How to Play Forty Thieves Solitaire
Forty Thieves uses two decks, 104 cards. Deal ten columns of four face up; the remaining 64 form the stock. Build the tableau downward in the same suit, fill empty columns with any card, and turn the stock one card at a time with no redeal. Build eight foundations from Ace to King to win.
The rules, step by step
- 1Deal ten columns of fourForty cards face up in ten columns. The other 64 cards form the stock.
- 2Build the tableau down in suitA card may be placed only on a card one rank higher of the same suit.
- 3Move runs up to your capacityA suited descending run may be moved together, up to empty columns + 1 cards.
- 4Any card fills an empty columnNo King restriction. Empty columns are the game's only manoeuvring space.
- 5Turn the stock one card at a timeOne pass only. The waste top is playable; buried waste cards are not.
- 6Build eight foundations Ace to KingTwo per suit, ascending. All 104 cards must be banked to win.
Try it — the rules above, running
Your statistics
- Played
- 0
- Won
- 0
- Win rate
- 0%
- Streak
- 0
- Best streak
- 0
- Best time
- —
Kept in this browser, on this device only. Abandoning a deal in progress counts as a loss, so the win rate means something.
Today’s deal
Everyone playing Forty Thieves today gets deal #3503233589. It changes at midnight UTC.
Track the month on the daily challenge page.
Replay a deal
Every deal is a pure function of its number, so deal #20260726 is the same shuffle on any device, any time.
Keyboard
- U / Z
- Undo
- R
- Redo
- H
- Hint
- N
- New deal (asks first)
- F
- Full screen
- Space
- Turn the stock
- A
- Auto-finish
- Esc
- Deselect, or leave full screen
How much can you move at once?
| Empty columns | Cards you can move |
|---|---|
| 0 | 1 |
| 1 | 2 |
| 2 | 3 |
| 3 | 4 |
Moving into an empty column consumes it, so that column cannot also be used as scratch space for the same move.
What are the common variants?
- Josephine — same layout, but sequences may be moved freely.
- Streets (Rank and File) — builds in alternating colours instead of suit, which is far easier.
- Maria — nine columns of four, alternating colours.
- Limited — twelve columns of three.
How do you win more often?
- One empty column is worth ten good cardsIt is your capacity, your parking space and your unblocking tool. Create one before you do anything ambitious.
- Track the second deckEvery rank appears twice in each suit. Knowing whether the second Queen of hearts is still buried changes whether a line is worth starting.
- Play the waste before it growsA waste pile three cards deep is three cards you cannot reach. Turn the stock only when the current waste card has a home.
- Use undo as analysisForty Thieves is hard enough that exploring a line and rewinding it is the normal way to play. The undo stack here is unlimited for exactly that reason.
Common questions about forty thieves
- Is Forty Thieves the hardest solitaire?
- It is among the hardest widely played ones. Same-suit building plus a single stock pass puts skilled win rates around ten per cent, well below Klondike and far below FreeCell.
Ready to stop reading? Play forty thieves on the full board, with statistics, deal numbers and unlimited undo.