British Blockade

British Blockade, also known as Parallels, is an old English patience, or card solitaire, of the blockade family, played with two packs of playing cards. The name British Blockade distinguishes it from French Blockade, which is not itself a blockade game, while the alternative name Parallels refers to the way the cards are lined up in rows parallel to each other. Play begins by removing one king and one ace of each suit and lining the aces and kings up in two columns to form the foundations, with the aces built up and the kings built down, all by suit. Between the columns the player deals a row of ten cards to form the tableau, and the spaces left by cards played to the foundations are filled from the stock. When play stands still, further rows of ten are dealt, and from the third row onward a card is available when at least one narrow edge is free. Reversals between foundations of the same suit are allowed, and the game is won when every card has been built onto the foundations. David Parlett describes it in The Penguin Book of Patience (1979).