I have always associated Solitaire with salt and pepper haired, retired people sitting quietly and playing by themselves. That is why I suppose it took an 83-year-old man to make a more devilish and challenging version of the card game in the form of an app.
Donald Rumsfeld, who served under three US Presidents and was one of the chief architects of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, revives a game played by no less a person than Winston Churchill. Rumsfeld had little knowledge of even what an app was, but sat through 170 versions of what the developers took out to perfect the game called Churchill Solitaire.
Till recently just a handful of people knew about this game. The Churchill variant, like the man himself, is far more demanding and complicated. Instead of using a single deck of 52 cards, Churchill Solitaire uses two decks with 104 cards. The playing surface has 10 rows of cards rather than seven. The objective of the game is deceptively simple. You have to create eight piles of cards on the top right of the screen that is called the Victory Rows. Since you are dealing with 104 cards there will be eight Aces and you have to stack them in ascending order from Ace to King.
What gives this game a devilish twist is the extra row of six cards known as 'The Devil's Six'. Rumsfeld wants you to 'liberate' these cards if you want to have a crack at trying to win the game. These cards cannot be moved to the playing area of 10 rows dealt to you. They can only be moved to the Victory Rows.
Once you are dealt the cards, the first step is to move any Aces from the main playing surface and The Devil's Six to the Victory Rows. Then just as in traditional Solitaire, you arrange cards of opposite colours in descending order. Every time there is a gap in the rows a King can be moved there. If there is nothing further for you to do, you can touch the pile of cards at the top left corner and fresh cards will be dealt. It really needs a lot of cunning and guile. You can ask for hints and there is a tutorial to guide you through the easy level of the game.
Here are some tips because you will definitely get stuck. Clear The Devil Six as soon as you can. There no way you can win Churchill Solitaire unless you get rid of this group of cards. Don't be in a rush to move your cards to the Victory Rows. Leaving the cards in the playing surface may sometimes help you free new cards or columns. Most of all, concentrate hard. Even if all seems lost, you may find a way out.
Winston Churchill played the game during the tense years of World War II. He taught the game to a young Belgian government aide, Andre de Staercke, who had been exiled in London. Rumsfeld met de Staercke in the 1970s when Nixon nominated him as ambassador to Nato. During their long plane rides together, Rumsfeld learnt the game from the Belgian diplomat.
The game is accompanied by graphics and videos associated with Winston Churchill. You have to clear various levels starting as a cadet at Sandhurst and ending as the Prime Minister of Britain. However, the game can be played without this homage to Churchill by turning off the audio and video and it doesn't diminish the enjoyment a bit.
The app is available for the iPhone and iPad for now and is free to download. But you can buy extra games and hints for Rs 60. The Android version is on the way.
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