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Skat

Trick-Taking Card Games

Skat is a trick-taking card game for three active players, played with a thirty-two-card deck, in which one player bids to become the sole declarer against the other two and then tries to score enough card points across the hand to fulfil the bid. The game was developed in the early nineteenth century in the German town of Altenburg, drawing on earlier German card games including skat's predecessor Schafkopf, and it is widely regarded as Germany's national card game, with an established competitive and club tournament structure.

Facts
Origin Year
1810 1
Originating Region
Germany 1
Game Type
Trick-taking card game 1
Governing Body
International Skat Players Association 1
Sport
Game Type (category)
Card Game 1
Game Type (category)
Trick-Taking Game 1
Classification
Player Count
Two-Player 1
Connections

Associated With

Sheepshead, Games

Skat and Sheepshead are both descendants of the German card game Schafkopf: Skat was devised around 1810 in Altenburg by adapting Schafkopf with features borrowed from Tarock and L Hombre, while Sheepshead is Schafkopf itself carried to the United States by German immigrants and adapted there. Neither game is derived from the other; both share the same Schafkopf root, which is not yet a live entity in this atlas (filed as a mint candidate).

Source The Oxford Guide to Card Games
Tarot Card Games, Games

Skat development at Altenburg between 1810 and 1817 combined the local game Schafkopf with borrowed features of Tarock and L Hombre; specifically, the practice of setting aside a hidden widow of cards, the skat itself, was adapted from the Tarot-family game Grosstarock, tying Skat to the tarot card game tradition alongside its primary Schafkopf ancestry.

Source The Oxford Guide to Card Games
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Skat (card game), Wikipedia
  • Lead section
    devised around 1810 in Altenburg in the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
  • Lead section, origin
    devised around 1810 in Altenburg in the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
  • History section, current rules
    The current rules, followed by both the International Skat Players Association, German Skat Federation and British Skat Association, date from Jan. 1, 1999.
  • Lead section, game type
    three-player trick-taking card game
  • entity record, description lead (player-count)
    Skat is a trick-taking card game for three active players, played with a thirty-two-card deck, in which one player bids to become the sole declarer against the other two and then tries to score enough card points across the hand to fulfil the bid. The game was developed in the early nineteenth century in the German town of Altenburg, drawing on earlier German card games including skat's
View the Source
The Oxford Guide to Card Games
Oxford University Press, 1990
  • Associated With: Sheepshead
  • Associated With: Tarot Card Games

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