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This page is based on a contribution from Anthony Smith.

• Introduction
• The players
• The cards
• The deal
• Choosing the trump suit
• The play
• The scoring

Introduction

Sjavs is game of the Schafkopf group, which is popular in the Faeroe Islands. "Sjavs" is pronounced "shouse", rhyming with "house". Although the Faeroese-English dictionary explains Sjavs as being a Danish game, the version of the game given in the Danish games-manuals is a 20-card 3-hander whereas the Faeroese game is a 32-card 4-hander. Anthony Smith learnt this game on 20th October 1996 on the Aberdeen - Tórshavn ferry from four players whose names he did not note. On 22nd October he took part in a tournament at the Mimir club in Tórshavn as the guest of Jákup Dalsgaard.

The players

Four play, in two two-player partnerships, partners sitting opposite one another.

The cards

The 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s and 6s are removed from a standard 52-card pack to leave 32 cards. Six cards are permanent highest trumps, ranking from high to low: Q, Q, J, J, J, J. The remaining cards, whether in the trump suit or not, rank A, K, (Q), 10, 9, 8, 7. There are thus 13 trumps if a red suit is trumps and 12 if a black.

The cards have point values as follows: A=11, K=4, Q = 3, J = 2, 10 = 10. The remaining cards have no point values. There are thus 120 points in the whole pack.

The deal

The dealer shuffles and offers the pack to his right hand neighbour to cut. If he does so then the dealer deals in fours, clockwise, until each player has eight cards. If the dealer's right hand neighbour chooses not to cut but taps the pack with his fingers or knuckles then the dealer deals in eights.

Choosing the trump suit

Dealer's left hand neighbour has first opportunity to speak. He must state the length of the longest trump-suit he can make with his cards, provided it consists of five or more cards. If he has no five-card trump suit he says, "Pass". Turn to speak then passes clockwise. Once someone has stated a length, subsequent players pass unless they have a better holding than any already announced. For this purpose, a longer trump suit is better than a shorter, and a trump holding in clubs is better than one of the same length in an unstated suit, even if the first player had in fact a club holding.

When all have had an opportunity to speak, the player with the longest length states his trump suit. If he has more than one equally long possible trump suit and one of them is clubs then he must at this stage announce clubs. If no one at all has a trump holding of five or more cards then the same dealer deals again.

The play

Dealer's left hand neighbour then leads and play proceeds clockwise. Players must follow suit if they are able to and can choose freely whether to trump or discard if unable to follow suit. The winner of each trick leads to the next. When all the tricks have been played each team conts the card points in the tricks they have won.

The scoring

If the side that announced trump have:

all tricks	they score 12,	or 16 if clubs were trumps
90 - 120	they score 4,	or 8 if clubs were trumps
61 - 89	they score 2,	or 4 if clubs were trumps
31 - 59	their opponents score 4,	or 8 if clubs were trumps
0 - 30	their opponents score 8,	or 16 if clubs were trumps
no tricks	their opponents score 16,	or 24 if clubs were trumps

The score-sheet

A rubber consists of 24 points, but points are counted down from 24. A vertical line is drawn, and a horizontal near the top. The two columns are headed "We" and "They". Whenever a game is won, the winning players subtract the score from their current total and write the new score in their own column on the next horizontal level below the level where anyone's score was last recorded. Thus the first figure written is got by subtracting the first score from 24. In order to help keep track of the deals a little cross-mark is put on the central vertical after every four deals. The side whose score first reaches - or passes - zero have won the rubber. If their opponents are still on 24 this counts as a double victory.