Open-hand duel · 2 players

Mate.

Both hands are visible. Lead a card your opponent cannot answer, and turn each move into points across a four-game match.

BBot10 cards

Your foreplaced card

Bot's foreplaced card

Before play

Choose whether to foreplace.

Lead

Your played cards

Bot's played cards

YYou10 cards

01 How to play

See every card.
Find the mate.

Mate is a two-player card game of perfect information: both players see both hands from the start. The aim is to lead a card the opponent cannot follow in suit or rank. This table plays a full four-game match against a bot.

Cards and order

Use 20 cards: Ace, Ten, King, Queen and Seven in each suit. Within a suit their strength runs A, 10, K, Q, 7. For equal ranks, suit strength runs Clubs, Spades, Hearts, Diamonds. All cards are dealt face up in two hands of ten.

Lead and answer

The dealer leads any card. The other player must follow the same suit if possible. With no card of that suit, they must play a card of the same rank if possible. If neither match exists, the lead gives mate and the game stops at once.

Who leads next?

When both play, the higher card leads the next move. Cards of the same suit compare by rank; when the reply matches rank in another suit, compare suit strength. Played cards stay visible on the table. If all moves are completed without mate, the game is drawn.

Scoring a mate

Multiply the value of the mating card by the move number. Ace scores 11, Ten 10, King 4, Queen 3 and Seven 7. A mate with an Ace on move three scores 33. A drawn game scores zero.

Four games, two deals

The first dealer leads game one. For game two, exchange the original ten-card hands and let the other player lead. Shuffle and deal again for game three, led by that same player. Exchange those new hands for game four, led by the first dealer. Add the four scores; the higher total wins.

Foreplacing

Before a game, the leader may place one card face up outside play, or decline. The other player then has the same choice; if the leader foreplaced, their opponent cannot foreplace a card of that rank or suit. A player who foreplaced and gives mate scores as though the game lasted one move longer.

The tenth move

Both players foreplacing leaves nine moves. If only one foreplaces, that player reuses their ninth card for move ten if no mate has occurred. A mate by that player on move ten is an overmate and scores the mating card’s value × 22.

Playing here

At the start of each game, click a card in your open hand to foreplace it or choose “Keep all cards”. Later, click a highlighted card to lead or answer. The bot also sees both hands; its decisions use the same visible information.

02 History & variants

A card duel
with a chess idea.

Origins

Mate was published in Germany in 1915 by G. Capellen alongside a chess variant called Free Chess. It remained an uncommon card game, but later reached a new audience through Sid Sackson’s 1969 book A Gamut of Games. Its open hands and the idea of leaving an opponent unable to answer give it a distinct feel among card games.

The unusual Ace–Ten–King order and the suit hierarchy echo several German card traditions. In Mate, every card is known; the challenge is to choose when to use it.

Ways to vary the duel

A Double Mate Deck replaces the Queens with extra copies of four other cards. Other variants allow one “free move” per game, so a player may answer by rank even while holding the led suit. King’s Privilege, and the broader Figure Privilege, change which card the follower must play against a King or Queen.

The playable version here uses the ordinary 20-card deck, obligatory suit-first response and optional foreplacing. The extra privileges and double deck are described for context.