Let’s look at the basic structure of a standard round of Tichu – one round meaning one hand of cards, with several rounds adding up to a complete game.

Plus, the ever popular bonus points are awarded in certain circumstances – more on that in a (insert time span that reflects your reading speed) for now it is just important to keep in mind that point cards as well as finishing has a bearing on playing Tichu successfully.

get rid of their final card) is of major importance, as tricks and hand cards must be surrendered on this basis. Raise your hands if that surprises you… Yeah, yeah… you can lower it again! Anyway, while points and therefore scoring cards are quire relevant, the order in which the players finish (i.e. The objective of a game of Tichu is for your team to exceed 1000 points, so scoring points is key. Tichu is, in its basic form, a game for four players divided into two parties sitting in alternating order. In order to get to the fascination of Tichu, a rather extensive dip into the rules is necessary – so thanks for bearing with us while we go through them one by one… err… quickly, I mean! Rules! We need Rules! Still, the basic mechanisms are fairly straightforward and the speed of play (one round takes mere minutes) contributes to making Tichu addictive as well as fascinating on a cognitive level.

Tichu is a card game that is very rich in strategic depth and its nuances take a few thousand rounds – give or take – to master. It is probably fair to assume that being featured on the Brettspielwelt has been more beneficial to Tichu in terms of popularity than for any other game there, amassing an estimated gazillion rounds there on a daily basis. While most available version claims to be a classic Chinese game – and while it illustrates undeniable similarities to card games from the area – in its published form it was created in 1991 by Urs Hostettler, and has become what must be the flagship game of publisher Fata Morgana.

Whatever category it falls into, it has certainly become a modern classic among card games. It is a shedding game on the one hand (think Uno), but it is a also trick-based with some influence of poker to go along. Tichu is a game that likes to defy categorization.

Tichu straight bomb aces high