How to play Forty Thieves Solitaire

Two decks are used. Forty cards are dealt face up into ten columns; the rest form the draw pile. The goal is to build eight suit piles from Ace up to King.

Columns are built downwards in the same suit, one card at a time. Any card may be moved into an empty column.

Tap the draw pile to turn over one card at a time onto the face-up pile. There is only one pass, so think before you draw.

Empty columns are precious — use them to reach the cards you need.

You can play entirely with the keyboard: Tab puts a cursor on the table, the arrow keys move it, Enter picks a card up and puts it down, and S reads out everything on the table.

Playing with the keyboard

Press Tab to put the cursor on the table. ← and → move between piles, ↑ and ↓ move up and down a pile. Enter picks a card up and puts it down again where you want it, and Esc puts it back. Press S at any time to hear everything on the table at once, pile by pile. Every card and pile says its name out loud for screen readers.

Settings

Card size

Card faces

Big numbers puts one large number and suit on each card instead of a row of pips. Automatic uses them when the cards are small.

Layout

Left-handed mirrors the table, so the draw pile and free cells sit on the right.

Table colour

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Your current game will be lost.

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Forty Thieves Solitaire

Forty Thieves is the serious one: two full decks, ten columns, and cards that can only be built downwards in their own suit, one at a time. It is slow, deliberate, and genuinely difficult.

How to play Forty Thieves Solitaire

Two decks are used. Forty cards are dealt face up into ten columns; the rest form the draw pile. The goal is to build eight suit piles from Ace up to King.

Columns are built downwards in the same suit, one card at a time. Any card may be moved into an empty column.

Tap the draw pile to turn over one card at a time onto the face-up pile. There is only one pass, so think before you draw.

Empty columns are precious — use them to reach the cards you need.

You can play entirely with the keyboard: Tab puts a cursor on the table, the arrow keys move it, Enter picks a card up and puts it down, and S reads out everything on the table.

Questions people ask

Why can I only move one card at a time?

That is the rule that defines the game. Everything has to be moved singly, so a run you build is a run you will have to take apart again unless you have somewhere to put it.

What makes it so hard?

Building in suit rather than in alternating colours removes most of the places a card can go, and with two decks there is a great deal more to get in the way. Winning under half your games is doing well.

Any advice for a first game?

Empty a column early if you possibly can, and be slow to commit the top of the stock — once a card is buried in a column that is in suit order, it is very hard to reach again.

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