The Chkobba is a card game made in Tunisia by Italian migrants.
In chkobba, you can only play one card at a time. The goal is to collect as many cards as possible, while keeping in mind that each card has its own value, either in terms of its value during the game (one to ten), or in terms of its value in the final count.
Card profile[edit]
The game is made up of forty cards which includes ten cards for each of the four traditional signs: spades, hearts, diamonds (called ديناري dīnārī, from the Italian denari) and clubs. The cards are numbered from 1 to 7 and are completed by three figures: the queen having the value 8, the jack having the value 9 and the king having the value 10. The numbered cards have the value of the number they carry.
Each value has a particular name with French, Spanish, Italian or Arabic etymology. The 1 is called لص laṣ (from the French “l'As”), the 2 دو dū, the 3 تريس trīs, the 4 كواترو kwātrū, the 5 شينكو šīnkū, the 6 سيس sīs, the 7 سبعة sabʿa (from Arabic), the lady مجيرة mujīra (from Spanish mujer meaning "lady"), the servant كوّال kawwāl (from Spanish caballo meaning "horse"), and the king ريّ rayy (from Spanish rey meaning "king"). In addition, the 7 of diamonds, often considered to be the most important card of all, has its own name: سبعة الحيّة sabʿa l-ḥayya or “living 7”, or more simply الحيّة al-ḥayya or “the living”.
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