribbage Square, is a patience or card solitaire based on Cribbage which can be played using a deck of playing cards. This game works the same way as Poker Squares, but with cribbage scoring.
Amazons is an old patience or card solitaire game which is played with a single deck of playing cards. The game is played with a Piquet pack minus the kings or a standard 52-card pack that has its twos, threes, fours, fives, sixes, and kings removed. This game is named after the female-led tribe, the Amazons, because the queen is the highest card, and all queens are displayed if the game is won.
Zodiac is a solitaire card game which is played with two decks of playing cards shuffled together. An old game, it first appeared in Lady Adelaide Cadogan's book Illustrated Games of Patience. It is so-named probably because of its "globe"-shaped layout. It had many variations until its rules were standardized in 1914.
Algerian or Algerian Patience is a unique and difficult patience or card solitaire using two decks of playing cards. The object of the game is to build 8 foundations down from King to Ace or up from Ace to King in suit.
Travellers is a card game of the patience or card solitaire genre which uses a single card pack of either 52 or 32 playing cards. It is an interesting game based on "an entirely new principle" which Parlett describes as a "rhythmical feature that might be called 'shuttling'", as in the game of Weavers. It should not be confused with the twin-pack patience game, also called Travellers.
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