How to play — the rules, with a board to try them on
Seventy rules pages, one per game. Each one gives the deal, every legal move, the scoring where there is any, and the handful of decisions that actually decide games — then puts a playable board underneath so you can test a rule the moment you read it.
Solitaire
One player, one or two decks, and a tableau to unpick.
How to play solitaire
Deal 28 cards into seven columns of one to seven cards. Turn the last card of each column face up. The remaining 24 cards form the stock.
How to play klondike solitaire
Columns of one to seven cards, only the last card of each face up.
How to play spider solitaire
Six cards each into the first four columns and five into the other six, all face down except the last card of each column.
How to play freecell
Eight columns: the first four get seven cards each, the last four get six. Nothing is hidden.
How to play yukon solitaire
Column one gets a single face-up card. Columns two to seven get one to six face-down cards each, topped with five face-up cards.
How to play forty thieves
Forty cards face up in ten columns. The other 64 cards form the stock.
How to play scorpion solitaire
Forty-nine cards. In the four leftmost columns the first three cards are dealt face down; every other card is face up. Three cards are held back in the stock.
How to play canfield solitaire
Thirteen cards form a face-down reserve with the top card turned up. One more card is turned face up to found the first pile — its rank becomes the base rank for every foundation. Four tableau columns each get one card.
How to play russian solitaire
Column one gets a single face-up card. Each of the other six columns gets a growing number of face-down cards topped with five face-up cards.
How to play eight off solitaire
Forty-eight cards, six to each of eight tableau columns, everything face up from the start.
How to play spiderette solitaire
Seven columns of one to seven cards, only the last of each face up. The remaining 24 cards form the stock.
How to play easthaven solitaire
Each column gets three cards: the bottom two face down, the top one face up. The remaining 31 cards form the stock.
How to play la belle lucie
Seventeen fans of three cards and one of a single card, all 52 cards face up.
How to play beleaguered castle
Take the four Aces from the pack before dealing. They start the four foundations.
How to play baker's dozen solitaire
All 52 cards face up, four to a column, every card visible for the whole game.
Clearing & matching
Match, pair or chain your way to an empty board.
How to play pyramid solitaire
Seven rows, one card in the top row down to seven in the bottom, each card overlapping two below it. The remaining 24 cards form the stock.
How to play tripeaks solitaire
Three peaks of one, two and three cards sit on a shared base row of ten, all face up.
How to play golf solitaire
Thirty-five cards, all face up, slightly overlapping so every card is readable.
How to play aces up solitaire
One card to each of four columns. The other 48 cards form the stock, face down.
How to play mahjong solitaire
Five layers: 87 tiles on the base, then 36, 16, 4 and a single capstone.
How to play mahjong connect
Every cell of the rectangle holds a face-up tile — 60, 112 or 144 of them — and every face appears exactly four times.
How to play memory match
Every card is placed face down and each shape is on exactly two of them, so the number of cards is always even.
Card games
Computer opponents who play to win — trick-taking, rummy, poker and the family classics.
How to play hearts
Four players, one 52-card deck, no cards left over.
How to play spades
The whole 52-card deck is dealt out. Seats opposite each other are partners, so the table is two partnerships facing one another.
How to play euchre
Use the 24 cards from nine to ace. Deal five to each player in packets of two and three, leave the last four face down as the kitty and turn the top one face up.
How to play texas hold'em
The two players to the left of the dealer button put in the small and big blinds before the cards are dealt. They start at 10 and 20 and double every ten hands.
How to play blackjack
You get two cards face up. The dealer gets one face up and one face down (the hole card).
How to play video poker
The bet multiplies every payout. Five is the only bet that pays the royal flush at 800 per coin instead of 250, so five is the standard bet.
How to play gin rummy
One 52-card deck, ten cards to each player, one card turned face up to start the discard pile, and the remaining 31 cards left face down as the stock.
How to play cribbage
Both players cut and the lower card deals; aces are low and a tie is cut again. After that the deal alternates every hand, so the crib comes round to each of you in turn.
How to play crazy eights
Three or four hands from one 52-card deck. The rest becomes the stock — 36 cards with three players, 31 with four.
How to play go fish
The rest of the deck forms a face-down pond.
How to play war
Face down, as an unseen draw pile. The Ace ranks high.
Board games
Chess to mancala, against a computer that searches ahead.
How to play chess
Eight ranks by eight files, with a light square in the right-hand corner nearest each player. Rooks on the corners, then knights, then bishops, then the queen on her own colour and the king beside her. Pawns fill the second rank.
How to play checkers
Each side's pieces fill the dark squares of their nearest three rows. The middle two rows start empty.
How to play backgammon
Each side throws one die; the higher number moves first and plays both numbers. A tie is thrown again, so the opening is never a double.
How to play reversi
Four discs go in the four central squares, each colour on one diagonal, before anyone moves. Dark plays first.
How to play four in a row
On your turn, drop a disc into any column with room left. It falls to the lowest empty cell in that column.
How to play mancala
Put four seeds in each of the twelve pits and leave both stores empty. Your six pits are the row nearest you, and your store is the one on your right.
How to play chinese checkers
Each player's ten marbles fill one point of the star. Two players sit opposite, three in alternate points, four in two opposite pairs and six in every point.
How to play dots and boxes
Choose a board of 3 × 3 to 6 × 6 boxes, and who draws first. No lines are drawn and no boxes belong to anyone.
How to play sea battle
Place five ships on your own 10 × 10 grid — Carrier 5, Dreadnought 4, Cruiser 3, Submarine 3 and Destroyer 2 — each in a straight line across or down.
How to play dominoes
Turn the 28 tiles face down and mix them. Two players take seven tiles each; three or four take five each. Whatever is left is the boneyard, and it is never reshuffled.
How to play tic tac toe
Draw a 3 × 3 grid of nine empty squares. One player takes X, the other takes O.
Puzzles & dice
Deduction, numbers, pictures and five dice.
How to play minesweeper
Click or tap any square. The mines are placed after your first click, so it is always safe.
How to play sudoku
The grid has 81 cells. When it is full and legal, the puzzle is solved.
How to play killer sudoku
The grid has 81 cells. When it is full and every rule below holds, the puzzle is solved.
How to play nonogram
Each number beside a row or above a column is the length of one painted run, and the numbers are in the order the runs appear along that line.
How to play kakuro
Every white square takes exactly one digit between 1 and 9. There is no zero and no blank square in a finished grid.
How to play 2048
A new board opens with two tiles in random cells. Each one is a 2 nine times out of ten and a 4 the other time, drawn independently.
How to play sliding puzzle
A square frame holds numbered tiles and one empty cell. A 3 × 3 frame holds eight tiles, a 4 × 4 holds fifteen and a 5 × 5 holds twenty-four.
How to play jigsaw puzzles
Pick 12, 24, 48, 96 or 150 pieces. The picture is cut on a regular grid, from 4 × 3 for the smallest puzzle to 15 × 10 for the largest.
How to play bulls and cows
Four different digits from 0 to 9 in Numbers, a leading zero allowed, or four pegs from six colours in Colours, where a colour may repeat.
How to play five dice
The first roll of every turn uses all five. You then decide which to keep before rolling again.
Word games
Letters, grids and a dictionary that accepts every real word.
How to play word search
Every word underneath the grid is hidden in it exactly once. The words all belong to one theme, and none of them is shorter than five letters.
How to play hangman
The computer chooses a word and shows one blank per letter. The number of blanks is real information: count them before you guess anything.
How to play word scramble
Each round shows one word with its letters re-ordered. The number of letters is real information — it is the length of the answer, and it goes up by one every round. The order you are shown is never itself a word: an arrangement that spelled something would already be an accepted answer, so it is re-drawn.
How to play word guess
Six rows of four, five or six tiles. The length is the only thing you are told about the answer before you start, and it is enough to choose an opener with.
How to play cryptogram
The sentence has had every letter replaced by a different one. What you see is the encrypted text; the saying underneath is what you are trying to recover.
How to play word ladder
Every ladder opens with a start word and a target word of the same length, shown at the top and the bottom of the board.
How to play word hunt
Press or click any cell in the grid. There is no fixed starting square and no letter you must include.
How to play codeword
Every letter square holds a number. One number means one letter, the same letter everywhere it appears in the grid, and there are no clues of any other kind.
How to play letter hive
Six letters sit in a ring around a seventh. All seven are always usable; the middle one is the only one that is compulsory.
How to play word groups
The board is four rows of four, but the rows mean nothing — the sixteen words are shuffled into the grid and any four of them may be a group.
How to play word wheel
Eight letters sit in a ring around a ninth. All nine are usable; the middle one is the only one that is compulsory in every word.
How to play typing test
Four clocks — 15, 30, 60 and 120 seconds — and a 50-word run with no clock at all. Each keeps its own personal best, because they are not the same test.
Arcade
Flippers, falling lines, a snake that never stops and a wall of bricks.
How to play pinball
Hold Space, or drag down near the bottom of the table on a phone, then let go. The power you choose changes where the ball ends up.
How to play block puzzle
Three shapes are offered under the grid. You may place them in any order you like, and a slot stays empty once its shape is used.
How to play snake
One cell forward every tick, in whichever direction it is heading. You never make it move; you only decide where it turns, and doing nothing is a decision too.
How to play brick breaker
Each wall starts with the ball on the paddle. Press Space, click the field or tap it to launch; the ball leaves at the angle its place on the paddle sets.