
The remaining 64 cards are sent to the Stock.Īn important rule of the game is that the player is only allowed to ever move one card at a time. When the game starts, a pile of 4 face-up cards is dealt into each of the 10 columns in the Tableau. The goal of Forty Thieves Solitaire is to build all 8 ordered suits from the Ace to the King in the Foundations.įorty Thieves Solitaire is played with two decks of standard playing cards, for a total of 104 cards. When a card is played from the Waste, the card underneath it, if there is one, becomes the new playable card. The Waste pile is always squared, and only the top card is visible and playable. It's not unusual to have many cards piling up in the Waste. Whenever the player clicks on the non-empty Stock, one card from it is automatically moved face-up into the Waste. The Stock and Waste work together in order to put reserve cards into play. When a new game begins, this area is empty. Directly to the right of the Stock is the Waste. At the start of the game, it contains a squared pile of face-down cards. This is where the reserve cards are held that will be put into play as the game progresses. Each rectangle is a foundation where a suit can be built from the Ace to the King. Horizontally, it consists of 8 rectangles. The Foundations are located above the Tableau.

This is where most of the action takes place during gameplay. Each column either contains a vertically overlapped pile of one or more face-up cards or is empty, depending on the current state of the game. The Tableau is located in the center of the screen. The game screen is made up of 4 different areas. It's also the basis for several variants, most of which make the game easier to win, including Josephine Solitaire. The Forty in the name comes from the number of cards dealt into the Tableau at the beginning of every game.įorty Thieves Solitaire is a difficult game to win, requiring good problem-solving skills to master.

It's also known as Big Forty, Napoleon St Helena, Roosevelt at San Juan, and Le Cadran. Forty Thieves Solitaire, also spelled 40 Thieves Solitaire, is a popular card game played around the world with two 52-card decks of standard playing cards.
