Amazons is an old

patience (or forbearance) is the ability to endure difficult circumstances. Patience may involve perseverance in the face of delay; tolerance of provocation without responding in disrespect/anger; or forbearance when under strain, especially when faced ...

card solitaire Patience (Europe), card solitaire or solitaire (US/Canada), is a genre of card games whose common feature is that the aim is to arrange the cards in some systematic order or, in a few cases, to pair them off in order to discard them. Most are inte ...

game which is played with a single deck of

playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a fi ...

s. The game is played with a

Piquet pack Piquet (; ) is an early 16th-century plain-trick card game for two players that became France's national game. David Parlett calls it a "classic game of relatively great antiquity... still one of the most skill-rewarding card games for two" but ...

minus the kings or a

standard 52-card pack The standard 52-card deck of French-suited playing cards is the most common pack of playing cards used today. In English-speaking countries it is the only traditional pack used for playing cards; in many countries of the world, however, it is used ...

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.Liflander (2002), p.14.

Background

Amazons is an old game, recorded as early as 1898 in the 2nd series of ''Dick's Games of Patience'', where it is described as being played with a

.Dick (1898), pp. 107–108. Parlett points out that, like Puzzler, it is the

short pack A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a fi ...

equivalent of the compulsive but frustrating game of Auld Lang Syne.Parlett (1979), p. 37. As a 32-card patience, it is not commonly included in English games compendia.

Rules

First, four cards are dealt in a row as the

tableau Tableau (French for 'little table' literally, also used to mean 'picture'; tableaux or, rarely, tableaus) may refer to: Arts * ''Tableau'', a series of four paintings by Piet Mondrian titled '' Tableau I'' through to ''Tableau IV'' * ''Tableau vi ...

, called the auxiliary row by Dick and the reserve row by Morehead & Mott-Smith. Above this is another row of initially four spaces for the

foundations Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

. Once an ace is

available In reliability engineering, the term availability has the following meanings: * The degree to which a system, subsystem or equipment is in a specified operable and committable state at the start of a mission, when the mission is called for at a ...

, it is placed on the foundations from left to right in the order in which they become available. If an available card in the auxiliary row is immediately below the foundation of the same suit and is the next card in sequence, it is played onto that foundation pile. The order of placing is in

ascending sequence Games of patience (game), patience, or (card) solitaires as they are usually called in North America, have their own 'language' of specialised terms such as #building down, "building down", #packing, "packing", #foundations, "foundations", #talon, ...

: A-7-8-9-10-J-Q. When no more cards can be played, four more cards are then dealt, face up, one to each depot, covering any cards already there. The player pauses again to see if any of the cards dealt can be placed on the foundations. Spaces are not filled until the next deal. This process is repeated until the

talon Talon or talons may refer to: Science and technology * Talon (anatomy), the claw of a bird of prey * Brodifacoum, a rodenticide, also known as the brand Talon * TALON (database), a database maintained by the US Air Force * Talon, an anti-vehicle- ...

runs out. When it does, a new one is formed by picking up each pile in turn, turning them face down and dealing again; this should be done without reshuffling. The process of dealing the cards, building to the foundations, and redealing, is repeated without limit until the game is won or blocked i.e. lost. The game is won when all cards are built onto the foundations, with the Queens at the top.

Strategy

Given the unlimited redeals, one of the best strategies for winning Amazons in as many as half the games played is to only play one Ace at a time rather than all of them initially, working on a single foundation at a time, and only playing another Ace when stuck despite redealing.

Footnotes

References

Literature

* Dick, Harris B. (1898). ''Dick's Games of Patience.'' Second series. 70 games. NY: Dick & Fitzgerald. * Liflander, Pamela (2002). ''The Little Book of Solitaire''. Philadelphia, PA: Running Press. *

Morehead, Albert Albert Hodges Morehead, Jr. (August 7, 1909 – October 5, 1966) was a writer for ''The New York Times'', a bridge player, a lexicographer, and an author and editor of reference works. Early years Morehead was born in Flintstone, Taylor County, ...

and

Geoffrey Mott-Smith The Mott-Smith Trophy, named for writer and cryptographer Geoffrey Mott-Smith, is awarded to the player with the best overall individual performance in the Spring Nationals, the spring event of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North Amer ...

(2001). ''The Complete Book of Solitaire and Patience.'' Slough: Foulsham. *

Parlett, David David Parlett (born 18 May 1939 in London) is a games scholar, historian, and translator from South London, who has studied both card games and board games. He is the president of the British Skat Association. His published works include many pop ...