

Perhaps they were older games, renamed for Napoleon by his admirers. Whether Napoleon invented any of the games bearing his name, or even whether or not he played them, no-one really knows. This is the earliest reference to patience as a game, unearthed by the Oxford English Dictionary, though Patience seems to have been such a known game that it needed no further explanation. Indeed the very names of the games in these books are almost all French - La Belle Lucie, Les Quatre Coins, L’Horloge, La Nivernaise, La Loi Salique, Le Carre Napoleon, etc.Īs well, there is a newsletter dated 1816, which reported that Napoleon Bonaparte, in exile at St Helena, kept himself busy playing ‘patience’. However, there are probably much earlier references to solitaire in French literature, since the earliest English books on patience seem to have drawn on French sources. As Tolstoy was very careful about his historical details, this reference is unlikely to be inaccurate, particularly as Tolstoy himself was a passionate devotee of solitaire. The playing of patience is referred to in Tolstoy’s War and Peace, in a scene supposed to have taken place in 1808. But not until the 19th century did anyone bother to record the rules of a solitaire game for posterity. We do know the main rules of a game played at that time, tarocchini or tarok, which is still played in central Europe. Scholars disagree about the ultimate origin of playing cards, but it is generally thought that they were introduced during the 14th century to northern Europe, probably from Italy. But this is really just guesswork, as there are very few historical records concerning solitaire. We can easily imagine how solitaire grew out of the rites of dealing and selecting the cards for fortune telling - divination is the first known use of tarot cards. It is natural to think that solitaire games preceded card games for two or more players. Give it a go - once you’ve tried it it is hard to go back. If you see an open move you can drag the card there or alternatively you can tap (mobile) or double click (PC) and the card and it will move there by itself. Tap to Move: This game features “tap to move”. There is no time limit so you can play at your own pace. For easier gameplay access the game settings and untick “Draw 3”, this will allow you to draw one card at a time. Game options are accessed by pressing the “burger style” options button at the top left of the screen. To deal more cards tap the deck at the top right of the screen. For instance you can put a red two on top of a black three. You can move a card on to another if its number is one lower and it is the opposite color. To help reach this goal you must sort through the cards in the play area. If you find an ace drag it there, then a two, then a three etc. The goal is to arrange each suit of cards from Ace to King in the spaces at the top left of the screen. The Solitaire game you know and love with traditional Klondike rules.
