Vint is a Russian card-game, similar to both

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

and

whist Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the rules are simple, there is scope for strategic play. History Whist is a descendant of the 16th-century game of ''trump'' ...

and it is sometimes referred to as Russian whist. ''Vint'' means a screw in Russian, and the name is given to the game because the four players, each in turn, propose, bid and overbid each other until one, having bid higher than the others care to follow, makes the trump, and his vis-a-vis plays as his partner. The game spread to

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, where it evolved into Skruuvi, which features also a kitty and

misère Misère ( French for "destitution"), misere, bettel, betl, or (German for "beggar"; equivalent terms in other languages include , , ) is a bid in various card games, and the player who bids misère undertakes to win no tricks or as few as possi ...

contracts.

Description of vint

Vint has many similarities to

rubber bridge Rubber bridge is a form of contract bridge played by two competing pairs using a particular method of scoring. A rubber is completed when one pair becomes first to win two ''games'', each ''game'' presenting a score of 100 or more contract points; ...

: The cards have the same rank. The score of tricks is entered under the line, and points for slam, honors, and penalties for undertricks above the line. The bidding is similar to bridge, one bids the number of tricks and the trump suit or no trump. During the progress of the bidding and declaring, opportunity is taken by the players to indicate by their calls their strength in the various suits and the high cards they hold, so that, when the playing begins, the position of the best cards and the strength of the different hands can often be fairly accurately estimated. Unlike Bridge, in Vint there is no dummy, all taken tricks count toward a game (that is, the tricks taken by the defenders as well as the tricks taken by the declarer side including overtricks, regardless of whether the contract was made or not), and the bidding ends after eight consecutive passes (everyone passes twice including the player who made the last bid.) The value of a trick depends on the level of the contract. In higher contracts the value of a trick is higher. The card play follows the standard whist formula. One must follow suit, but if unable to do so, one can play any card. The trick is won by the highest trump, if there are trumps in the trick, otherwise by the highest card of the suit led. The winner of the trick starts the next one. Points are awarded also for honours. In a no trump declaration aces count only as honors; in a suit declaration both the aces and the five next highest cards.

Development

The game emerged during the latter half of the 19th century. In primitive forms, known as Siberian Vint, the value of the trick depended on the level of the contract and the trump suit. Later, this was simplified so that the level of the contract was the only thing the value of the trick depended on. Towards the end of the 19th century, the kitty was added to the game. The highest bidder took a kitty of 4 cards to his hand and gave one card for every other player before the card play started. Towards the end of the 19th century, also the card exchange mechanism used in Skruuvi was born. The highest bidder took the kitty in his hand, gave 4 cards for his partner, who, in turn, gave one card for every other player. This enabled the declarer side to arrange themselves very shaped hands, which lead to higher contracts. The first rule book for

, dated 1886, was '' Biritch, or Russian Whist'' written by John Collinson, an English financier working in Ottoman

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

(now Istanbul). It and his subsequent letter to ''The Saturday Review'' dated May 28, 1906, document the origin of ''Biritch'' as being the Russian community in Constantinople. The word ''

biritch Biritch (birich, biryuch russian: бирич, бирюч) in Ancient Rus was a herald, an announcer of the will of a '' knyaz'', sometimes kniaz's deputy in police or diplomatic affairs, or tax collector. A birich travelled to settlements, played bu ...

'' is thought to be a transliteration of the Russian word Бирюч (бирчий, бирич), an occupation of a herald or announcer. There are references to Vint in classical Russian literature, notably in the short stories of

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

, and in ''Cancer Ward'' by

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repress ...

. The composer

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

was a very enthusiastic player.

Skruuvi

Skruuvi is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

variant of Vint, and it became common in Finland while it was a part of Russia. The rules of Skruuvi diverged slowly from Vint, and the rules were codified in the 1940s in the books ''Skruuviopas'' by the pseudonym O.L. and ''Uusi täydellinen skruuvipelin ohjekirja'' by the pseudonym E.N. Maalari. Skruuvi is still played in Finland as a niche hobby whereas Vint is not played in Russia. Helsingin Suomalainen Klubi still organizes annual ''Toro Skruuvi'' tournament in honour of

Arvo Ylppö Arvo Henrik Ylppö (27 October 1887 – 28 January 1992) was a Finnish physician and professor of pediatrics who significantly decreased Finnish infant mortality during the 20th century. He is credited as the father of Finland's public mat ...

, an enthusiastic Skruuvi player. Skruuvi uses a bidding system similar to bridge, but the emphasis of the bidding system is more in signifying individual high cards, similar to slam-investigating

cue bid In contract bridge, a cue bid (also, cuebid or cue-bid) is either a bid of the opponents' suit, or "slam seeking": a slam-investigating bid made during an auction's later rounds that shows control of a suit. Traditionally a cue bid is "slam seeki ...

s in bridge.

Differences from vint

In Skruuvi, as described by E.N. Maalari, there is a kitty of four cards that the declarer side gets after bidding, and the game involves some exchange of cards so that everyone ends up with 13 cards. After the exchange of cards, the bidding continues, but only the members of the declarer side are allowed to participate in bidding. The trick-taking play occurs after this second bidding round. In addition to the Vint-style scoring, the declarer side gets a bonus for a made contract that depends on the level of the contract. In Skruuvi, the non-declarer side may also double by knocking on the table before the card play starts. It is also possible to bid ''misääri'', a contract where the aim is to avoid tricks. In a round-pass situation a forced ''misääri'' is played. Since the exchange of cards favours the declarer side, final contracts in Skruuvi are rather high, at a level of four or higher. In some circles undoubled contracts of four odd tricks, and sometimes also undoubled contracts of five odd tricks, are judged made without playing out the hand. After a rubber has been played in Skruuvi, four end games (called ''Kotka'') are played without a kitty. In the end games the bidding starts at a level of six (small slam level), and the exchange of cards favours highly the declarer side. A typical skruuvi night consists of three matches, where a match consists of a rubber of ordinary skruuvi and four ''kotkas''. Between the matches, the seats are changed so that everyone plays as a partner of everyone else. The partnerships may be temporarily broken if the players make certain special bids, ''bolshevik'' or ''mussolini''. In these contracts the declarer plays alone against everyone else, in ''bolshevik'' a grand slam ''misääri'', and in ''mussolini'' a grand slam no trump.

Later developments

The scoring system of the classical Skruuvi, as played in the first half of the 20th century, was notoriously complicated, with scoring for games, made contracts, taken tricks (or avoided tricks in ''misääri''), various honours, penalties for failed contracts, penalties for aces taken in tricks during a ''misääri'' contract and, of course, special scoring for ''bolshevik'' and ''mussolini''. Since the 1950s, at Helsingin Suomalainen Klubi, the scoring system has been streamlined. Bonuses for honors and the concept of playing a rubber have been dropped altogether. A match consists of four hands of ordinary skruuvi, four hands of ''kotkas'' and four hands of ''bolsheviks''. According to earlier rules, it was possible to bid a ''bolshevik'', but the club rules made it mandatory for everyone to bid ''bolshevik'' once during a twelve-hand match. Only slam contracts and doubled contracts are actually played out, and other contracts are judged made without actual card play. Another modern variant consists of eight hands, four hands of ordinary skruuvi and four hands of kotkas. Points are awarded only for made contracts, avoided tricks in forced misääri, and penalties for undertricks and penalties for taken aces in ''misääri''. In this variant, all the hands are played out, but the minimum allowed final contract is five odd tricks.

Famous players

Minna Canth Minna Canth (; born Ulrika Wilhelmina Johnson; 19 March 1844 – 12 May 1897) was a Finnish writer and social activist. Canth began to write while managing her family draper's shop and living as a widow raising seven children. Her work addresse ...

References

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