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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.
Calculation is a solitaire card game played with a standard pack of 52 cards. It is part of the Sir Tommy family of patience games. It has its origin in France, where it is known as La Plus Belle.
Quadrille is the name of two loosely related card games of the Patience or solitaire type which are often confused. Both use a pack of 52 playing cards. The earlier one was also known as La Française or Royal Quadrille, the slightly later one as Captive Queens. The name is derived from the desired outcome of the earlier game in which the four Kings and Queens are arranged in a square formation as in the European dance of quadrille that was fashionable in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Bisley is a patience or card solitaire which uses a deck of 52 playing cards, and while difficult, it often can be completed successfully. It is closely related to Baker's Dozen, but the foundations are built upwards from Ace and downwards from King simultaneously. It is one of the few one-deck games in which the player has options on which foundation a card can be placed.
British Square is a patience or solitaire card game which uses two decks of 52 playing cards each. It is a fan-type game in the style of La Belle Lucie. It has an unusual feature of switchback building whereby each foundation is first built up and then built down.
Mount Olympus is a solitaire card game using two decks of 52 playing cards. It is probably thus named because of the tableau's mountain shape and because if won, all the kings and queens are displayed, like the Greek gods and goddesses who were said to reside on Mount Olympus.
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.
Royal Rendezvous is a solitaire card game which uses two decks of playing cards shuffled together. It is also known as Royal Appointment.
Red and Black is a patience or card solitaire which uses two decks of playing cards. The game is called so because all building is done in alternating colors of red and black. It is not related to another similarly named solitaire game of Rouge et Noir, although Red and Black can also be known under that name. It is a part of the Napoleon at St Helena family of patiences and solitaires.
Capricieuse is an old English patience played using two packs of playing cards. Some authors call it Capricious.
Babette is a solitaire card game that uses two decks of playing cards shuffled together, with game play similar to that of the game Labyrinth.
Precedence is a patience or card solitaire game which uses two packs of playing cards. It is a building game where the playing does not have to worry about a tableau or playing area.
Queen's Audience, sometimes known as King's Audience, is a pictorial patience or solitaire card game which uses a single pack of 52 playing cards. It is so named because the Jacks and their 'entourage' end up adjacent to their respective Queens as if having an audience with them.
Odd and Even is a solitaire card game which is played with two decks of playing cards. It is so called because the building is done in twos, resulting in odd and even numbers.
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.
Fortress is a patience or solitaire card game which is played with a deck of playing cards, in which the entire deck is laid out. It is a member of the Castle family of solitaire games, but has two more tableau piles than Beleaguered Castle and the piles are shorter.
Patriarchs is a patience or card solitaire which is played with two packs of playing cards. It is similar in reserve layout to Odd and Even but with different rules of play.
Contradance is a solitaire card game which is played with two decks of playing cards. It is probably so called because when the game is won, it shows the king and the queen of each suit about to do a dance, the cotillion being a country dance from the 18th century.
Imaginary Thirteen is a solitaire card game which is played with two decks of playing cards. Its gameplay makes it a two-deck version of Calculation and its name is taken from the fact that when a sum is over thirteen, thirteen is subtracted to get the value of the next card, with spot cards worth their face value, jacks eleven, queens twelve, and kings thirteen.
Jubilee is the name given to two solitaire card games, both played with two decks of playing cards. Both games are so-called because they were created during the time of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887. One of the games has an ornate layout, while the other is simpler and it belongs to the family of games which include Sir Tommy, Strategy, and Calculation.
References
- ↑ Sloane Lee & Gabriel Packard, 100 Best Solitaire Games, ISBN 1-58042-115-6
- ↑ Sloane Lee & Gabriel Packard, 100 Best Solitaire Games, ISBN 1-58042-115-6
- ↑ Geoffrey Mott-Smith & Albert Hodges Morehead, The Complete Book of Solitaire and Patience Games
