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Card games in Chad

This page is part of the National and Regional Card Games Index of the Card Games Web Site.

The international 52-card pack is used. The suit names are koubi (hearts), djinari (diamonds), chénèke (clubs) and soubata (spades). The court cards are kaygama (king), ab-talada (queen) and ab-tinêne (jack), the words for queen and jack implying that they are worth 3 and 2 points respectively (in some games at least).

According to the page Culture et Societe on the site Zoom sur le Tchad, the games played include:

• Arbatchar - a rummy game in which 14 cards are dealt to each player.
• Bassara - a two-player game with a total of 33 points. Possibly this is a version of the Arabic game Basra, in which case perhaps the score for having the majority of cards is 20 (to make the total 33).
• Challate - no details given.
• Konkane 10 - this could be another Rummy game - the name sounds similar to Conquian, Cooncan, Koumkan, etc.
• Koss - apparently a trick-taking game in which a card is turned for trumps: "koss" or "kos" seems to mean trump. It seems that 61 points are needed to win, in which case it is likely to be a point-trick game with the common values ace=11, ten=10, king=4, queen=3, jack=2 for a totasl of 120 points. This would be consistent with the local names of the queen and jack.

Any further information about these or other card games from Chad will be gratefully received.