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Calculation (also known as Broken Intervals, Hopscotch and Four Kings Solitaire) is a solitaire card game played with a standard pack of 52 cards. It is part of the Sir Tommy family of patience games. It has its origin in France, where it is known as La Plus Belle.

It offers more scope for skill than many similar games; a skilled player can win Calculation more than 80% of the time when "normal play" can allow winning 1 in 5 times. Good strategy typically sees players use 6s, 8s, and Queens early and 10s, Jacks, and Kings later; clever placement of cards in the waste is also critical, with some players reserving one waste pile for the Kings. Every game of Calculation Solitaire is winnable. The key is to focus on putting cards in the 'waste piles' in reverse order.

Rules

At the start of play, an ace, two, three, and four of any suit are removed from a standard deck of cards and laid out as the foundations. The ace foundation is to be built up in sequence until the king is reached, regardless of suit. The other foundations are similarly built up, but by twos, threes, and fours, respectively, until they each reach a king, as in the following table:

The tableau, initially empty, consists of four piles of cards, usually arranged immediately below the four foundations.

Play in Calculation is simple. A single card is turned up from the stock and played either to the top of any of the four tableau piles, or onto one of the foundations if desired. The top card of any tableau pile may also be played onto one of the foundation piles if it is the next number in the appropriate sequence for that foundation. The game is won when all cards have been played onto the foundations, and lost when no further play is possible.

Variants

As a variation, cards may be played from the stock to a waste pile which holds one card, and played from there to a foundation or tableau, instead of being played from the stock to a foundation or tableau as soon as they are turned over.

Variations which make Calculation more difficult are to play all 52 cards without the starting A,2,3,4 on the foundations, or to use only three instead of four tableau piles. Playing with both these variations makes the game quite difficult, but a very skilled player will still be able to win at least two games out of three.

Devil's Grip is a broadly related game with similar game-play to Calculation, using two-decks stripped of the Aces, and playing cards to a 3x8 grid where cards increase by three in rank.

Musical is a related game in which cards are played from the stock to a single pile, but in which the stock contains 44 cards rather than 48, and in which the stock can be dealt three times.

One234 is a Calculation style game with completely open information but a low probability of success; it begins with a tableau of 8 columns with 6 cards each laid out face-up at the start of the game. Closely related to One234 is its easier variant Appreciate.

References

1. "Calculation" (p.226) in The Complete Book of Card Games by Peter Arnold, Hamlyn Publishing, 2010. ISBN 978-0-600-62191-1
2. "Gnome Help - Aisleriot - Hopscotch". 30 August 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
3. "Four-Kings Solitaire". 2003. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
4. "Calculation" (p.314) in Bicycle Official Rules of Card Games by Joli Quentin Kansil (ed.), 1999. ISBN 1-889752-06-1
5. "Calculation" (p.135) in The Playing Card Kit by Richard Craze, Simon & Schuster, 1995. ISBN 0-7318-0526-7
6. "Calculation" (p.209) in Hoyle's Rules of Games (3rd edition) by Philip D. Morehead (ed.), 2001. ISBN 0-451-20484-0
7. "Calculation" (p.80-81) in 101 Great Card Games by David Galt, Publications International, 1999. ISBN 0-7853-4044-0
8. "Calculation" (p.20) in The Little Book of Solitaire, Running Press, 2002. ISBN 0-7624-1381-6
9. "Devil's Grip" in Roya, Will (2021). Card Night: Classic Games, Classic Decks, and the History Behind Them. Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers. p. 15. ISBN 9780762473519.
10. "Devil's Grip" (p.314) in Bicycle Official Rules of Card Games by Joli Quentin Kansil (ed.), 1999. ISBN 1-889752-06-1
11. How to Play Devil's Grip, BicycleCards.com

See also

• Sir Tommy
• Musical
• List of solitaires
• Glossary of solitaire

v t e Patience or Solitaire by type - (list, glossary)
Closed games	Simple builders Amazons Auld Lang Syne Birthday The Clock Clock Cotillion (Contradance) Leoni's Own Musical (Betsy Ross, Fairest, Four Kings, Plus Belle, Quadruple Alliance) Precedence Quadrille (La Française; Captive Queens) Reserved builders Carpet Eagle Wing Golf Duchess of Luynes (Grand Duchess) Queen's/King's Audience Matrimony Monte Carlo Moojub Odd and Even Patriarchs Pyramid Royal Cotillion Royal Rendezvous Sultan (Emperor of Germany) Tri Peaks Windmill Simple packers Batsford Big Ben British Constitution British Square Congress Corona Deauville Deuces Diplomat Emperor Following Fortune's Favor Four Seasons Gargantua Herring-Bone Klondike Napoleon at St Helena (Forty Thieves) Napoleon's Square Red and Black Westcliff Reserved packers Acme Alhambra American Toad Backbone Canfield Casket Crazy Quilt Duchess Gate The Plot Queen of Italy (Terrace) Seven Devils Closed non-builders Accordion Aces Up Baroness (Five Piles, Thirteens) Decade Eight Cards Elevens Frustration Good Thirteen Herz zu Herz Hit or Miss Hope Deferred Nidgi Novgorod Perpetual Motion (Narcotic) Royal Flush Royal Marriage Travellers (Four of a Kind, Hidden Cards, Hide & Seek, Spoilt, Wandering Card)
Half-open games	Builders Interregnum Royal Parade Tournament Virginia Reel Blockades Babette British Blockade Labyrinth Planners Calculation Colorado Colours Cribbage Squares Frog Imaginary Thirteen Jubilee Poker Squares Puss in the Corner Rosamund's Bower Sir Tommy Packers Agnes Algerian Blockade Box Kite Bristol Four Corners Heads and Tails Intelligence Martha Miss Milligan Mount Olympus Pyramide Russian Solitaire St. Helena Stonewall Yukon Zodiac Spiders German Patience Rouge et Noir Scorpion Simple Simon Spider
Open games	Open builders Archway Black Hole Crescent Intrigue Salic Law Stalactites Open packers Baker's Dozen Baker's Game Beleaguered Castle Bisley Capricieuse Eight Off Flower Garden (Bouquet) Fortress FreeCell Grandfather's Clock House in the Woods King Albert La Belle Lucie Mrs. Mop Päckchen Penguin Persian Russian Patience Seahaven Towers Shamrocks Open non-builders Fourteen Out Gaps (Montana) Gay Gordons (Exit) Maze Nestor
Competitive games	Australian Patience Double Klondike (Double Solitaire) Kings in the Corner Nerts (Pounce, Racing Demon) Russian Bank (Crapette) Speed Spite and Malice Spit

• French card games
• Single-deck patience card games
• Planners (games)