German Solo

German solo
German form of English quadrille
The top trumps when bells are the trump suit
OriginGermany
Alternative namesDeutsches Solo
TypePlain-trick
Players4
Cards32 cards
DeckPiquet or German pack
PlayClockwise
Related games
Quadrille, Ombre, Spitzeln
Clubs may be preference suit

German solo or just solo is a German 8-card plain-trick game for 4 individual players using a 32-card, German- or French-suited skat pack. It is essentially a simplification of quadrille, itself a 4-player adaptation of ombre.[1] As in quadrille, players bid for the privilege of declaring trumps and deciding whether to play alone or with a partner. Along with ombre, Tarock and Schafkopf, German solo influenced the development of skat.[2] Parlett calls it a "neat little descendant of Quadrille" and "a pleasant introduction" to the ombre family of games.[3]

  1. ^ Neuestes Spielbuch (1834), pp. 116–128.
  2. ^ Hoffmann & Dietrich (1982).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Parlett204 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).