Russian Solitaire - Cards

Among single-deck patiences, this is one of the unforgiving ones. Few deals come out, and none of that is down to luck: every card is on the table from the start.

All fifty-two are dealt into seven columns. The first column holds a single card; the six others carry a few face-down cards under five face-up ones. There is no stock, no waste, nothing to draw. What you see is the entire supply for the rest of the game.

Two rules define it. First, you may pick up any face-up card together with everything piled on it, in whatever disorder that pile happens to be, because the cards travelling with it never have to form a sequence. Second, and this is the hard part, the card you are placing must land on the next rank up in its own suit. Red on black means nothing here. A six of spades goes on a seven of spades, and nowhere else.

Empty columns therefore become the whole game. Only a King, or a group led by a King, may occupy one, and clearing a column is usually the work of a dozen careful moves.

Foundations build from Ace to King, one suit each. Move all fifty-two and the deal is beaten.

Long undo history, play without a connection, per-deal statistics, a choice of card backs and table colours, 33 languages.

sbecker.app@gmail.com