Labyrinth is a
patience or 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 in ...
game which uses a pack of 52
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 f ...
s. Despite the fact that the word ''
labyrinth
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth () is an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the h ...
'' is synonymous with ''
maze
A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that lead ...
'', this game is very different in its manner of play and dealing from the game of
Maze
A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that lead ...
, and should not be confused with it. Labyrinth does however have similar play to the game of
Babette – both being
blockades
A blockade is the act of actively preventing a country or region from receiving or sending out food, Contraband, supplies, Materiel, weapons, or communications, and sometimes people, by military force.
A blockade differs from an embargo or I ...
– and the spatial puzzle in which cards become available is also reminiscent of
Crazy Quilt
Crazy-Quilt is the name of several characters in DC Comics. The first is an enemy of the Boy Commandos, while the second, Paul Dekker, is an enemy of Batman. Both are blind and use special helmets that enable them to regain their vision and genera ...
.
History
Labyrinth is first described in 1905 by "Tarbart". It has since appeared sporadically in British compendia right up to 2014, but Alphonse Moyse (1950) is the only American author to include it in a publication.
Rules
The player first takes the four
Ace
An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or a club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the ...
s out of the pack and lays them down as the
foundations
Foundation(s) or The Foundation(s) may refer to: Common uses
* Foundation (cosmetics), a skin-coloured makeup cream applied to the face
* Foundation (engineering), the element of a structure which connects it to the ground, and transfers loads f ...
. Then eight cards are laid in a
row
Row or ROW may refer to:
Exercise
* Rowing, or a form of aquatic movement using oars
* Row (weight-lifting), a form of weight-lifting exercise
Mathematics and informatics
* Row vector, a 1 × ''n'' matrix in linear algebra
* Row(s) in a table ( ...
below these four cards.
The cards on this row can be
built on the foundations
up by
suit
A suit, also called a lounge suit, business suit, dress suit, or formal suit, is a set of clothes comprising a suit jacket and trousers of identical textiles generally worn with a collared dress shirt, necktie, and dress shoes. A skirt su ...
to
King
King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
s. Any
gap is immediately filled by a card from the
stock
Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...
. Once no more moves can be made, a new row of eight cards is formed. However, once any card leaves the second row to the foundations, it is not filled; filling gaps by new cards only applies to the first row.
Only cards on the top and bottom rows are
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 ...
and when a card on the bottom row is removed, the card above it is released and can be played. The same goes for a card which is below a card from the top row when that card is removed, when the player decides to fill the gap later or when the stock runs out.
As new rows are formed, chances are that there are gaps in the in-between rows except the top. These "holes" give the impression of a labyrinth, hence the name.
The dealing of new rows, putting cards to the foundations, and filling any gaps on the first row continues until the stock runs out. When the player gets stuck after this point, he can draw any card from the other rows as a last resort.
The patience is
out
Out or OUT may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Films
*Out (1957 film), ''Out'' (1957 film), a documentary short about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956
*Out (1982 film), ''Out'' (1982 film), an American film directed by Eli Hollander
*O ...
when all cards are built onto the foundations.
See also
*
Babette
*
List of patiences and card solitaires
This is a list of patiences, which are card games that are also referred to as solitaires or as card solitaire.
This list is not intended to be exhaustive, but only includes games that have met the usual Wikipedia requirements (e.g. notability) ...
*
Glossary of patience and solitaire terms
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 de ...
References
Literature
* _ (2014). ''The Card Game Bible''. London: Octopus.
* Moyse, Alphonse (1950). ''150 Ways to Play Solitaire''. Cincinnati: USPCC.
*
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.
Life
David Sidney Parlett was bo ...
(1979). ''The Penguin Book of Patience.'' London: Penguin.
* "Tarbart" (1905). ''Games of Patience''. 2nd edn. London :
De La Rue
De La Rue plc (, ) is a British company headquartered in Basingstoke, England, that produces secure digital and physical protections for goods, trade, and identities in 140 countries. It sells to governments, central banks, and businesses. Its ...
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Labyrinth (Solitaire)
Half-open blockades
Single-deck patience card games