Solo Whist - History

History

Solo Whist was first played in the Low Countries in the first half of the 19th century and in England somewhere about the year 1852 by a family of Dutch Jews. It was practically unknown outside Jewish circles until the end of 1860s. From 1870 and 1872 it began to be played in the London sporting clubs in an attempt to supplant the card games formerly in vogue.

Solo Whist derives from an early variety of Boston Whist through a Flemish form of the game called "Ghent Whist" and became popular in Britain as a relaxation from the rigors of partnership Whist in the 1890s, just as Bridge was appearing on the scene. In the event, it remains an essentially informal game of home and pub, and is played for the interest of small stakes rather than for the more arcane pleasures of ingenious coups and complex scores.

Solo whist may have failed to attract the attention that it deserved because it did not develop a scoring system of comparable refinement, and were it not for the phenomenal expansion of Bridge, Solo might have developed further and occupied the social position now claimed by Contract. The game is now mainly played in Britain, Australia and New Zealand, and also especially popular within the Jewish community.