Solitaire Card Games

Solitaire or patience is any of a family of single-player card games of a generally similar character, but varying greatly in detail. The games are more commonly known as "Patience" in British English whilst "solitaire" is the American English term.

These games typically involve dealing cards from a shuffled deck into a prescribed arrangement on a tabletop, from which the player attempts to reorder the deck by suit and rank through a series of moves transferring cards from one place to another under prescribed restrictions. Some games allow for the reshuffling of the deck(s), and/or the placement of cards into new or 'empty' locations.

Solitaire has its own terminology; see solitaire terminology.

There are many different solitaire games, but the term "solitaire" is often used to refer specifically to the most well-known form, called "Klondike". Klondike and some other solitaire games have been adapted into two-player competitive games.

There are a vast array of variations on the solitaire/patience theme, using either one or more decks of cards, with rules of varying complexity and skill levels. Many of these have been converted to electronic form and are available as computer games. Basic forms of Klondike solitaire and FreeCell come with every current installation of Microsoft Windows, for example, and Windows XP also includes a version of Spider. 123 Free Solitaire and PySol are two examples of solitaire collections that can be downloaded from the internet at no charge.

The term 'solitaire' is also used for single-player games of concentration and skill using a set layout of tiles, pegs or stones rather than cards. These games include:

  • Peg solitaire
  • Shanghai solitaire (computerised mahjong)

Examples of solitaire card games

A

Above and Below
Accordion
Aces Square
Aces Up
Ace-To-King
Acme
Adela Patience
Agnes I (Sorel)
Agnes II (Bernauer)
Algerian Patience
Alhambra
All Fours
All In A Row
Alternate Patience
Alternation
Amazons
Ant
American Toad
Aremis
Argos
Auld Lang Syne
Aunt Mary

B

Babette
Baccarat Solitaire
Backbone
Baker's Dozen
Baker's Dozen Two Decks
Baker's Game
Baroness*
Batsford
Beleaguered Castle
Betsy Ross
Bisley
Black Hole
Blind Alleys
Block Fourteen
Blockade
Blondes and Brunettes
Board Patience
Box Kite
Bridesmaids
Brigade
Bristol
British Blockade
British Constitution
British Square
Buffalo Bill
Busy Aces
But The Same

C

Caesar
Calculation
Calculation by Threes
Canadian Patience
Canfield
Canfield Three Decks
Canister
Capricieuse
Captive Queens
Carlton
Carpet
Carre Napoleon
Casket
Castles in Spain
Chameleon
Chess Solitaire
Chessboard
Chinese Patience
Cicely
Citadel
Class Day
Climb The Hill
Clock
Clock Patience/Clock Solitaire*
Coleopter
Colonel
Colorado
Colours
Concentration
Cone
Congress
Connections
Contradance
Corners
Corona
Counting
Courtyard
Cover Up
Crescent
Crescent Four Decks
Cribbage Solitaire
Cribbage Square Solitaire
Crazy Quilt*
Cruel
Curds and Whey*
Czarina

D

Decade
Deuces
Diamond
Diplomat
Double Canfield
Double Dot
Double Golf
Double Klondike
Double Line
Double or Quits
Double Rail
Doublets
Duchess
Duchess de Luynes
Duke

E

Eagle Wing
Easthaven
Egyptian Pyramid
Eight Off
Eighteens
Eleanor's Solitaire
Elevens
Elizabeth
Emperor
Engineer
Everest
Exchange

F

Faerie Queen
Falling Star
Fan
Fanny
Fascination Fan
Fifteens
Fifteen to Win
Figures
Finesse
Five Companions
Florentine Patience
Flower Garden
Flower Garden Two Decks
Fly
Following
Following Two Decks
Forget-Me-Not
Fortress
Fortune's Favor
Forty and Eight
Forty Thieves
Forty Thieves Four Decks
Forty Thieves Three Decks
Forty-Nine
Four By Four
Four Pegs
Four Seasons
Four Seasons Two Decks
Four Sums
Fourteen Out
Frame
FreeCell
FreeCell Four Decks
FreeCell Reversed
FreeCell Thirteens
FreeCell Three Decks
FreeCell Two Decks
French Patience
French Solitaire
Frog

G

Gaps
Gargantua
Gate
General's Patience
German Patience
Giant
Glencoe
Goldfield
Golf
Golf A-K
Golf A-K Two Decks
Golf Pyramids
Good Measure
Good Measure Two Decks
Grandfather
Grandfather's Clock
Grandmamma's Patience
Grant's Reinforcement
Great Wheel
Griffon
Gay Gordons*

H

Haden
Half And Half
Harp
Heads And Tails
Hemispheres
Hit or Miss
Horloge
House in the Wood
House of Commons
House of Lords
House on the Hill

I

Icarus
Idle Aces
Imaginary Thirteen
Imperial
Indian
Intelligence
Interregnum
Intrigue

J

Jacqueline
Japanese Solitaire
Joker Forty Thieves
Joker FreeCell
Joker Golf A-K
Joker Klondike
Joker Pyramid
Jubilee
Juvenile

K

Khedive
King Albert
King Edward
King of Scotland
Kingdom
Kings
King's Audience
King's Cross
Klondike
Klondike by Threes
Klondike Four Decks
Klondike Reversed
Klondike Three Decks
Knaves
Knaves' Dial
Knight Catch All
Knights Errant

L

La Belle Lucie
La Belle Lucie Player's Choice
La Belle Lucie with a Draw
Labyrinth
Lady Betty
Lady of the Manor
Lady Palk
Laggard Lady
Lagoon
Lanes
Le Croix d'Honneur
Legion
Letter A
Letter X
Leoni's Own
Les Quatre Coins
Lido of Venice
Limited
Line Up
Little Billee
Little Spider
Little Windmill
Louis
Louisa
Lucas

M

Mantis
Maria
Marshal
Martha
Matrimony*
Maze
Memory-Up (6x4 grid)
Memory-Up (8x5 grid)
Midshipman
Milky Way
Milligan Harp
Minerve
Mirror
Miss Milligan
Mississippi
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo Thirteens
Mount Olympus
Move for the Goal
Mrs. Mop
Museum

N

Napoleon
Napoleon's Exile
Napoleon's Square
Nationale
Nestor
Nestor Two Decks
New York
New Zealand Patience
Nines
Ninety-One
Nivernaise
Number Fourteen
Number Ten

O

Octagon
Octave
Odd and Even
Only-One-Left (4x4 square) Puzzle
Only-One-Left (5x5 square) Puzzle
Open Crescent
Open Start
Opus
Osmosis

P

Pairs
Palace
Parallels
Passengers
Patriarchs
Peek
Peg Star Solitaire
Penguin
Peony
Perpetual Motion
Perseverance
Persian Patience
Picture Patience
Poker Solitaire
Portuguese Solitaire*
Precedence
Princess Patience
Prisoners
Privileged Four
Pulsar
Push Pin
Push in the Corner
Put-Them-In-Order (3x3 square) Puzzle
Put-Them-In-Order (4x4 square) Puzzle
Put-Them-In-Order (5x5 square) Puzzle
Pyramid
Pyramid (Easy Couple)
Pyramid by Seven
Pyramid Two Decks
Pyramid's Stories

Q

Quadrangle
Quadruplets
Quartets
Queen of Italy
Queens and Knaves

R

Rachel
Railway
Rainbow
Rank and File*
Rank by Rank
Red and Black
Regal Family
Reversi
Robert
Rosette
Rouge et Noir
Rows of Four
Royal Aids
Royal Cotillion
Royal Marriage
Royal Parade
Royal Ranks
Royal Rendezvous
Royal Square
Rule of Seven
Russian Solitaire

S

S Patience
Salic Law
Scorpion
Scarab
Scotch Patience
Senior Wrangler
Sentinel
Serpent Poker Solitaire
Seven Sisters
Seven Devils*
Seven Up
Shamrocks
Shanghai
Shifting
Shuttle
Simple Simon
Simplex
Simplicity
Single Rail
Sir Tommy
Sir Tommy Two Decks
Six By Six
Sixes and Sevens
Sly Fox
Solid Square
Solitaire Showdown*
Somerset
Spaces*
Spanish Patience
Spider
Spider One Suit
Spider Three Decks
Spider Two Suits
Spiderette
Squadron
Square
St. Helena
Stalactites
Stalactites and Stalagmites
Step by Step
Steps
Step-Up
Stonewall
Storehouse
Strategy
Streets
Streets and Alleys
Suit by Suit
Sultan
Sum of Five
Super Flower Garden
Superior Canfield
Sydney Solitaire

T

Tabby Cat*
Tam O'Shanter
Tantalus
Tens
The Dial
The Dial II
The Flea
The Plot
The Red and the Black
The Spark
Thirteen, Fifteen, Seventeen
Thirteen Up
Thirteens
Thirty
Thirty-Six
Three Blind Mice*
Three Hills
Three Pyramids
Three Shuffles and a Draw*
Thumb and Pouch
Tournament
Tower of Hanoi
Tower of Hanoi Thirteen
Tower of Pisa
Trafalgar Square
Transformation
Trapezoid
Travellers
Trefoil
Triad
Tri Peaks*
Triple Alliance
Triple Line
Tristan and Isolde
Twenty
Twin Queens
Two Rings

U-Z

Uncle Sam
Up or Down
Variegated Canfield
Vertical
Virginia Reel
Waning Moon
Wasp*
Waste the Same
Westcliff
Wheatsheaf
Whitehead
Will o' the Wisp
Windmill
Wish
Xantia
Yukon
Yukon Three Decks
Yukon Two Decks
Zodiac

(Unless marked by an asterisk, all games are from the 449 games of Solsuite 2006.)

Reference Materials

Lee, Sloane & Packard, Gabriel. 100 Best Solitaire Games: 100 Ways to Entertain Yourself with a Deck of Cards. ; New York, N. Y.: Cardoza Publishing, 2004. (ISBN 1-58042-115-6)
Arnold, Peter. Card Games for One. London: Hamlyn, 2002 (ISBN 0-600-60727-5)
Moorehead, Albert H. & Mott-Smith, Geoffrey. The Complete Book of Solitaire and Patience Games. New York: Bantam Books, 1977 (ISBN 0553262408)
Cr?eau, Pierre. The Complete Book of Solitaire (a translation of Le Grand Livre des Patiences). Willowdale, Ontario: Firefly Books, 2001. (ISBN 1552095975)

External links

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