title: Matching game
text: # Matching game
  
  Matching games are games that require players to match similar elements. Participants need to find a match for a word, picture, or card. For example, students place 30 word cards; composed of 15 pairs, face down in random order. Each person turns over two cards at a time, with the goal of turning over a matching pair, by using their memory.
  
  ## Examples
  
  Type of game that may involve matching include:
  
  * Dominoes
  * Board games such as mahjong solitaire
  * Card games such as Concentration or rummy
  * Tile-matching video games
  
  ## Types of matching
  
  Most matching games are objective, with correct answers in the rules for what counts as a match, pair, etc. Some however, like Dixit or Apples to Apples, are about subjective matches picked by one or more judge players. Here the correlation between a match holds value only as other players decide it, but rules dictate who will make those decisions and when.
  
  ## Matching card games
  
  In card games of the matching group, players play cards in turn to a wastepile or tableau according to certain rules. A player unable to play a card by the rules is usually penalised by having to draw one or more extra cards, the aim usually being to shed all one's cards. There are three main sub-groups of matching card games:
  
  * Stops Group. Cards are played in ascending sequence, often in suit
  * Eights Group. Cards are played to a single pile, matching the previous card in suit or rank.
  * Layout Group. Cards are added to a tableau or layout or moved around it in accordance with the rules.
  