What it's like to play the new iPhone game created by Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Rumsfeld
Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in 2007. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Donald Rumsfeld can add app developer to his CV. 

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Last week, the former secretary of defense, who's 83 years old, released an iPhone game called "Churchill Solitaire."

The app is exactly what it sounds like — a version of solitaire that Rumsfeld says Winston Churchill liked to play.

Rumsfeld calls the game "an incredibly devilish version of solitaire," and he insists that until just a couple of years ago, only about a dozen people in the world knew how to play this version of the game.

 

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When you first open the app, you're treated to newsreel footage of Winston Churchill and World War II.

Patriotic music as well as excerpts from Churchill's speeches play over the video clips.

The app, unsurprisingly, has a heavy military theme.

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You embark on a "campaign" when you start playing, and your goal is to make your way from Cadet to Prime Minister. Military music plays throughout the game.

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Your journey begins at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, where Winston Churchill is one of your classmates.

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Rumsfeld himself didn't write the code for the app, but the former secretary of defense was "very" involved in the 18-month development process, according to the game's press materials. He reviewed nearly all of the more than 150 development versions of the app.

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At first, you're taken through the rules.

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If you've played traditional solitaire, then the concept is familiar: arrange all of the cards of the same suite in order from Ace to King.

But there are some big differences. The game uses two decks of cards rather than one, so you're playing with 104 cards. The playing surface also has ten rows of cards rather than seven.

Finally, Churchill Solitaire has what's called "The Devil's Six..."

 

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The "Devil's Six" is an extra row of cards that, in the words of Rumsfeld, "the player has to liberate."

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You can only move cards from The Devil's Six to the Victory Row — you can't move them to the main playing surface.

 

You can ask for hints, which proved helpful as I was learning as I went.

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Now, it's time to play.

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I hadn't played solitaire in years so I opted for Easy.

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You get unlimited hints in Easy mode, which definitely came in handy for a beginner like me.

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Here's what my deal looked like:

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The first step is to get any Aces from the main playing surface or "The Devil's Six" to the Victory Row in the top right corner.

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Then, like traditional solitaire, you arrange cards of opposite colors in descending order.

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You're given hints about possible moves whenever you tap "hint."

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If there are no moves, the deck is highlighted, indicating that your only move is to get more cards.

You have a limited number of hints if you're not playing in Easy mode.

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When your rows start getting long, the app suggests you turn your phone from landscape to horizontal mode.

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Things got a bit tight on my iPhone's screen — the experience would be better on an iPad.

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I kept playing, relying heavily on the hints.

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In a post on the blogging platform Medium, Rumsfeld writes that he learned how to play this version of solitaire from André de Staercke, a Churchill protégé whom he met in 1973 while Rumsfeld worked in the Nixon administration.

 

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It wasn't long before things got pretty ugly for me.

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I lost.

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The app is free, but you can pay for other features.

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The upgrades include randomized deals, more hints, and undos.

According to the game's website, "A portion of game proceeds go to charitable causes that support wounded military veterans and their families, and that advance the legacy of Winston Churchill. More specifically, all profits that Rumsfeld earns will go to those military charities and all profits that Churchill Heritage Ltd. earns will go toward Churchill legacy and education efforts."

For now it's only available for iOS, and you can download it here. The company that developed the app is working on a version for Android.

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