Jass: Schieber

How to play Schieber Jass

Schieber needs four players. Partners sit opposite each other, so you and the player at the top of the table form one team and the players on your left and right form the other. Play goes counter-clockwise, to the right, as it traditionally does in Switzerland.

A deal works like this:

• All 36 cards are dealt, nine to each player.
• One player has the right to choose the game for this deal. That right moves one seat on after every deal.
• The chooser picks a trump suit (any of the four), Obenabe (no trump, high cards win) or Undeufe (no trump, low cards win).
• Instead of choosing, the chooser may say "schiebe" and push the decision to their partner, who must then choose. This push is where the name Schieber comes from.
• Whoever made the choice, the original chooser leads the first trick.
• Each trick is won by the highest trump, or if no trump was played, by the best card of the suit that was led. The winner leads the next trick.
• After nine tricks the team points are counted and added to the score sheet. The first team to reach the match target wins.

Jass rules for following suit and trumping

Jass is more relaxed about trumping than many card games. When a suit is led you may follow that suit, or you may play a trump instead, even if you still hold cards of the led suit. If you cannot follow suit, you may play any card at all: there is no duty to trump.

There are two special rules. First, the Buur, the Under of trumps, is never forced: if it is the only trump in your hand and trumps are led, you do not have to play it. Second, you may not undertrump. Once someone has trumped a trick, you cannot drop a lower trump on it unless your hand holds nothing but trumps.

In Obenabe and Undeufe there are no trumps, so the rule is simply to follow suit when you can. The game highlights your legal cards and dims the others, so you learn as you play.

Jass card values: the Buur and the Nell

Each suit has nine cards: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (called the Banner on Swiss cards), Under, Ober, King and Ace. In the trump suit two cards jump to the top: the Under becomes the Buur (also spelled Puur), the strongest card in the game, and the 9 becomes the Nell (Näll), the second strongest.

• Trump suit, from highest: Buur (Under) 20, Nell (9) 14, Ace 11, King 4, Ober 3, 10 10, then 8, 7 and 6 worth 0.
• Other suits, from highest: Ace 11, King 4, Ober 3, Under 2, 10 10, then 9, 8, 7 and 6 worth 0.
• The cards hold 152 points in total, and the last trick adds 5, so every deal is worth 157.
• If one team wins all nine tricks, that is a Match, worth 257 points: the 157 plus a 100 bonus.

Obenabe and Undeufe: playing without trump

Obenabe means "from the top down". There is no trump suit, the highest card of the led suit wins, and the order runs Ace, King, Ober, Under, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6. The 8s are worth 8 points each, which makes up for the missing trump values, so the deal still holds 157 points.

Undeufe, also written Undenufe or Uneufe, means "from the bottom up". Again there is no trump, but now the lowest card wins: the 6 is the best card of each suit and is worth 11 points, the 8s are worth 8, and the Ace drops to 0.

Weis and Stöck explained

Weis are bonus combinations in your hand. With the Weis option on, which is the default, they are found and shown automatically during the first trick. Sequences run in the order 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Under, Ober, King, Ace and must be in one suit.

• Three in sequence 20, four 50, five 100, six 150, seven 200, eight 250, all nine 300.
• Four Unders 200, four 9s (four Nell) 150.
• Four Aces, four Kings, four Obers or four 10s 100 each.
• Only the team holding the best single Weis scores, but it then scores all of its Weis. The other team's Weis count nothing that deal.
• Stöck is the King and Ober of the trump suit in one hand. It is worth 20 points and exists only when a suit is trump, not in Obenabe or Undeufe.

Schieber scoring and multipliers

At the end of each deal each team scores its trick points, plus Weis and Stöck. You can play with two scoring styles. Classic uses multipliers: Eicheln and Rosen count once, Schellen and Schilten count double, and Obenabe and Undeufe count triple. The multiplier applies to everything scored that deal, so a Match in Obenabe is worth 771. Classic games are usually played to 2500. Simple counts every deal once and is usually played to 1000. You can set the target to 1000, 1500 or 2500 in either style.

Jass has a strict counting order near the finish: Stöck first, then Weis, then trick points. The first team to reach the target in that order wins the match, even if the other team would pass the target with its trick points in the same deal. That is the old Jass saying "Stöck, Wys, Stich".

Swiss cards vs French cards

In German-speaking Switzerland Jass is mostly played with Swiss-suited cards: Schellen (bells), Schilten (shields), Rosen (roses) and Eicheln (acorns), with Under and Ober instead of Jack and Queen and a Banner for the 10. In French-speaking Switzerland and some other regions French-suited cards are the norm.

Our table draws its own Swiss deck and also offers a French-suited deck with one toggle. The suits map as Rosen to hearts, Schellen to diamonds, Schilten to spades and Eicheln to clubs, and the Under and Ober become the Jack and Queen. Rules and scores stay the same.

Play Jass online with friends or against the computer

To play alone, start a game against the computer and pick Easy, Normal or Hard. Easy makes mistakes on purpose, Normal plays with solid card sense, and Hard tracks every card played, works out which suits each player can no longer hold, and simulates many possible deals of the hidden cards before each play. A local match is saved automatically, so you can close the tab and carry on later.

To jass with friends, press Invite friends. You get a 6-character room code and a share link you can send on WhatsApp or copy anywhere. Friends join in the browser on their own phone or computer, with no app and no account. Computers fill any empty seat, the host can move players between seats to set the partnerships, and if someone drops out the computer plays for them until they come back. There is also Quick match for playing with strangers, text and emoji chat at the table, and optional voice chat in online rooms.

Schieber Jass strategy and tips

Good Jass players count cards and read their partner. A few habits help:

• Choose a trump suit when you hold the Buur with one or two more trumps, ideally the Nell too. Buur and Nell together control the suit.
• Choose Obenabe with several Aces and long suits headed by Ace and King. Choose Undeufe with several 6s and 7s.
• Schiebe when your hand has no clear plan. Your partner must choose, and the choice will be built on their cards.
• Count the trumps. There are nine in each deal, and once the Buur and Nell are gone your Ace of trumps is the master card.
• Schmieren: when your partner is sure to win a trick, add a valuable card such as a 10 or an Ace to it.
• Near the end of a match remember the counting order. Stöck and Weis count before tricks, so they can decide the game.

Differenzler, Coiffeur and other Jass games

Jass is a whole family of games. Differenzler, where each player predicts their own points, Coiffeur, where each team must play every mode once, Bieter and Molotow are all popular in Switzerland. They are not available here yet. Our table plays Schieber, the four-player partnership game that most Swiss jass groups play.

Where Jass comes from

Jass belongs to the same family as Klaverjassen and Belote, games in which the Jack and the 9 of trumps rank highest. The family is usually traced to the Netherlands, and the word jas named the trump Jack there. The game reached Switzerland in the 18th century, and the oldest known Swiss mention dates from 1796 in Schaffhausen. In French-speaking Switzerland Schieber is known as Chibre.

Auf Deutsch: Schieber kurz erklärt

Hier kannst du Schieber gratis online jassen, direkt im Browser auf Handy, Tablet oder Computer, ohne Download und ohne Anmeldung. Spiele gegen den Computer in drei Stärken oder lade deine Freunde mit einem Link ein, leere Plätze übernimmt der Computer. Trumpf, Obenabe und Undeufe, Schieben, Weis und Stöck sind nach den üblichen Schieber-Regeln umgesetzt. Du jasst mit Schweizer oder französischen Karten auf 1000, 1500 oder 2500 Punkte, gezählt wird in der Reihenfolge Stöck, Weis, Stich.