It is played with a kibble, a nur, and a spell. By striking the end of the spell with the kibble, the nur, of course, rises into the air, and the art of the game is to strike it with the kibble before it reaches the ground. He who drives it the greatest distance wins the game.--Halliwell s _Dictionary_. Strutt (_Sports and Pastimes_, p. 109) describes this game as Northern-spell, played with a trap, and the ball is stricken with a bat or bludgeon. The contest between the players is simply who shall strike the ball to the greatest distance in a given number of strokes. The length of each stroke is measured before the ball is returned, by means of a cord made fast at one end near the trap, the other being stretched into the field by a person stationed there for that purpose, who adjusts it to the ball wherever it may lie. In a work entitled the _Costumes of Yorkshire_ this game is described and represented as Nor and Spell. The little wooden ball used in this game is in Yorkshire called the Nor, and the receptacle in which it is placed the Spell.
Ties are decided by cutting a second time. _=STAKES.=_ Piquet is played for so much a game of 100 points; but if the loser has not reached 50 points he is lurched, and loses a double game. _=DEALING.=_ The cards shuffled, they are presented to the pone to be cut, and at least two cards must be left in each packet. Twelve cards are dealt to each player, either two or three at a time; but whichever method is first selected must be maintained throughout the game. In England the cards are always dealt by twos. No trump is turned. The remaining eight cards are placed face downward on the table, the five top cards being laid crosswise on the three at the bottom. These eight cards are called the _=talon=_ or stock.
Cautiously I turned my head toward the door I had come through. I could see the fuzzy redness of a cigarette in the dark. It brightened as the smoker took a drag. Then I heard the sniffle, and knew who it was. She stood there, apparently leaning against the wall behind her, silently, invisible but for the glow of her cigarette, and not moving her feet. Hello, I said at last. Wasn t sure you wanted to talk, she said out of the dark. It shook me up. She certainly couldn t _see_ me. How d you know I was here? I asked her.
This is called a _=Grand Ouvert=_. A Frage cannot be played as a Grand under any circumstances. A player may announce _=Gucki Grand=_, which means that he will take both the skat cards into his hand at once, in order to get the privilege of laying out any two cards he pleases, but that Jacks will be the only trumps. If a Gucki Grand is lost, it costs double. A player may announce a _=Gucki Nullo=_, in which he takes both the skat cards into his hand and lays out any two cards he pleases. This loses double if it is not successful. _=Revolution=_ is seldom played. It is a Nullo in which the adversaries put their twenty cards together as one hand to see if they can make the player take a trick. _=Uno=_ and _=Duo=_ are Grands, in which the single player engages to take one trick in Uno, or two in Duo, neither more nor less. _=GAME VALUES.
Potteries (Miss Keary). V. The farmer s dog lay on the hearth, And Bingo was his name oh! B-i-n-g-o, B-i-n-g-o, B-i-n-g-o, And Bingo was his name oh! --Nottinghamshire (Miss Winfield). VI. The miller s dog lay on the wall, And Bingo was his name Oh! B-i-n-g-o, And Bingo was his name Oh! --Maxey, Northants (Rev. W. D. Sweeting). VII. The shepherd s dog lay on the hearth, And Bingo was his name O.
But if he feels that his adversary is not skilful enough to take advantage of these losing moves, a winning position may sometimes be rapidly obtained by departing from the regular development of the opening. The beginner should be satisfied with learning only one or two forms of the openings, committing to memory as many variations as possible. When he meets with a line of play that beats him, he should study out the variation in his text books, and see at what point he made the losing move. To be perfect in any one opening a person must know at least five hundred variations by heart; but if he finds himself caught in a variation which he does not remember, or has never learned, he should trust to good judgment rather than to defective memory. _=The End Game=_ usually resolves itself into one of four well-known positions. These four positions are those in which there is a win for one side or the other owing to the peculiar position occupied by the opposing forces, although they may be numerically equal. Every checker player must know these four positions thoroughly, or he may abandon many a game as drawn which he could win, and may lose many a game which he could draw. These four positions are here given as they are usually found in the books, but the player must be able to recognize at once any position which resembles them, or can be made to lead up to them. The student will find many games marked as “won” in which he cannot see any winning position unless he is familiar with the four endings. The expert strives to exchange his men so as to bring about one of these positions, after which he knows he has a won game, although his less skilful adversary may be unconscious of his advantage.
For instance: Three persons play; A dealt the first hand. In the first three columns are shown the amounts won and lost in the three rounds, while the last three columns show the manner in which these losses and gains were entered on the score sheet:-- | Points won and lost. | | Score Card. | | 1st Round.| 2nd Round.| 3rd Round.| | A | B | C | +-----------+-----------+-----------+ +----+----+----+ | A won 33 | A lost 16 | C lost 36 | | +33| +40| +55| | C won 55 | B won 40 | B won 48 | | +17| +88| +67| | C won 12 | A lost 24 | C lost 12 | | -7| | +31| | | | | +----+ +----+ | | | | | | | +19| At the end of the second round a line was drawn under A’s account, which then contained three items; and after the first game in the third round a line was drawn under C’s account. If we suppose the game to be stopped at this point, the scores would be balanced as follows: We take the three scores and bring them down on one line. We draw a line under them, and proceed as follows: First we take A, who has lost 7 to B, and from whom B has also won 88. This gives us 95 minus for A and 95 plus for B.
The game seems to have spread eastward long before it came West, going through Burmah to Thibet, Siam, China, Malacca, Java, and Borneo. Owing to the better preservation of historical records in China, many persons have been led to credit that country with the invention of chess, but recent investigations have shown that the Chinese got it from India. At some remote period of the world’s history the game was taken from China to Japan, and there are to-day many points in common between the games played in these two countries, especially in the arrangement of the pieces, although the Japanese board has eighty-one squares. Chess came westward through Constantinople, it having passed through Persia sometime during the sixth century. The Arabs seem to have learned the game, and taken it to Mecca and Medina, afterward passing it along to Syria and the Byzantines, sometime during the seventh century. Disbanded body-guards of the Byzantine emperors carried it to Scandinavia and the North, while it was gradually spreading over Europe by way of the Bosphoros and the Danube. _=Draughts=_, or _=Checkers=_, is sometimes claimed to be an older game than Chess: but it is much more probable that both are developments of some still older game, all trace of which is lost. In Egypt and Nubia there are illustrations of persons playing at draughts twenty centuries before the Christian era. During recent explorations in Egypt quite a variety of draughtmen have been found, some of which were used during the reign of Rameses III. The usual form seems to have been circular, about an inch in diameter, and surmounted by a round knob, something like a chess pawn, so that the men could be easily picked up.
Duplicate Auction is governed by the Laws of Auction, except in so far as they are modified by the following special laws: A. _Scoring._ In Duplicate Auction there are neither games nor rubbers. Each deal is scored just as in Auction, with the addition that whenever a pair makes 30 or more for tricks as the score of one deal, it adds as a premium 125 points in its honour column. B. _Irregularities in the Hands._ If a player have either more or less than his correct number of cards, the course to be pursued is determined by the time of the discovery of the irregularity. (1) When the irregularity is discovered before or during the original play: There must be a new deal. (2) When the irregularity is discovered at the time the cards are taken up for overplay and before such overplay has begun: It must be sent back to the table from which it came, and the error be there rectified. (3) When the irregularity is not discovered until after the overplay has begun: In two-table duplicate there must be a new deal; but in a game in which the same deals are played at more than two tables, the hands must be rectified as is provided above and then passed to the next table without overplay at the table at which the error was discovered; in which case, if a player have less than thirteen cards and his adversary the corresponding surplus, each pair takes the average score for that deal; if, however, his partner have the corresponding surplus, his pair is given the lowest score and his opponents the highest score made at any table for that deal.
_=12.=_ If _=any part=_ of a playable piece is moved over an angle of the square on which it is stationed, the move must be completed in _=that=_ direction. _=13.=_ A capturing play, as well as an ordinary one, is completed whenever the hand has been withdrawn from the piece played, although one or more pieces should have been taken. _=14.=_ The Huff or Blow is to remove from the board, before one plays his own piece, any one of the adverse pieces that might or ought to have taken but the Huff or Blow never constitutes a play. _=15.=_ The player has the power to _=huff=_, _=compel the capture=_, or _=let the piece remain on the board=_, as he thinks proper. _=16.=_ When a man first reaches any of the squares on the opposite extreme line of the board, it becomes a King, and can be moved backward or forward as the limits of the board permit, though not in the same play.
If the pone asks for more cards than he wants, the dealer can play the hand or not, as he pleases. If he plays, he may draw the superfluous card or cards given to the pone, and look at them if the pone has seen them. If the dealer decides not to play, he marks the point. In either case the pone cannot mark the King, even if he holds it. If the pone asks for less cards than he wants, he must play the hand as it is, and can mark the King if he holds it; but all tricks for which he has no card to play must be considered as won by his adversary. If a player plays without discarding, or discards for the purpose of exchanging, without advising his adversary of the fact that he has too many or too few cards, he loses two points, and the right of marking the King, even if turned up. If either player, after discarding and drawing, plays with more than five cards, he loses the point and the privilege of marking the King. Should the dealer forget himself in dealing for the discard, and turn up another trump, he cannot refuse his adversary another discard, if he demands it, and the exposed card must be put aside with the discards. If any cards are found faced in the pack when dealing for the discard, the deal stands good if they will fall to the dealer. But if the exposed card will go to the pone, he has the option of taking it, or claiming a fresh deal by the same dealer.