Forty Thieves Solitaire
Play Forty Thieves Solitaire free online with two decks and ten face-up columns. Move one card at a time, build down within the same suit, and work through the stock once. All 104 cards must reach the eight foundations to finish. Follow the five-move sequence transfer to see how spare columns work.
You can start above without an account or download. Use Hint when you need a suggestion and Undo when you want to reconsider a move.
How to play Forty Thieves Solitaire
Each column starts with four cards. All forty are face up, but only the exposed card at the end of a column can move. The other 64 cards form the stock; the waste beside it starts empty.
- Move a single exposed card. Take the top card from a column or the waste. Covered cards stay put until the cards above them have moved away.
- Build columns downward in the same suit. A 6 of spades fits on a 7 of spades. A 6 of clubs does not fit there, even though both cards are black.
- Start foundations with Aces. Add the 2, 3 and following ranks of that suit, ending with the King. Fill all eight foundations to win.
- Draw one card when you need another option. Select the stock to place its next card on the waste. You get one pass through those 64 cards.
Can a King receive an Ace?
No. Columns do not wrap from Ace back to King. An Ace can go onto the 2 of its suit or into an empty column; it can also start an empty foundation. A King needs an empty column when moved within the tableau.
Forty cards, two of every rank and suit
The starting layout accounts for the forty in the name: ten columns of four cards. The whole game uses 104 cards from two standard decks, without Jokers. That means two Aces of hearts, two 2s of hearts, and so on. Each suit needs two separate Ace-to-King foundation piles.
The duplicate cards are separate pieces. For example, each of the two 2s of hearts belongs on an Ace of hearts, but you cannot put one 2 on top of the other. You will eventually complete two heart foundations, two diamond foundations, two club foundations and two spade foundations.
Make the most of the single stock pass
Before drawing, inspect the card already on the waste. The next draw covers it. You can uncover that older card by playing everything above it, but you cannot select it through the stack. Once the stock is empty, it stays empty: there is no recycle or redeal.
Suppose the waste shows a 6 of spades. Drawing another card puts that new card on top of the 6. To reach the 6 again, first move the covering card to a legal destination. Drawing through the rest of the stock will not bring the 6 around for a second pass.
You can keep playing after the stock runs out. Look for moves among the columns and the exposed waste card. If you want to take back your last draw, Undo restores the drawn card to the stock.
Give an empty column a useful job
A free column accepts any single card, so it can hold a blocker while you uncover a card elsewhere. Before filling it, identify what the move will release and where the parked card could go afterward. A column occupied by a card with no next destination is no longer available for the next rearrangement.
For a longer sequence, work backward from the card you want to free. An 8 of spades covered by a 7 and 6 cannot move as one group. Find a separate landing place for the 6, then the 7, before moving the 8.
Five decisions to check before drawing
Look for progress in the cards already available. Rearranging without a purpose can use up the space you need.
- Check the exposed cards for an Ace or the next card needed by a foundation. A card sent to a foundation cannot be brought back to a column on this board.
- Look beneath a movable top card. Prefer a move that releases a needed low card or leaves a column empty.
- Keep useful landing cards available. Before sending a 5 of diamonds to a foundation, see whether either 4 of diamonds still needs it in the columns.
- Track the two copies separately. One may be accessible while its twin is covered; use the copy that opens the more useful route.
- Consider the waste before spending your empty column. Placing its top card there may uncover another playable card, but you will need a plan to clear the space again.
Controls and your unfinished game
- Move a card
- Drag an exposed card to its destination. To choose a destination with two taps, turn off 1-Tap Move in Settings, select the card, then select its destination.
- 1-Tap Move
- With this setting on, tapping an available card asks the game to choose a legal destination. Switch it off when you want to choose between possible columns yourself.
- Undo
- Return to the previous position. This can reverse a card move or put the last drawn card back on the stock.
- Hint
- The search checks your current position. When it finds a complete winning route, hints can follow it. Otherwise, its best available suggestion is not a promise of a win.
- Restart or New Game
- Restart, in the game menu, restores the current deal to its beginning. New Game replaces it with another random deal.
Can I leave and continue later?
Your unfinished Forty Thieves game can be restored in this browser when local storage is available. Clearing this site's data removes that save. Private browsing may remove it when the session closes.
Watch how to play Forty Thieves Solitaire
See the forty-card layout, single-card moves, empty columns and the one-pass stock.
Duration: 1 minute 22 seconds.
In this video
The video mentions a solver result. The 7.7% figure is a lower bound from a limited study, explained in the questions below; it does not predict your chance of winning.
Questions about Forty Thieves
Are Forty Thieves and 40 Thieves the same game?
Yes. Both names refer to this two-deck Solitaire game. Here, the rules are single-card moves, building down in suit, and one pass through the stock.
Can I move a sequence of cards together?
No. Even a correctly ordered 8, 7 and 6 of spades must move separately. You need legal places for the 6 and then the 7 before the 8 is free to move.
Can any card fill an empty column?
Yes, if it is available at the top of a column or the waste. An empty column does not require a King. After you put a card there, the next card must be one rank lower and the same suit.
Does an empty stock end the game?
No. You can still move exposed column cards and play the top waste card. Removing that waste card may uncover another useful one. You cannot refill the stock, but Undo can revisit an earlier decision.
Is every deal guaranteed to be solvable?
No guarantee is made. These are random deals, without a Verified deal pool. A search that fails to find a winning route has not necessarily proved the deal impossible; its search budget may have run out.
What does the 7.7% win figure mean?
In a bounded study of 1,000 random deals, the solver found complete winning routes for 77, or 7.7%. The other 923 were unresolved: 922 reached the two-million-position limit and one ended without a winning route; the search also had a depth limit. It is a lower bound for that sample, not a player win rate. The best routes found in the unresolved group averaged 40.6 of 104 cards on the foundations. See the win-rate study for the method and its limits.
Find one card you can uncover
Look at your board before drawing. Choose a covered Ace or low card, then inspect the card blocking it. If that top card has a legal destination, try moving it and examine what is now available.
