Bezique

Bezique (in French, bézique) is a melding and trick-taking card game for two players. It was developed in France in the seventeenth century from the game piquet and gained its greatest popularity in Britain in the mid-nineteenth century. Perhaps the most famous proponent of the game was Winston Churchill, an avid player and early expert of Six-Pack, or "Chinese," Bezique. There is some evidence that the English writers Wilkie Collins and Christina Rossetti were also enthusiasts. Bezique was sometimes mispronounced "Bisicles" in French, meaning eyeglasses. Binocles also meant eyeglasses, and this pronunciation (and minor rule variations) evolved into Pinochle. Two-Handed Pinochle and Two-Handed Bezique are almost identical. Since the nineteenth century the game has declined in popularity, though Two-Handed Pinochle, a game virtually identical to Two-Handed Bezique, is still played in the United States of America. Bezique variants Six-Pack Bezique and Rubicon Bezique are also...